Lesson 5: Communicating with students

To have an instructor presence in an online course means to be engaged and present throughout the entire course.

• Communicate your boundaries for email response time, online office hours, your role in the course, and what students should expect for your involvement.
• Be clear about your expectations for student engagement – e.g., what do they need to do to be successful in the course, how much time to set aside each week. To be a successful online learner means to have strong time management skills, be a self-directed learner and be able to engage in critical discussions.
• Model course engagement and presence such as being active in the discussion board. Remember you don’t need to respond to all discussion posts, but rather keep current and post strategically
• Provide regular feedback and direction to students. Feedback can be provided to individual students at key times, but also to all students through the discussion board or as a news item on the homepage. Also consider how you can leverage peer feedback.
• Communicate regularly with your students using weekly e-mails or news as to what’s coming up, what they should be doing and key dates.
• Ask your students for regular feedback on your course. Use the D2L survey tool or have an open discussion topic for students to voice their thoughts. Provide guidance on how to provide constructive feedback.
• Draw on informal supports and mentors to learn about new technologies and access institutional supports (e.g., TI) for learning and becoming comfortable with online technologies.

• Write your communication expectations to include in the course outline

• Get to know your options by investigating the communication tools in D2L and Zoom