Motivating students in an online credit-bearing information literacy course—a mixed bag approach (learning to read the room).

Even in the best of circumstances, engaging students in the information literacy classroom (or any classroom for that matter) can be an uphill battle, but in the online learning environment motivating students can become such a herculean process. What works so dead-solid perfect one semester falls dreadfully flat in the next (which can crush your spirit—and theirs). Each student is so different, and each class section thus becomes different in its overall character, so my approach to instructional design, classroom management, and student motivation for each section has become more variable in nature. This presentation will cover various strategies for motivating students in the online learning environment. I will discuss the use of initial assignments at the start of each semester to get a sense of why students are taking the class and also their level of prior knowledge (and how I then use this input to modify each course module to meet the needs of a specific class section and even individual students). I will also discuss classroom management, instructor-student communication, student interaction (and level of social presence), the use of on-the-fly videos (especially for humorous effect—or not as the case can sometimes be), and the necessity for keeping an open mind, a sense of humor, and the ability to act quickly on one’s feet—and how these all come together to hopefully motivate students to learn