Instructors: Outreach, Does it Work?

Not in my experience. I had students last term who had stopped coming by week

7, but were never removed from my grade book. (I thought that students who did not participate within 14 consecutive days they were supposed to be dropped. That was not the case in my classes.) So, with so many emails telling students work is late, they are absent, their grades are failing, etc. I spent more time doing outreach than teaching. It shocked me how low the retention rate is and how casually students felt about their very expensive educations. Out if all the outreach, not one of those failing students passed. Or really did much participating. Outreach did not work. And it affected the instruction I gave. I was so happy for the few really good, interesting and engaging students I had in my classroom. I wish them all the very best! The rest? Shame on them for throwing all that money away.

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You can look the student up in Talisma, and see which classes they are participating in.

The outreach and the time is takes is just punishing. It takes incredible amounts of time, but as others have said there is never anything that comes of it. I assume this is just for show so that the DOE sees that effort has been made. The government should only allow students to borrow the cost of the classes, and nothing more. I have had students ask me how long they need to keep attending class to make sure they get their checks. It is like we are paying them to screw up.

In previous terms if a student did not participate in my class for 14 days, he or she was dropped. That was not the case last term. It was a very noticeable difference. I just don't believe all of them were participating in some other class but mine. It's been my experience if they miss, they miss them all. But, maybe I'm wrong and 50 students last term just ignored me!

If that's the case, why are we required to tell them participation rules and let them know they will be dropped for not participating in our classes? At another for profit I worked at, it was an individual class. But what are the chances they are participating in one class and not the others? I have had students, every 13th day, write a one sentence response in the threads. Less than 4 minutes and they get attendance points. I've had students take a quiz in 2 minutes (and fail.) marked present. They have to do so little to be marked present. Less than 5 minutes a week online.

It seems like the morally upright thing to do would be to suggest to all students who do not have a passing grade in a class after two weeks that they withdraw from the class (and perhaps from the school) so as not to incur more debt. They could start again some other semester when they are more sure they are ready for school.

@22859 & 22862: At Everest Online, a student is only dropped if they are not participating in ALL classes. A student can be enrolled in 3 classes and only participating in 1. This keeps them in school and they will not be dropped out of the classes they are not participating in. If no participation in all 3, they are dropped out of school after 2-weeks of no participation. Participation is automatically tracked and instructors cannot change the dates. It would cut down on outreach, if the students were dropped out of each individual class for non-participation.

22859 - I thought so! I am an online instructor, so attendance is automated. I couldn't change it if I wanted to, and maybe these attendance waivers were done. I can saw I saw F's in the grade books for weeks on end, without any word from the students. And this wasn't just a couple of students. It was fairly high numbers in all of my classes last term. I started to think something funny was up. But without access to attendance records, I can only go by the zeros in my grade book. But, if a student has been given by me for every assignment for 4-6 weeks, that means that student has not been in my class.

22818: Those students not getting dropped after 14 calendar days is a big regulatory deal. I saw it happen again and again on my campus, with instructors posting phantom attendance after the fact (always on the exact day that would have been 14) and students asked to backdate attendance appeals. Their aid money should have gone back. That's another fraud issue that I'm not sure the feds have caught onto yet, but we need to make sure the monitor knows.

22838, agreed! I think the students who value their education should get priority, since they are the ones utilizing the costs incurred by them.

Good instructors are like good admissions reps: Just smile and dial.

If I had a failing student even show the remotest interest in getting the education they were paying for, I offered to meet with them by phone once a week and work through questions and assignments. I would talk to them once and they would disappear. I regularly linked the tutor link to emails and threads. Students who did not value these loans had no intention of participating. It made me very, very sad.

I think the ideal level is one personal, sincere email per semester for each student in difficulty. If they respond, we should give them all the support that we can. If they don't, then college (and the associated debt) is probably not in their best interest at this point in their lives.

There is an ideal level of outreach that is somewhere between zero and insane CCi level.

Thread regarding Corinthian Colleges Inc. layoffs

Instructors: Outreach, Does it Work?

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