Occasionally online students will present special problems. Some challenges you may experience include:

• Discussion domination
• Student may seem to be completely unprepared f

  

  or the level of work required

• Academic dishonesty
• Disappearing group members
• Belligerent and opinionated students
• Additional scenarios of difficult online students

Prevention

• Be clear and explicit in your expectations in the syllabus.
• Model expected online behavior.
• Be clear and concise on how students are graded (rubrics, final grade, etc.).

Strategies

• Address issues individually with the student. Document conversations and explanations via email; use the phone when appropriate.
• Set a tolerant tone in the class: explain that all opinions will be respected in the forums.
• Withdraw the student from the discussion forum and do individual journals if necessary
• Intervene quickly and supportively

Assistance

Several options are in place to assist you with serving challenging students.

• Your department chair and dean
• The School of Distance Education Director of Student Services
• The Student Success department
• The associate dean for online higher education
• University instructional designer

Additional resources and strategies can be found at these two websites:

• Butler, K. (2003). How to manage “difficult” students online. Australian Flexible Learning Community.
• Newman, L. V., Schroeder, R. (n.d.) Suggestions for responding to challenging behaviors of students online. University of Illinois at Springfield.

Your Turn

Reflect. How do you deal with difficult students in your face-to-face teaching? What principles and strategies can guide you in your work in online teaching?

This post is Day 13 of the 20 Day Challenge to Teaching Interactive Online Courses.