Part 3 - Show your passion

In the first two blog posts in this series, I talked about establishing trust and showing your competence to build your credibility as an online instructor. Now that you’re on the road to building that relationship with your students and students recognize that you “know your stuff,” what’s next? Show your passion!

The three strategies below empower you to share what you’re doing in your field, demonstrate your passion for continuous learning, and connect course content to relevant aspects of your students’ lives.

Strategy #1 – Share what you’re doing in your field

Share what exactly, though? Let’s start with a story from my teaching experience.

As an online undergraduate instructor myself, I share my personal experiences from the time I was a student as well as my professional experiences in Marketing and higher education so that students are able to see my journey and begin to imagine the possibilities for themselves. At the beginning of the semester, I always provide an introduction video (check out what Missouri Online has to say about how establishing your online presence starts with an introduction video) where I talk about myself, including my professional background and experiences.

I also like to showcase my personality. In addition to teaching undergraduate classes, I serve as a facilitator for Missouri Online’s Online Teaching Certification Seminar (OTCS). Below is a snippet from my introduction video for that course, which I recorded in Panopto and embedded in Canvas.

After I introduce myself, I have my undergraduate students complete a survey where they tell me about themselves. The very last question is, “Is there anything else you’d like to share with me?” This is when I start getting questions and comments about what it was like working for a marketing agency and how they’d like to work in one, or how did I get into higher education because they want to go to graduate school for that purpose, etc.

The point is, I got students interested in the subject matter because I shared with them the same things that got me excited about it back when I was a student myself. My personal stories and experiences related to the subject matter help students connect with it on a more personal level. And having worked in industry, I can share real-world applications of what they are learning.

Here’s what one student said: “You have helped me realize that [this] is what I want to do after college! 😁”

Before you create an introduction about yourself (or revise an existing one), think about the following and then get to work on your intro:

• Why are you in your field?
• What led you to where you are today?
• What aspects of the field got you excited as a student?

Strategy #2 – Demonstrate your passion for continuous learning

The foundation to everything I know in my field is my passion for continuous learning.  I love to learn, and I make it one of my goals to instill the same in my students. I make it clear to students that we are meant to be learning (not just checking off boxes to complete yet another class). I show them how they can go about learning (check out one of my videos I shared in Part 2 of this blog series). And most importantly, I want students to know what goes into learning. For these reasons, I provide “tips and tricks” on how they can hack their brains for optimal learning. Here’s a snippet from one of the many videos I provide to encourage students to be as passionate about continuous learning as I am. (Access the notes for this video.)

Here’s what one student said regarding working through something she’s never done before: “I am learning as we go, but it has been an interesting process. Thank you for the extra videos and learning tips that you have provided over this course as it has been really helpful!”

In thinking about how you can demonstrate your passion for continuous learning, start with meditating on your style of learning. 

Here are a few thoughts to get you started: 

• Are you yourself open to learning? 
• Even as you’ve grown in your competence in your field, are you open to having what you think you know be challenged by new information? 
• What areas can you show the evolution of your learning of an interesting or difficult concept in your field? 
• What are you doing for continuous learning or professional development?

Strategy #3 – Connect course content to relevant parts of your students’ lives

Establishing a framework for students to align their personal passions and interests with the course content lays the groundwork for encouraging them to make these connections. With your course content organized, it’s time to think about how you can connect course content to relevant parts of your students’ lives.

Three prerequisites to organizing your course content for interaction are overall course objectives, module-level learning objectives, and alignment of these learning objectives. Students are more likely to be engaged in a subject if they can see these connections. From the Quality Course Review rubric we use at Missouri Online, these correspond with the following:

• Question #22 – Are there overall course objectives that are written in measurable terms?
• Question #23 – Are module-level learning objectives written in measurable terms that address achievable and specific student outcomes?
• Question #4 – Do all module-level learning objectives align with the course-level learning objectives?

One thing I like to do is create activities that look like what students would encounter in the professional field. Additionally, I ask students to reflect through questions like “What is one takeaway and future strategy you plan on taking because of what you learned?” or “What can you share about what you’ve learned so far from the semester-long project?”

For example, one activity I have students do is perform a SWOT analysis and set SMART goals as a prerequisite to even beginning to design anything for a project. Through this process, students have discovered connections of this concept with other areas in their lives:

• In the workplace: “I currently work in an environment that uses SMART goals in the [public-private partnerships] process. I found initially that it was confusing to have to have all the parts just for the review process and that I was having to do busy work. After going over this section it helped make sense of why we use it.”
• For future plans: “[This] has been a really interesting and useful concept for me as I want to open my own business one day. Doing the plan on it has helped me layout and visualize it a lot more and make it seem more real and achievable.”
• In one’s personal life: “It has helped me put words to my aspirations, and allowed me to identify my strengths as well as opportunities for me to grow in the future. Furthermore, it has helped me define what I am looking for in an employer.“

Consider the following questions when thinking about how to convey the relevance of your field:

• Who are the leading voices in the field? And what are they currently working on in the field?
• How could this content be applied in other fields?
• How does this content relate to issues outside of the classroom?

Conclusion

You can show your passion by talking about the amazing things you’re doing in your field, getting your students to be as invested in continuous learning as you are with yours, and helping students identify where your field applies to areas in and out of the classroom. Now that your students are on the road to being passionate about what they’re learning, we’re ready to awaken your students’ learning, which is the upcoming topic for Part 4 of this blog series.

Created on January 30, 2024.