How do I motivate my students to submit higher quality work?
This is a challenge almost all educators are facing. Without the constant buzz of the classroom, it’s hard to keep students as motivated in the online space. I turned the problem over to our coaching community. Here’s what they came up with:
- Put the spotlight on students who are submitting high- quality work: How might you honor or make these students’ work more public?
- Gamify your online class: Award digital badges/ fake money to be used for inner class challenges (free homework passes, teacher for the day, etc.) or to advance to the ‘next level’ so there is something students are working towards. Here’s a sample gamification spreadsheet.
- Make the learning more real: If teaching physics, bring in a guest astronaut from Nasa to share with students. Better yet- organize a project- based or design experiences that requires your content to complete; introduced by that same expert. Here is a good hub for those design challenges.
- Have students record themselves completing lesson, and run a ‘play by play’ as teacher– This was my favorite submission. Students record and submit themselves completing a problem, assignment or challenge, and teacher does a ‘play by play’ as an announcer over it encouraging them the whole time. (Thanks Matt)
- Use Peer Pressure (in a good way)- It’s amazing what students will do when encouraged by peers. Partner or group students and make your less motivated students accountable to the group, rather than just you as the teacher.
How do you encourage higher- quality work submission? Share your ideas with me at kylewagner@transformschool.com