Examine Your Circles of Influence

Each of us has a circle of influence. For some, that circle is large and for some it’s small.

Within our circles of influence, some individuals we can readily motivate (e.g. my kids and my students) and some we can gently persuade (such as my colleagues) and others we can merely inform (like my twitter followers).

As I’ve contemplated ways to interact within my own circle of influence (to expand the hive), the most obvious place to start is with my students. I teach an Honor’s Seminar entitled Entrepreneurial Value Creation in Society.

All my students are honors students. That means they are smart, motivated, and well-respected by their peers.

My Immediate Plan

Currently, my students watch a video lecture and/or read an assignment each week, post questions about the week’s topic to a discussion forum, post answers to each other’s questions on the forum, and write a short reflection paper where they critically analyze the arguments presented in the reading or lecture.

I am planning to create a new Hive community tied to the course, where I will regularly post links to the content that my students will be engaging with each week (so that members of the existing Hive community can also engage with that content, if they so choose).

In addition, I am planning to offer extra credit to students who create a Hive account and begin posting their Discussion Forum questions and responses directly to Hive (inside the ‘class community’).

I am also thinking about setting up some sort of contest to reward students who get the most total upvotes throughout the semester and maybe also have a contest to encourage them to get their friends and acquaintances to join the Hive community.

Always be a positive influence!