Effective Communication Practices
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LEARN: What and Why
Open and regular communication lets students know that their instructor is a ‘real person’ who is there to help them learn. Communicating with your students helps develop your teaching presence (Garrison et al., 2000) and build student-instructor relationships—leading to more student engagement in the course (Dixson, 2010; Joyner et al., 2014).
Additional key aspects of communication involve clearly organizing your course content and providing clear directions and assignment expectations from the start—organization and clarity in these areas will reduce the number of additional emails and meetings you will need to have and lead to a more positive student experience (OAPA, 2020).
Choose the Right tool for the task
There are several reasons you will need to communicate with students in an online course. The purpose and the expectation you have for audience (student) interaction, will help you determine the tool and platform you use.
Type of Communication | Purpose of Communication | Tool Options | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
Unidirectional Communication | conveying information to students but do not need to hear back from them | Announcement forums, class-wide emails, and video messages | course intro/orientation video; announcements about speakers, changes of dates, etc.; general feedback on assignments, progress; introduce/wrap- up unit topics |
Collective communications | you are open to, or may even require, student participation | Class-wide and group forums, chat tools, and class-wide emails | Discussion posts on course topics; students sharing of information they find around a topic; students ask questions relevant to whole class |
Individual communication | Need to communicate to student 1:1 (it also may require discretion) | responses to student journals, emails, messaging system, videoconferencing, office hours consults | sharing grade information, or responding to personal situations and their impact on a students’ performance or work |
ENGAGE: How to do it
Recommendations for Effective Communication
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Establish Communication Expectations
Let students know your preferred communication method (within the LMS messaging system or email) and giving an expected response time (e.g. within 1 business day)
Hold office hours, drop-in sessions, or cafes – by appointment, drop-in, group or individual
Where possible, develop guidelines along with students to find something that works for the class community
Clearly organize course content
- The topical outline for the course is organized in Blackboard/Moodle chronologically by class sessions, weeks, or modules/units.
- Course includes identifiable and familiar sections such as: home/welcome, course schedule, learning units/modules, syllabus, assignments, activities (discussions, journals, etc.)
Provide clear instructions in every learning activity
- Straightforward directions will reduce confusion and technical questions from students
Use an authentic voice and personalized language
Talking and typing in your authentic voice humanizes you and lets your students know that YOU are the one behind these messages
Referring to students by name and referencing their work/comments makes students feel connected
Positive words and tone can develop a trusting student/teacher relationship o avoid using slang or any comments that might be misconstrued
Participate in learning activities
Students enjoy and expect to hear your voice in the discussion forums, Voicethreads, etc.
You can respond to students’ comments, offer your own opinion, redirect the conversation with new questions, correct any misinformation
Read the recommendations for Facilitating Class Discussions
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APPLY to your course
Review and Revise your Syllabus/LMS home page
Do I have clearly articulated guidelines for how to reach me?
Do I state when students can expect to get a response?
Complete a communication plan
A communication plan helps you determine how you'll be interacting with your students and build relationships with them.
It's a tool for organizing your communications and getting them all in one place to help you stay on top of all your communications.
It should lay out everything for you to see, and what you need to do
This is for you, the instructor, not your students
- Use the Communication Plan Template to create your plan
Introduce the course and yourself
Sending a welcome message helps establish your persona and begin to connect with students, fostering a comfortable class atmosphere (Chen et al., 2015; Stylinski, 2020)
Students want to know:
What you are like
What happens in this course (routines)
What makes this course great
What are assessments and feedback like
What is expected of them
- Read more about Introducing Your Course
Plan to introduce/wrap up unit topics
Plan to send a message (video, audio, or email) at the start of each unit/week describing what’s ahead and/or to wrap up a previous unit
This consistent communication method helps establish your instructor presence and serves several purposes. In these messages, you can:
- restate the content you’ve covered and how it links to the course learning objectives
- show students that you are participating and paying attention to what they do – even highlighting student contributions
- address points of confusion and clarify anything necessary
- introduce new topics and link concepts over time
You can create a structure for the content that you can reuse each week
See examples of introducing and wrapping up unit topics in the Communication Plan Template
References & Resources
Chen, B., Raible Raible, J., Bauer Bauer, S., & Thompson Thompson, K. (2015b). Send a welcome message. In B. Chen & K. Thompson (Eds.), Teaching online pedagogical repository. Orlando, FL: University of Central Florida Center for Distributed Learning.
Dixson, M. D. (2010). Creating effective student engagement in online courses: What do students find engaging? Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1-13.
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T, & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2, 87–10587–105.
Joyner, S. A., Fuller, M. B., Holzweiss, P. C., Henderson, S., & Young, R. (2014). The importance of student-instructor connections in graduate level online courses. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching,10 (3), 436-445.
OAPA (Office of Academic Planning & Assessment). (2020) Student Suggestions for Remote Teaching and Learning. University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Stylinski, T. (2020). Planning Your Course Trailer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning.