Upon learning that they had dropped the class, I went back through their assignments that they did complete. I came upon their first discussion board post, in which I typically ask each student to introduce themselves to their classmates with their name, location and future goals. I was embarrassed to learn that in reading back on their first discussion post, this particular student had just returned back to school after an 8 year layoff, and was a single parent managing employment and raising young kids. How could I have missed this? In realizing my mistake, I knew I had to make a change in how I engaged with my students. Since that time, I believe that being intentional on building relationships are important traits that instructors and leaders must have in order to increase engagement with their students.
