Responding to Learner Challenges

A response to the Learner Challenge Activity
created by Rahul Mohla (@rmohla)

Number of views: 125

Write something fantastic? Here is one: educators are fantastic! Am I an educator? yes! To all those out there give yourself a pat on the shoulder.

This is all too common amongst educators, and I know this because I teach a multitude of courses, and this always finds itself in every survey: Why are the faculty not consistent? We need not go into the very nature of what makes us unique as educators for this purpose. That would be a whole post to itself. For now, let’s talk about how we address this …

I utilized our current LMS system to our advantage. The LMS had a Discussion Board section on which faculty and students alike could post their questions or comments regarding the course. I utilized this to my advantage and asked all students to post any and all questions they have on the forum. To aid in the students learning, the forum was divided according to subject matter and monitored by the faculty. If it were deemed the students could assist one another in answering questions, then it would be made apparent and the students would aid one another, indirectly also aiding themselves in their understanding of the material. Of course, if clarification was required, then it would be provided by the faculty. In this manner, we were better able to maintain consistency within the lab.

My personal belief is that we have countered inconsistencies at a macro level if you will, and course faculty surveys support this, both on a quantitative and qualitative level. However, we are still receiving a few comments so at a micro level there still exists room for improvement. I will continue to work on how to better combat this subject matter and hopefully connect another post to this one in the future!