Introduction

Encouraging student involvement is one of the ultimate objectives of effective instructors. Ongoing student participation is essential in a classroom characterized by maximally beneficial learning.

Nowhere is the challenge for student engagement greater than in the Web-based course. The lack of periodic face-to-face interaction may deprive the instructor of traditional visual and verbal cues of student withdrawal. At the same time, active student involvement is particularly crucial in Web-based coursework which is especially dependent upon student motivation and initiative for successful learning.

A number of barriers to student engagement in Web-based coursework have been identified by researchers. Baumgartner (2000) notes the general tendency to resist change and innovation. Bischoff (2000) attributes online attrition to student isolation, the accelerated pace of online courses, competing responsibilities faced by the typical online student, and technical problems experienced by students. According to Palloff and Pratt (1999), barriers to student participation include information overload, anxiety related to the different nature of online communication, related concerns about privacy issues and exposure with regard to externally posted online communication, and technical difficulties. With regard to the timing of communication in cyberspace, Badger (2000) notes that the asynchronous nature of message exchange can discourage student involvement due to its relative lack of immediacy. Sometimes withdrawal occurs as a result of student misconceptions regarding the distance-mediated classroom and how it differs from traditional face-to-face instruction (Dereshiwsky, 1999).

This paper identifies a number of ways that Web-course instructors can actively engage student participation and involvement throughout the semester. Specific activities are suggested, along with their relative time frame for implementation. These are illustrated in Table 1 and discussed in additional detail.

One to two weeks prior to the official start of the semester. NAU’s Office of Teaching and Learning Effectiveness (OTLE) mails a CD-ROM (1999, Northern Arizona University Academic Computing Help Desk) and welcome letter to all first-time NAUOnline Web course students. This CD contains a variety of slide show presentations on course orientation topics. These include the minimum PC hardware specifications required for the course, as well as sources of help with technical problems. The welcome letter contains the e-mail address and telephone number of OTLE personnel.

Table 1.

Time Series of Web Course
Student Engagement Strategies

Time Period	Activity Initiated with Students
Approximately 1-2 weeks before official semester start date	Startup CD-ROM and welcome letter mailed to all first-time online students Online syllabus updated with current due dates
First week of semester	Students send initial e-mail message containing alternative contact information (i.e., telephone number(s), FAX number(s), mailing address(es) to instructor Students are expected to familiarize themselves with the course Website (no other assignments are officially due)
Second week of semester	First assignment, a Web search activity using different search engines, is due
Approximately once a week	A cluster of online assignments is due via e-mail or Website submission with the following requirements: 1. One point is deducted for each day an assignment is submitted past the due date for the first 5 days; 2. Assignments more than 5 days late are not accepted or graded
Approximately twice a week	A newsletter is sent out to all online students containing: 1. Important updates and changes; 2. Personal announcements and kudos; 3. Closing positive-thinking stories, poems, and/or quotes.
Approximately once a month	Student self-report is due via e-mail: 1. what’s working OK; 2. what’s not working OK; and 3. initial suggestions on resolving any reported problems
At end of the semester (advanced doctoral research courses only)	Final paper (doctoral research proposal) which is a compilation of previous individual assignments is due

At approximately the same time, the instructor updates the course syllabus posted on the Website. The syllabus prominently displays instructor contact information such as telephone and FAX numbers and mailing address. It also repeats the telephone numbers for technical support which are also provided in the welcome-aboard CD-ROM. This updated syllabus contains the current due dates for assignments for the upcoming semester.

These materials are intended to get online students in a back-to-school mindset akin to that of the traditional live classroom. They serve to remind students that there are things they can do to be maximally prepared for the official start of the course. Both the mailed CD-ROM and the posted syllabus are designed to anticipate and answer many questions students may have about the course, both technical and content-related. By carefully reviewing these materials beforehand, students are maximizing their readiness for a beneficial learning experience to come.

First week of semester. During this kickoff week, students are expected to actively engage in a variety of startup activities. No other assignments are officially due during this time. This is intended to provide students with ample opportunity to become comfortable with the setup and expectations of the online course.

For the first activity, students are required to e-mail their instructor with their contact information (i.e., telephone number(s), FAX number(s), and mailing address(es)). This initial requirement serves several functions. For one thing, it enables the student to practice e-mailing his/her instructor and receiving a reply. This serves as a valuable road test of the student’s selected Internet service provider and e-mail address. In case of technical difficulties, there is still ample time and opportunity to troubleshoot without the student feeling hopelessly behind in the course. The alternative contact information is also helpful for the instructor to archive in case of temporary loss of e-mail or Internet access. This enables the instructor and student to stay connected despite such glitches. Finally, this activity is intended as the online equivalent of physically attending a live group class and introducing oneself to one’s instructor.

Students are also encouraged to use this first week to begin to download their course materials from the Website. These consist of a series of learning modules, supplementary advanced readings, and related assignments. The syllabus encourages students to print these out and place them in a binder with tabbed dividers to separate the related materials. This is akin to students going to a campus bookstore to purchase their required textbooks during the first few days of class.

The preceding startup activities are intended to reinforce the notion that the semester has begun, along with attendant obligations to get started, for online students. Such activities are designed to simulate the informational exchanges that might occur in a typical initial live group class meeting.

Second week of semester. The first assignment for all NAUOnline students, regardless of specific course, consists of a Web search activity. Students are asked to input a search string pertinent to their respective course, such as “qualitative research” or “research design,” using two or more different Web search engines (i.e., Yahoo, WebCrawler, Netscape). For each search engine, students are required to summarize the number and types of located Websites, or hits. They are also asked to compare the results of the different search engines used. Finally, they are asked to locate and provide a one-paragraph summary of a Website that relates to the search string and also is of interest to them. In locating this relevant Website, they are asked to speculate on how the Web search activity can be streamlined in order to ensure fewer and more directly relevant hits pertaining to one’s desired topic. This first assignment is intended to encourage student practice with the Web tools and procedures necessary for success in the course.

Approximately once a week for the duration of the semester. Due dates for clusters of related assignments pertaining to each learning module are purposefully staggered throughout the semester. These due dates occur on average once a week—usually on Mondays or Fridays—and are posted in the online syllabus. Assignments are to be submitted electronically by 5:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time on the date listed in the syllabus. The particular means of submission varies for each individual assignment and is stated in the related instructions. It can include direct e-mail, posting in the Virtual Conference Center (VCC) online bulletin board, or submission via the text box on the course Website.

The syllabus also states that: (1) one point will be automatically deducted for each day the assignment is submitted past the due date for the first five days; and (2) assignments which are submitted more than five days past the due date will not be accepted or graded and will receive a grade of zero points.

Such periodic due dates encourage students to remain actively engaged in the course throughout the semester. In this manner, they also serve as a hedge against procrastination or the temptation to manufacture excuses. As Schweizer (1999) put it: “The distance learning equivalent to ‘the dog ate my homework’ is ‘the dog chewed my cable connection,’ ‘the server was down,’ or ‘I worked five hours, got ready to save and close and my work disappeared.’ (pg. 76).”

Some students may be currently enrolled in a mix of online and traditional face-to-face classes. As assignments, papers and tests in the traditional classes become due, the temptation may be great to let their online course obligations slide. This invariably results in a feeling of being overwhelmed and falling more and more behind in the online course as the semester progresses.

Staggering the course expectations in this manner reinforces the cumulative nature of the learning process for online students. They realize that in order to complete the course successfully, they must periodically engage and interact with the course materials, the instructor, and one another in the case of group projects.

Approximately twice a week for the duration of the semester. An important aspect of maintaining student engagement is maintaining a visible instructor presence. This can admittedly be a challenge in the online classroom due to the lack of required periodic face-to-face group meetings.

One way to maintain a continual student-instructor connection is via a listserv. A newsletter is sent to all students approximately twice a week. This newsletter typically contains the following items:

1. Important updates;

2. Announcements regarding the students such as congratulations on a new job or new baby;

3. A cluster of closing positive-thinking stories, poems or quotes with a central theme.

This newsletter has turned out to be a popular and even much-anticipated part of online coursework. Students appreciate the relative speed and efficiency with which important informational updates can be conveyed. The personal touches conveyed in the individual kudos and positive-thinking closing stories act as a further inducement to keep them logging in every other day or so.

Approximately once a month for the duration of the semester. Nothing can dampen motivation faster than an unexpected problem. Furthermore, little problems have a way of mushrooming into big problems if allowed to fester. Both of these can cause a student to give up in frustration.

The online atmosphere is sadly conducive to students simply disappearing from view. It is easier to hide online than in the traditional classroom with its required periodic face-to-face group meetings. Web-course instructors must therefore be particularly attuned to even indirect signals of student frustration and imminent disengagement.

One way to do this is via required periodic e-mail updates. Students are required to provide their instructor with a monthly progress report. This takes the form of an e-mail message containing the following components:

1. What’s working well for the student thus far;

2. What’s not working so well; i.e., any problems or concerns;

3. In the case of such problems or concerns, the student’s initial thoughts on how he/she can begin to improve these in positive partnership with the instructor.

The above progress reports are due to the instructor by 5:00 p.m. on the dates shown in the syllabus. These due dates occur at approximately one-month intervals. The required progress reports comprise a stated percentage of the overall course grade. This can be as much as 20% of the grade for required master’s-level courses, or a lesser percentage for upper-level doctoral electives.

Requiring students to check in with these monthly self-reports possesses a number of advantages. These include the following:

1. The e-mail updates are a documentable and equivalent proxy for monitoring attendance, since e-mail messages are externally date- and time-stamped to verify their transmission;

2. The report of what’s working well serves to remind students of successes and improvements—all too easy to forget when encountering a thorny problem—which help to boost students’ self-confidence and increase their motivation to persist in the course;

3. The report of problems enables the instructor to go to work in immediate partnership with the student to resolve manageable difficulties before they become too overwhelming;

4. Finally, requiring students to propose tentative solutions along with any problems reported serves to remind them that sharing such problems is only one-half of the task at hand. The other half involves a willingness to seek and implement solutions in good faith designed to reduce problems and improve their overall experience in the course.

Admittedly, these periodic self-reports generate even more e-mail for the online instructor to review. On the one hand, as Simon (2000) notes, “Trying to respond to each [piece of] correspondence by each student could grind you into pine-nut powder (pg. 77).” At the same time, a personal reply briefly acknowledging and summarizing the periodic student self-report can pay huge dividends in building individual student-instructor rapport. Schweizer (1999) notes the message conveyed in such an individualized reply, particularly “…us[ing] first names when responding to students’ comments or work assignments. This personal touch instantaneously creates a sense of ‘She’s talking to ME!’ (pg. 70, emphasis in original).” This direct connection between student and instructor helps dispel the concerns of isolation with regard to online study. In addition, acknowledging any problems reported by the student also enables the instructor to go to work immediately in positive partnership on their resolution. This may involve implementing the student’s own suggestions in his/her periodic self-report, or jointly brainstorming additional alternative solutions to try. In either case, the immediacy of action and instructor interest in improving the problem both serve as an antidote to potential student withdrawal in frustration.

At end of semester (advanced doctoral-level online research courses). Online students in both Research Design and Qualitative Research are expected to produce a final paper at the end of the semester. This paper, which constitutes a defensible doctoral research proposal, is due on the last day of the semester.

Instead of being a stand-alone assignment, however, this final paper is a step-by-step compilation of a number of individual assignments that are due throughout the semester. Such individual assignments include drafting one’s research questions and hypotheses; identifying the related design methodology; drafting a population and sampling narrative; and composing samples of related instrumentation (i.e., survey and/or interview questions).

The step-by-step nature of assembly of these elements into the doctoral proposal serves as an incentive for students to actively engage in the individual assignments leading up to the final paper. By doing so, students receive their instructor’s feedback on the individual components of the paper. This essentially gives them a valuable second chance to revise and resubmit those components, incorporating their instructor’s suggestions, in the body of the final paper. Another benefit of this sequential assembly strategy is that it tends to make the final paper less overwhelming in nature. Students are less likely to be faced with writer’s block at the end of the semester when they realize they have in fact been working on the key components of the final paper all along.

Concluding Comments

According to a popular maxim, “Inch by inch, life is a cinch. Yard by yard is when it gets hard.” Tackling the unfamiliar environment of the Web classroom can be a daunting prospect, particularly for novice online students. The stresses of adapting to this new teaching-learning environment, coupled with the often hectic pace of life for typical Web-course students, can sometimes cause students to give up too soon. On the other hand, students who are actively engaged in a time series of relevant and interactive online activities are more likely to experience the maximal benefits of the instructional environment. Initial successes lead to greater initiative and motivation to persist. This in turn boosts students’ self confidence as well as their ability to master the content material. With careful planning of such activities, the Web-course instructor truly becomes a partner in learning with his or her students via this leading-edge method of instructional interaction. As a result, the Web classroom can become what it was always intended to become: a viable alternative format of individualized teaching and learning at its finest.

References

Badger, A. (2000). Keeping it fun and relevant: Using active online learning. In K. W. White & B. H. Weight (Eds.), The online teaching guide: A handbook of attitudes, strategies and techniques for the virtual classroom. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Bischoff, A. (2000). The elements of effective online teaching: Overcoming the barriers to success. . In K. W. White & B. H. Weight (Eds.), The online teaching guide: A handbook of attitudes, strategies and techniques for the virtual classroom. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Baumgartner, G. (2000). Strategies for effective online education. New York: Forbes Custom Publishing.

Dereshiwsky, M. I. (1999, April). Believe it…or not? Some student misperceptions regarding online learning and how to overcome them. Paper presented at the second annual Teaching in the Community Colleges Online Conference, Hilo, HI.

Learn online! A training guide for NAU online students. (1999). Academic Computing Services Help Desk, Northern Arizona University. [On-line]. http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/help/training.

Simon, M. (2000). Managing time: Developing effective online organization. . In K. W. White & B. H. Weight (Eds.), The online teaching guide: A handbook of attitudes, strategies and techniques for the virtual classroom. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Schweizer, H. (1999). Designing and teaching an online course: Spinning your web classroom. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.