Failure to Launch? Strategies for Success in the First Week of an Online Course

Nathan Pritts: University of Arizona Global Campus

Students of the future will demand the learning support that is appropriate for their situation or context. Nothing more, nothing less. And they want it at the moment the need arises. Not sooner, not later.

—Dr. Marcus Specht, Professor of Advanced Learning Technologies, Open University of Netherlands

During the first week of an online course, it is crucial to establish the landscape, procedures and tone of the online learning experience. With a few clicks, and after only a few hours of inhabiting their new course shell, students will begin to draw conclusions about the scope of the academic content they’ll be mastering, how their new class functions, and also have some opinions about their new instructor. This places a great deal of pressure on instructors to shape the experience of that first week in such a way that provides context for learning, presents course-based information in an easily accessible manner, and generally ensures that students feel well supported.

Starting any online course represents a big transition. It could be a student’s very first online class, or their first online course after a previous bad experience. It is also possible that a student may have just completed the requirements from a previous class, and now they’re showing up without much of a break since turning in a final assignment.

Active engagement is a key to online learner success. Rice and Kipp (2020) proposed that “engagement is influenced by a learner’s level of motivation, focus and cognitive ability as well as online course design and a teacher’s decisions regarding facilitation style.” But only a few days into a new class, an instructor’s ability to impact each of those elements is limited. What can be controlled, however, has to do with those latter two – course design and decisions regarding facilitation style.

Whatever the situation, it’s clear that the first week of an online course is critically important. Fortunately, the online modality provides instructors with many opportunities to connect with their students – to welcome them to class, to reach out to them both as a newly founded community of learners as well as on a more personal level, smoothing over any pain points that might be a barrier to success. Jimerson et al. (2003) revealed the foundational domains of behavioral, cognitive and emotional learner engagement. By isolating three strategies, anchored in the domains as defined by Rice and Kipp (2020), we can begin to build the runway that allows students to take flight in our courses.

Welcome Tour

When beginning a new course, students often have their focus divided in many directions. As they try to get a grasp on immediate deadlines and requirements, they are also striving to get the big picture of course content. Additionally, they need to locate and prioritize the material and be aware of the support options, all while attempting to ascertain and internalize the overall class flow. Even in the most well-organized course, where the instructor has strategically placed modules and services designed intuitively with a color-coded underlying structure, students are bound to get lost or to miss something important.

In a classroom-based setting, instructors often meet students at the door, take them inside and show them around. In an online course, however, a video or audio walkthrough can be as effective to introduce students to the course, as well as the underlying outcomes at stake, all while putting a human face and pace to the experience. Rice and Kipp (2020) suggest this supports learner engagement in the cognitive domain, focusing on helping to position “how learners think about and make connections with what they are learning.” After you locate the technology resources you’ll use to record your walkthrough, make a plan for your video introduction:

» What do you want to highlight?

» What is unique about the class?

» What are some words of advice that you can give for students to help them be successful?

John Orlando (2020) noted that, when making videos, “a common mistake people make is to begin with an overview of topics to be covered, without first “identify[ing] the significance in the information.” Things that might seem self-evident to an instructor — about how the course is structured and what it’s about — might not be as clear to participating students. Telling students what is important, then organizing that information in a way that aids retention, is the best way to roll out the red carpet for students and welcome them to the course.

Communication Strategy

As much as an audio or video welcome message helps put a human face on an online course, providing students with necessary contextualization, not every online student wants to engage in that manner. Even the most powerful video message can lose some of its efficacy as the days and weeks of a semester pass. It is also unlikely that a student will revisit that first day welcome message! For that reason, instructors need to create and deploy a comprehensive communication strategy for online courses. First week communications are the gateway, but there is more that can be done.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) typically position the most frequently used and needed course tools in a strategic manner. It is also important for instructors to design communication triggers that are just-in-time, paired with the expected hurdles and stumbling blocks that fill any class – especially in the first week. Equally important is the need for instructors to emphasize important information for students. Instructors should ask themselves, “What elements of the course, or classroom, are students likely to overlook?” That is a perfect place to begin when determining the content of messages communicated to students.

Student communications should ideally launch before an online course begins! Consider sending students an email to call attention to crucial areas of the course, to include:

» Important course policies and procedures (which should also be posted in the LMS).

» Direct students to crucial support services (e.g., tutoring services, Instructional Technology).

» Introduce yourself to establish rapport and invite students to contact you with any questions or concerns.

» Give thought to the subject line, and balance the need to invite participation.

» Consider linking to supplemental course material if you find yourself needing more real estate to explain topics or ideas that will contribute to student success.

This small but important step bolsters learner engagement in the emotional domain and enhances the “level of connectedness and caring that learners feel in their learning community” (Rice & Kipp, 2020).

Starting Gate Intervention

The first week of a new course can be a challenge for students for any number of many reasons. Even a high achieving student might miss a first week deadline. The feeling of being behind, of having to play catch up, might result in a snowball effect that compounds into lower performance in the weeks to come; in extreme cases, a student could simply decide to drop a class after getting only a little bit behind.

To counteract this challenge, it is recommended that courses include a meaningful first week deadline. This deadline should be designed to help students believe that they can be successful and master course content. This also provides an important data point. Most online classes have robust analytics and data tracking available. But as an instructor, looking at your own specific course on a daily basis, it can help to have a visible trigger (i.e., awareness that one or more students might be struggling). This awareness can help instructors identify any course-related deficiencies in “how often and for how long learners engage with course materials” (Rice & Kipp, 2020).

For example, in a course where students have a discussion board post due during the first week, instructors can immediately identify this as the break point. Missing this deadline alerts the instructor that a student is stuck in the starting gate. This also triggers an immediate response. The next morning, an instructor can sort through and conduct outreach directly to those students who missed the deadline. Any communication should be personal and empathetic. Email communication should be personalized (e.g., using the student’s name). Most importantly, however:

» Lead with the fact that you will still accept the missing assignment.

» Don’t be afraid to be direct, stating clearly that the student missed an important deadline while also establishing an acceptable timeframe for them student to get the assignment submitted in a timely manner.

The first week of any online course can present challenges for students. Instructors, however, can think strategically about layering the class content in such a way that students won’t be overwhelmed by neither the complexity of the subject nor the battery of deadlines. It is critically important for instructors to step back and work to develop a message designed to speak more to the student than from the content. This message communicates the compassionate and emotional support needed for students to meet academic and intellectual challenges.

REFERENCES

Jimerson, S., Campos, E, & Greif, J.L. (2003). The eclipse of listening. The California School Psychologist, 2003(8), 7–28.

Orlando, John (2020, April 17). Transforming Your Lectures into Online Videos. Faculty Focus. https:// www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-course-delivery-and-instruction/ transforming-your-lectures-into-online-videos/

Rice, Kerry, & Kipp, Kristin (2020, May 6). How can Educators Tap into Research to Increase Engagement During Remote Learning? EdSurge. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-05-06- how-can-educators-tap-into-research-to-increase-engagement-during-remote-learning