Students and faculty are navigating a lot this semester. For students, this can translate to missing deadlines every so often. Reaching out to those students can help them get back on track, show them that they are seen and valued as a member of the course, and help you identify problems or situations that might merit further support for the student.

Steve Petsch has taken an approach to reach out proactively and repeatedly to students before they fall too far behind. Read our interview with Steve (Geosciences) about what he has been doing in his 200-student, General Education lecture course, taking advantage of existing features within Moodle.

What motivated you to reach out to students?

I want to encourage and sustain students’ engagement with my class and help them practice healthy learning and communication skills through remote learning, not in spite of it.  Especially in a large class, it is easy to let it go when a student misses an assignment, figuring they are adults and they must take responsibility. I used a welcome survey at the start of the semester, and students resoundingly wanted clear deadlines and reminders. I had to be responsive to that. Their reasons for missing an assignment run the gamut from legitimate to bad habits. But if I reach out to each student each time something is missed, it will help them reflect on their time management and communication. And it shows them that someone noticed and cared enough to give them another chance.  Ultimately, I want students to learn the material while mastering good professional skills.

 

What is it you are doing?

Moodle’s Course Participation Report lets me query who has submitted an assignment, posted to a forum, viewed a file or other resource, or even who has not logged into the course in a certain period of time.

Starting in the first week of the semester, I have been compiling participation reports for each activity.  I then send a short email to students who didn’t participate. It’s important to me that the tone is matter-of-fact and not shaming. I share information, and I give them the option to respond.  To me that’s key because when they respond, it gives them the opportunity to engage in professional communication. Here’s an abbreviated example of an email I might send:

I am writing because you did not complete the third weekly quiz in GEOG 110. Please note that there is a quiz or exam in this course each week on Moodle. Quizzes open on Thursday and close on Saturday at 5pm. The quizzes total 25% of your grade.

If you had had some issue that prevented you from completing the quiz, please contact me as soon as you can.

My subsequent follow-up is also important. When they respond to an email, I always send a reply that targets their specific situation, e.g.,  “I’m sorry you are experiencing that”, “I can offer you an extension until…”, or “You need to do a better job with planning your schedule/communicating with your group/noting deadlines ...”  I think it is important to be consistent: every assignment gets a query and email, every student’s response to that email gets a reply individualized to their situation. I am not ignoring their mistakes, but I am giving them the chance to own up to and recover from them.

 

What has been the impact of this strategy on your students?

While I can’t say that this has completely cut down on students missing assignments, the number of students missing them repeatedly is very low. This tells me that the outreach is helping students get back on track, but also that in such a large class even a student who engaged in the first weeks may develop some issue later on that needs this type of attention. I also notice that students’ communication with me and with each other is more professional than in past semesters. The tones and texts of our email exchanges show they are reflecting on this and learning from it. There are a lot of replies of “thank you for your understanding” for some issues, but also some fair bit of acknowledgement that they could do better. Here is a portion of one student’s response, replying to my email that they missed a quiz and lecture this week:   

“On a related note, thank you for being so hands-on with and supportive of your students, the degree to which you care about us all really shows.”

 

What considerations or tips do you have for faculty?

This approach does take some time, especially for a class of this size. I’ve decided that it’s important and impactful enough to make it worth my time. Although the queries and initial email messages could potentially be automated or done by a TA, I believe that the follow-up has to be individualized and it best comes from me, the instructor.

I made sure to do this on the first assignments to help students fix issues early on, but I’m also continuing throughout the semester because I’m seeing first-hand that students can develop challenges after one or two months. They all should get the same chance at success.

For technical assistance with Moodle participation logs or activity reports, contact IDEAS at instruct@umass.edu.

To talk more with Steve about his course, email him at spetsch@umass.edu.