Lessons & Recommendation

The reflection:

One clear pattern has surfaced during my review of the internal data and external research around this topic of student engagement in a remote environment:

It is incredibly easy to put the onus of low outcomes onto the online student.

We all know that students are humans, and subject to in-attention in their coursework. The completion of a course, however, is and always will be a two-part dance between the instructor, and the student. The student needs to take ownership and responsibility for their work, but so then does the professor (or in our case, the administrators). When this balance becomes offset, and one party is neglecting their role— the eventual outcome suffers.

This issue, therefore, is known, but the resolution is de-prioritized. I believe this is a result of the belief that the majority of the problem is actually a lack of student responsibility.

That solution, however, is not nearly as complex as it may appear. Students are missing important correspondence because it is emailed to them. If we make the objectively small change to start speaking to them in the "room" they actually occupy day-to-day, we can eliminate the excuse that they simply did not know about a requirement.

Solving this leaves room for further discussion around engagement. If students are aware of a course element, but still aren’t fulfilling it—then we get to have a larger conversation about why.

Either way, anemic retention around the discussion community is not statistically insignificant. This reality reduces the “few bad apples” argument to a dangerously incomplete assessment of the problem at hand.

This leads us to...

The Recommendations:

In-product notifications

A clear message, or "pop-up" should appear on a student's dashboard when they begin their coursework. It will remind them to check into, and participate in their discussion community as soon as possible. It should link to
1) The community itself and,
2) An article with more information about this requirement.

Incremental intensity

If a student does not click into their Discussion Community, that pop-up should intensify in language until it is a permanent window that alerts them they are at risk of losing 5% of their grade.

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