It's NOT My Job to Entertain Students!!

This statement comes from a presentation titled e-Learning Mythbusters. This is one of many statements that audience members vote on to help determine whether this is a widely held belief or not. Then we discuss the underlying ideas, such as why would faculty think that it's not their job, or what part of this statement is troubling?

Everyone gets hung up on the word "entertain." I'm not talking about singing and dancing. So, I usually show the slide below to indicate that we are not talking about "That's Entertainment!"

We are talking about giving your students a reason to show up and keeping them interested while they're there - and it doesn't matter where the "there" is. It's important for online courses and for on-ground courses. The whole question is one of engagement. A better analogy for entertainment is like an old-fashioned Tupperware party, or even better - my mother's bridge club. Mom would say, "Go over to Billy Bob's house this afternoon. I'm entertaining the bridge club and I don't want you hanging around." (Okay, I made that up, but you get the point.) Entertaining only meant that she was giving them a reason to show up at her house that afternoon - providing card tables, decks of cards, and a few other amenities - without that stuff, none of those ladies would have shown up at her house on that afternoon. In other words - JUST GIVE THEM A REASON TO SHOW UP!

We'll look at how you can use some technology tools to create angaging assignments for your students.

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