Work Outside of Class with Students

My last recommendation is that instructors should be willing and prepared to spend extra time outside of class and during office hours to provide assistance to returning students in order to reduce the risk of failure or withdrawal from the course.  Returning students tend to be more focused upon their academic tasks--they are here to work, not to party or to meander from major to major, and they may have time and resource restraints--and they may be more concerned about their course.  Many seem less reluctant to stay after class for assistance, even if pressed for time, whether at their own request or at my suggestion.  Some items to consider regarding outside work and discussion include:

• Be cognizant of frustration levels, both yours and the returning student’s, and be willing to take a step back and try different pedagogical and technological approaches to writing assignments and computer tasks.

• Resist the temptation to take over a computer station and literally take the keyboard and/or mouse out of the returning student’s hands.  Talk the student through the tasks, allowing time for the student to write steps down and review them with you.

• If you are new to the computer classroom, do not be afraid to ask a lab assistant, your department’s tech representative, or even a more experienced student in your class for assistance.  Some instructors who are new to the computer classroom fear this loss of control and the apparent accompanying loss of authority; this adjustment requires some hours logged in the computer classroom.  After seeing enough jammed printers, fragged discs, crashed hard drives, and students who cannot remember what keys they pressed to create a catastrophic error, you develop your own pedagogical and technological strategies and learn to roll with the punches.

• Students who are referred to the writing center or to a tech assistant fare better if they have a detailed assignment sheet, hard copy or online, from which to work so that the person assisting will have a stronger idea of what you want in a particular assignment.

• Respond promptly to phone calls and e-mail requests for assistance.

• Investigate whether your school has a program to aid returning students.  For example, at the University of South Alabama, we have the Adult Interdisciplinary Studies program, in which returning students take several core courses together and then combine components from up to three majors into a self-designed program of study.  Students not only reacclimate to the academic setting, but they also form support networks with faculty and fellow returning students.
 
Back to Returning Students and TW Back to Retention Strategies Ahead to Work Cited