Everyone likes to be complimented for good work. Students love being rewarded for good work, good behavior and for online class students, you can also use the same class badges you used in your face to face class.
When I was in second grade, my teacher would hand out stars of different rank, bronze starts for okay behavior, silver starts to much better or improved behavior and gold stars for extraordinary behavior. All of us went out of our way to earn the coveted gold star. Any student who won the gold star had the privilege of wearing that gold star on her forehead the whole day alerting the entire playground at recess, that you are a good student and that the teacher loves you.
On the other hand, if you misbehaved badly such as chewing gum in class, the teacher made us wear that chewing gum on our nose all day. And yes, this timeless method worked. After that, we no longer chewed gum in class. Or if we drew on the classroom desks, we then had to clean all the desks in the classroom.
For online classes, you can implement class badges for online students who participate a lot in the forums, or for students who do great collaboration teamwork or for students who make forum posts that are substantive and promote the conversation.
I remember my online students loved their class badges as much as I did when I used to earn those coveted gold stars from my 2nd grade teacher.
When you teach online, online learning can be quite isolating so giving class badges gives online students a sense of belonging and community and makes the online students realize you are a flesh and blood teacher behind the name on that computer screen.
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