USING ACTIVE KINDNESS TO QUELL INCIVILITY IN ONLINE CLASSES

In revising my online classes to reflect the current practice of using active learning activities several students expressed their dissatisfaction in a fairly aggressive manner. Each activity was questioned as to it's relevance or level, each error, such as typos, were ridiculed as evidence of my incompetence as an instructor. It became a dreadful chore to grade these students work, knowing that any points deducted or comments made would most probably result in a scathing email from them.

Before the revision, addressing the students questions quickly and with professionalism along with a few weeks for them to adjust to the format of the class worked well with pacifying these disruptive students. However, these techniques didn’t work once the course underwent the conversion to active learning. Through researching the topic and getting additional online training I found a different approach and implemented it the fall semester of 2014. My different approach included being more “present” in my classes, making sure students felt I was “listening” to their concerns, and providing an explanation of the reason for using active learning activities.

In being more “present” in the online classroom I added an announcement for each learning module which was written very informally and outlined the upcoming work that was due, articles that I thought they might find interesting, reminders, and pointers to help with the upcoming activities. I also added in a more friendly instructor biography, where I provided some personal items about myself and an explanation for my use of active learning activities.

As for the “listening” portion, I changed how I addressed the students, using their first names when making grading comments. I made my comments more personable and added in more positive (what they got right, or something I liked) in addition to what was incorrect. I also made an effort to make contact with students who weren’t logging in to remind them they were in class and were missed.

In making these changes in my courses I saw more interaction with my students, for example they contacted me and ask for help more than previously. I had more students complete the class, with fewer Ds and Fs, my course evaluations were higher, and most importantly, not one negative comment from any students.