New Course Tips
Tips for Instructor to Student Communication
• The communication between the instructor and each student is important. The instructor can influence whether a student is successful in the course. Instructors must be available outside traditional on-campus hours, but the specific hours of availability and how soon a response can be expected should be outlined
in the course syllabus. Students may panic if they feel they cannot reach you.
• Check your email every morning before getting involved in other daily tasks. Check email at least one other time per day.
• Prompt feedback is important for the students, but also important for you as the instructor so you do not get behind and overwhelmed.
• Students are less likely to drop if they receive quality attention from the instructor. Emails should start with the student’s name, such as “Dear Mary,” or “Hi Tom,” so they know it is an email personal to them. Write encouraging and supportive email messages.
• Make sure emails to students are long enough to explain what you mean. Short abrupt email messages may come across as rude to a student.
• Insist that students use an identifying subject line in their email messages to you. You can give guidelines as to what you want them to put in the subject line. (That way you can also set up folders in your email system to separate incoming emails.)
• Consider insisting that students have an email account with their name as the username so that you can easily identify the emails. It is not easy to remember all the emails if they have addresses like prettygirl4@yahoo.com. Insist they signtheir emails. Instructors should learn how to encourage and motivate students. An email with a “good job” can go a long way for boosting self esteem.
• Instructors should keep emails or copy and paste contents of emails into a document. It is helpful to be able to go back and view a communication with a student.
• If there is a misunderstanding, have the student come see you on campus if possible. Calling the student on the telephone can also help quickly resolve a problem.
• If you are irritated with a student, allow a cooling off period before sending the student an email to reprimand.
• Answering individual questions is what makes a quality online class. Otherwise it could just be automated with no instructor. Tips for Student to Student Communication
• Students should be able to communicate with each other similar to a class discussion. This communication will normally be asynchronous so that students have the flexibility to read and post at their convenience. Students report that an audience of peers in the discussion is what keeps them motivated to complete the assignments. Conversational interactions also help students learn and process what they are learning.
• The discussion groups should not be too large. If the class is large, then divide into subgroups. It is time consuming for students to read through the postings of a large class.
• The first discussion should be an introduction discussion where students introduce themselves to each other. They may tell others why they are taking the class, about their career goals, about their hobbies, family, or anything else they are comfortable sharing.
• The instructor should model good behavior and dialog in the discussions.
• Weekly discussions are encouraged with a specific question or topic each week so that students do not feel isolated. Open-ended questions are best where there is no one right answer. Students can post their opinion and also view the opinions of others. Electronic discussions can be more meaningful than classroom discussions, because students have time to reflect on their answer and can synthesize what the other students have said.
• The shy students feel more comfortable participating. No one has an advantage, and social status, disabilities, race, age, or other physical characteristics do not matter.
• Because the discussions are “permanent” students can go back and re-visit the discussions to reflect on what they have learned. Instructors should base part of the class assignments and grades around discussions. An online instructor is not the “sage on the stage”, but rather the “guide on the side”. The instructor should facilitate threaded discussions. The instructor shouldencourage students to ask questions and participate and give positive responses to postings.
• As a facilitator the instructor should not jump in too frequently with an answer or the students will not feel comfortable sharing their opinion.
• The instructor should monitor to make sure that all students are participating. The discussions should be graded to make sure students participate.
• The instructor should encourage critical and reflective thinking.
• As a moderator the instructor keeps the students focused on the discussion, and also makes sure that one student does not dominate the discussion. If necessary, email individually to encourage a particular student or to let a student know if they are dominating the discussion.
• Instructors should monitor the discussion board daily to make sure that there are no inappropriate postings and that good netiquette is being followed and that students are respectful of others.
• Instructors should not reply to each student for every posting. Reply to a few good answers to encourage. Keep track of which students you replied to so that for the next discussion you can reply to different students. Make sure each student has a personal reply occasionally. The instructor should summarize and synthesize all of the comments at the end of each discussion. Highlight excellent answers or common misconceptions.
• Have a discussion board just for students to informally communicate with each other. The instructor can stay out of that discussion board, unless a student emails that there is a problem.
• Consider having optional chat sessions where students can discussion problems or questions in real time. Capture those sessions and post so that all students can read the sessions even if they were not available to participate. Post a rubric on how their interaction and participation will be assessed. Let them know that they should expect to spend at least the same amount time communicating in online discussions as they would in a traditional class.
source: Tips from Handbook for Online Faculty - by J. Frese, Fresno City College
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