All About Connections Part 1: Online Course Content

How do you reach and motivate students you can't "see?" This question comes up repeatedly during both new teacher training and in conversation with veteran online kindergarten through postgraduate teachers. While the venue is different, the traditional expected outcome hasn't changed - educators want engaged students learning. What makes a student of any age want to get out of bed and attend school each day? What compels a student to feel sad when school is over for the weekend or the summer (yes, those students do still exist!)? The answer is both simple and complex. It's connection - connection to you, the teacher; to fellow learners; to the subject matter; and to the learning environment.

Let's take a look at each of these connections, and you - the experts - can weigh in on how you foster connectivity in your virtual students. Today I will reflect on students' connection to the subject matter. Nothing new that not all students rock out on mathematical equations or science experiments, However, even reluctant learners come around and engage when content is informative, pertinent, and delivered in a creative and contemporary fashion.

When first teaching in the virtual K-12 school, it was frustrating when students didn't complete their work but parents insisted their child was "always on the computer." I knew where they were spending time: chatrooms, games, search engines, websites, and scouring YouTube for current music videos. It was a competition and how were we going to win?

The formula was clear. Important content supported by strong technological advancements and delivered by trained, enthusiastic, and positive educators. Online content isn't simply scanning text, putting it into documents, and uploading those pdfs for student reading lists. If you have wandered around Khan Academy, Moodle courses, Udemy, Blackboard, and the thousands of YouTube teaching videos to name a few, you know where you stop and pay attention - where students stop and take notice.

Tomorrow, let's talk about connection to fellow virtual learners. Please follow my blog and stop back often. Looking forward to the conversation!