When it’s over, it’s over–right?
Keep in contact with your students after your course ends.
One of the aims of a BYU education is “life-long learning.” Our hope is that students will want to continue to learn; we must operate on the assumption that they want to remain in contact with our subject matter. We can encourage our students to keep learning after the end of a course by remaining in contact with them. Here are some suggestions from Chris Crowe, Professor of English, on how to do just that:
- Make an effort to establish a communication pattern with your students during the course by using the tools in Blackboard, such as discussion boards, announcements, and e-mail contacts.
- Continue to communicate after your course is completed by gathering students’ e-mail addresses and establishing a mail distribution list in Outlook. This is especially effective for students who may have graduated or are now off-campus.
- Identify different kinds of opportunities about which students may be interested; e.g.—
• Grants • Journal articles • News articles • Visiting scholars • Workshops • Employment • Conferences • Certification • Awards • Graduate school - Keep student contact information in your electronic address book for one year, and then give students the option to unsubscribe.
Below is an example e-mail message Professor Crowe sent to his former students.
| From: Chris Crowe Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 7:39 PM To: Student e-mail addresses here Subject: Symposium on Books for Young Readers: Brochure Here’s the brochure for BYU’s annual symposium on Books for Young Readers. It runs on Thursday and Friday, July 16 and 17 this summer. It’s a terrific program—and all the books will be on sale at 20% off. Please forward the attached brochure to librarians, teachers, and other friends of good books. Thanks, |