Week 11 - Difficult student profiles

1. If you were the online tutor working on and facilitating that course, what would you do to resolve this problem?

2. How could the problem have been avoided, if a different approach had been taken to the design of the course?

The Flamer

There is a mild Flamer in my current cohort, they rush into the group discussions asking questions (that have all been addressed clearly in the brief) and start to seed doubt in the other students. This is quite simple to spot when it is happening in the public forums, but when it happens on the students’ WhatsApp group, that’s when it can spiral. The issue with a flamer will typically occur in the first three steps of Salmon’s model, mostly the second (Online Socialisation: Familiarising and providing bridges between cultural, social and learning environments). My strategy would be to flag these potential Flamers and make sure that they know to come to me before freaking out with the other students. I would give advice to the group as a whole (so as not to single the Flamer out and knock their confidence) by email and in the live sessions on how to read the briefs and to come to the tutors if they have any issues. Higher education should be about developing independent study and enquiry, so I would encourage them to think thoroughly before acting. If it carries on, I would bring it subtly up with the student during tutorial sessions. I would also identify some student spies, who are more level headed, who I think would feel comfortable letting me know when a flame has been lit in the WhatsApp group chat so that I am aware of the issue before it turns into a wildfire.

The Idler

Within the course I am involved in there are no collaborative challenges that would mean that an Idler could derail the work of other students to an extreme level. They can however miss out on the benefits of the group chat forums, where students and tutors share ideas and comment on those of other people. It is hard to read the Idlers and place them on Salmon’s steps, as they don’t give much away. But with groups that are larger than 10/15, it can be tricky to spot when students are less engaged – this could be a negative of online learning, but I don’t have experience in a campus based course for comparison. I try and keep a tick-list of the students, so that I can keep an eye on how many times I see them engage with others during each week. If they are less forthcoming, I would send them a nudge via email, and make sure to get them to interact during the live webinars (if they attend) by asking their opinion. If they are still slow to join in, I would make sure to communicate this with fellow tutors and student advisors to help.