Learn How to Deal with Problem Students in Your Online Courses
Managing Expectations and Handling Difficult Students Online
When faculty make the move to online teaching, they soon discover that some of their old nemeses follow, difficult students, in all their manifestations. You can’t ignore them, any more than you can in a traditional classroom. But the online environment creates unique opportunities and challenges for dealing with difficult students. What are those differences, and how do you adapt to them?
High-maintenance students. The sullen, surly and easily offended. The inappropriate communicators. The bullies. The smart-alecks. The apathetic. The oblivious. The chronic challengers and the chronically challenged. Sometimes, even the deeply troubled. If you thought the online classroom environment would be free of such students, but you’d be mistaken.
The online environment may look different, but the players are the same, including the difficult ones. Whatever the issue or level of disruption, you need to deal with it, because difficult students can undermine an online classroom as effectively as they can a traditional one.
Learn how you can successfully meet the challenges of difficult students, and create an online experience that’s rewarding for students and faculty alike in a new online audio seminar recorded March 12. In Managing Expectations and Handling Difficult Students Online, Dr. Susan Ko of the University of Maryland University Campus will show you how careful preparation, effective communication and appropriate intervention can help you minimize the impact of difficult students on your classroom.
In 60 fact-filled minutes, Dr. Ko gives you the tools you need to:
- Manage your online classroom.
- Foster an atmosphere of civility and respect.
- Make your expectations clear to students.
- Address problems quickly and effectively.
- Increase student (and faculty) satisfaction.
This seminar will help you understand:
- The damage difficult students can do to the learning environment.
- Where on the syllabus (and in the classroom) to communicate your expectations.
- How to write assignment instructions that clarify objectives, guidelines and grading criteria.
- The subtle differences in phrasing that can create misunderstanding – what to watch for and what to avoid.
- How to recognize warning signs of difficult students – early.
- How to defuse problems effectively.
- When to handle problems yourself, and when they should be referred to others.
Who should attend:
- Online faculty
- Online adjuncts
- Instructional designers
- Academic deans
- Administrators
If you have any questions contact Customer Service at 800-433-0499 or (608) 246-3590 or email us at support@facultyfocus.com.
Dr. Susan Ko is executive director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. The center is responsible for providing faculty development for more than 3,000 worldwide faculty, including administration of CTLA 201, the award-winning online teaching training course required for all UMUC faculty teaching online. Dr. Ko holds a doctorate from Yale University in Chinese language and literature and previously spent more than ten years teaching world literature, Asian studies, and humanities in the California State University system. Her teaching experience included both traditional classroom-based programs as well as distance education. She also spent more than five years working in the area of faculty development in the for-profit education sector and as a consultant to develop online teaching training programs before coming to UMUC.