Engage Your Students!!  Make a Difference!!

                I recently saw the phrase engage your world and make a difference at a church that I attended.  I began to reflect upon what is my world and how do I make a difference in it?  I teach online courses and my world at the moment is my online students that I teach.  The next logical question was how do I make a difference in their lives?  This is the first of six blogs explaining how to engage students and how to create a learning experience that will connect and inspire your students. In this blog you will learn the first step in how to engage your online students and how to make a difference in their lives.

                I recently attended a leadership lecture given by Vicky Halsey from the Ken Blanchard Institute of Leadership. She is the Vice President of Applied Learning.  Vicky shared an acrostic entitled "ENGAGE" for how to actively engage your students in the classroom.  I will share the first part of this acrostic and give you an example of how to engage your students before your class even begins.  

                The first letter "E" in the acrostic stands for Energize your learners.   Vicky shared a wonderful story about her son's kindergarten teacher and how she was the best teacher that her kids had ever had.  They were always eager to learn and they were always actively prepared for the learning that was going to be covered that week.  Vicky mentioned that this teacher set a sense of urgency by giving the kindergarten students simple items that they could work on over the weekend to help them to be ready for Monday when they came into class.  She was always very encouraging and she rewarded them for their efforts.  By doing this simple task, the teacher created a sense of urgency and she energized these young learners.   The students were more engaged throughout the following week and they were excited about what they were learning.

                How can this same situation apply to the online classroom?  I decided that since our students could not have full access to the classroom until three days before the class started, that I would email them and send an early announcement. I sent the most important information for the first module and what they needed to be prepared for on the first day of class.  I gave them the page numbers of what to read, the first discussion question that they would answer on Monday, and the major assignments. I also gave them the key points of that first week.  What I found was that the students began to answer the DQ's more frequently on Monday and they had a better sense of urgency or eagerness when the class started.  They were energized learners. 

                The "E" in ENGAGE stands for Energize the learner.  What things can you do in your online course before it starts to help create this sense of eagerness in your students?  You will see as you do these things, you will begin to make a difference in your student's lives.  Please try to read this blog again within 24 hours and then create a list of things that you can do for your class before it starts.  This will help you to remember what you learned and it will help you apply it to your courses.  Try to create an announcement or email that you can send to your students.  Take care and God Bless.

Matt Hampton