February 10, 2012, radically changed the social media landscape forever. It has nothing to do with the Mayan calendar and everything to do with overnight sensation, Jeremy Lin, who seemed to materialize on the basketball court with the New York Knicks to score 38 points over the Lakers that night.
Immediately following the game, Linsanity hit the media. Tebowing is out; Linsanity is in!
Knowing online students will be probably be glued to every shot this young player makes more than to your class, the question becomes: How can online faculty harness this mania to motivate their students?
Big Break
Most online students are in a difficult situation: 74.3% make less than $40K/year, 79% are attending school on loans they worry about paying back later, and with an average age of 34, most have been out of school for some time, so they are juggling jobs and families in addition to their education. Although exact statistics are hard to come by, most experts believe the dropout rate for online students tends to be 10-20% higher than for their traditional face-to-face counterparts. These students often site a lack of motivation as the main reason for dropping out. This is no surprise given all they’re juggling. Enter Jeremy Lin.
It’s hard to imagine anyone who is unaware of this, but when Lin hit the big time earlier this month, he was sleeping on his brother’s sofa because his prospects for a basketball career were so slim. In fact, Lin received no athletic scholarships for college, remained undrafted after college, was waived by two teams, and did two stints in the National Basketball Developmental League (NBDL). He marketed himself to Harvard with a DVD of himself playing high school basketball to be able to play on the Harvard team. He never gave up on his goals; he not only became an overnight NBA sensation, but he also completed a four-year degree at Harvard.
The takeaway here is that online faculty must give their students hope that they, too, will get their big break. If they keep at it a step at a time, online students can finish their degree and reach the goals they dream about—the very dreams that caused them to enroll in school in the first place.
Uniqueness
The non-traditional students who enroll in online classes often fail to make the connection between the successes they have experienced in life prior to enrollment and what they can do in the classroom and beyond. Therefore, there is a need for online courses, especially at the introductory level, to spend some time on the process of self-discovery and uniqueness. They must be made aware of what they bring to the academic and professional worlds that perhaps few other can. They need to be made aware that their individuality is their strength rather than a weakness to be hidden. Take a look at Jeremy Lin, for example.
The average NBA player is 6’7” and 221 pounds; at 6’3” and 200 pounds, Jeremy Lin is slightly below average in size. At 23, he’s also a bit younger than the average age of 27. By all accounts, he was not a success until February 10th. What is perhaps most commented on is his ethnic background. In a sport that has only boasted about four Chinese players, Lin is also considered the first major star among the Chinese American ethnic group. What is rarely pointed out is that 77% of NBA players never spend time in the NBDA; Lin was sent to the developmental league twice. He truly beat the odds!
Therefore, online faculty must guide students into discovering their own uniqueness and ways to use it to cut their own path in life using their education as a springboard.
Memorability
Often online students choose to pursue a degree because they need to make a job or career change. It may be that they were downsized and see it as a chance to start over in a field that is of more interest to them. They may want to move up the career ladder at work by getting a promotion that requires a degree. Knowing they will be competing against so many others for jobs can be disheartening to anyone. How can they stand out from others beyond being unique?
Jeremy Lin again provides a good example. His coming out of nowhere to score 38 points in a game will be remembered for some time to come; so will the puns formed from his last name. Part of the social media hysteria tied to this young player involves all the creative and not so creative words the media keeps inventing: “linsanity,” “linspiring,” and “thrilLin.” There are also the expressions like: “to linfinity and beyond” or “We’ll Lin and bear it today.”
Students need to be taught that part of the art of success is making themselves memorable to others. This goes beyond uniqueness to focus on a memorable characteristic, achievement—something—that can be quickly and memorably shared like an elevator pitch. This often comes down to something social, something human that connects one individual to another.
Community
Finally, there is the lesson that although it’s okay to be yourself, we are all part of a larger community. There is abundant research that shows the sense of belonging that students feel in a classroom is vital to their individual and collective success.
If you watch Jeremy Lin, prior to each game, he joins a teammate in the “nerd handshake.”
Each time he scores, he reaches out to his teammates immediately with some acknowledgement of their part in the play: a chest bump, slap on the back, or applause, for example. In interviews he also humbly emphasizes the team’s success and that it is their collective win not his individual victory.
Similarly, to what should take place with creating a learning community inside the classroom and what Lin demonstrates on the basketball court is the idea that students are part of a global community. Online classes should also contain activities that guide students into applying their uniqueness and their education outside in the larger global community not only during the semester, but beyond graduation.
Finally, it’s easy to get lost in the wonderful technology of eLearning; however, faculty should never forget the human side of instruction. An online class is still made up of human beings who need each of the above points to be inspired. Faculty must remember that they are key. One of the main reasons that students drop out of school is a lack of faculty engagement in the course and with the students. Some experts even believe that the modeling, mentoring, and coaching that faculty do means faculty must also be bold enough to share their own uniqueness. Faculty must be dynamically engaged in the classroom as well.
Therefore, if you want your online students to succeed, add some Linsanity to your classes.
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