In the world of online education, we often talk about the choices our students have. The first choice is whether to return to school; many online students are returning to educational pursuits after many years of focusing on family and/or their careers. The second choice students face is where to go; there are an ever-increasing number of schools finding new and creative ways of reaching out to potential students. The final choice, we say students must make, is whether to go to…

Relationship is what humans do over a lifetime for which there is the least education and training.  

~Magi Aata

The welcome call is the moment of relationship formation that defines the tone for interaction between online students and online faculty.  This blog post speaks to the moment of first "LIVE" connection when online faculty dials new students for the first time.   The application is real.  The student's name is not.

The number is dialed.  The phone is ringing. This is not the time…

A short vignette:

In my management courses during my graduate program one of the main foci was on teamwork. Questions regarding what constituted a great team abounded. At that time I had limited experience in the professional world so I would hearken back to my time in school. One experience always came to mind - my experience of being a part of the team that put on a performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet during my 8^th grade year. Typical of many intermediate schools my school was full of…

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…

"Statistics are faceless, what happens to you is personal..." Mr. Shelton's voice was tense but hopeful. Stepping back away from the board, he leaned down over the front table looking at each of us. He continued to explain that we as Juniors had to decide whether we were going to be a statistic, and like most students at Coronado High School forgo college-or-were we going to do something different.

Mr. Shelton seemed to have a way of connecting high school Physics to life lessons in a very…

The discussion forum is the heart of the online classroom.  It is where the students spend most of their time and where the majority of teaching takes place.  An argument can be made that as goes the discussion forum so goes the course.  So how can we, as instructors, help create an active, vibrant, interactive discussion forum where students are actually discussing the course material rather than just answering the discussion questions?  Below are five tips I have learned over the course of my…