This is the second in a series of feature articles about online teaching. Keep checking Instructify every week for a new feature. Click here to read part one, click here Taking the plunge into online teaching — your students.
Every educator knows that a significant component of good teaching is good communication, and most of us are quite skilled in communicating with students who are in the same room with us. But some of the communication cues that we use in brick-and-mortar classrooms don’t always translate to the online environment.
Online vs. face-to-face
In a face-to-face classroom, we can see who is in the room and can use students’ facial expressions and body language as informal feedback, helping us gauge students’ interest, engagement, and understanding. A simple glance around the classroom can tell us whether or not students “get it” and help us realize when we may need to slow down, speed up, add another example, ask a question, or explain something again. Students working on group projects see each other in class and can easily talk to one another about their ideas or quickly compare schedules to set meeting times for a long-term project. Students and teachers have time before, during, and after class to check in with each other, ask questions, and request or offer advice and feedback. Our physical proximity, ability to interact instantaneously, and visual and auditory cues all help us communicate with one another and understand how our students are responding to our teaching.
Online courses present a different set of challenges. In an asynchronous online course, participants often log in at different times, making it rare for everyone to participate in the course simultaneously. If a student doesn’t post comments or ideas in class discussion forums, she can be “invisible” to their instructor and their peers. That silence could signify any number of problems — perhaps the student simply isn’t logging in. Maybe she doesn’t understand the material, or doesn’t know what to add to the discussion. Unless your online course uses video chat options, you won’t have visual cues (facial expressions, body language, etc.) teachers and students take for granted in classroom interaction. In an asynchronous environment, the lag time between posting a question and receiving a reply may make it more difficult to quickly resolve a question or to schedule times for group work sessions, chats, or other real-time features of the course. As instructors, we need to make an extra effort to overcome these potential difficulties and help our students become effect online communicators.
Find your students’ comfort zone
In my experience, students differ in their comfort level with online communication. Some students are hesitant to join an online conversation if they don’t yet feel a sense of connection to their peers. Others may be uncomfortable with the technologies involved or may not log in regularly enough to take a meaningful role in an ongoing discussion. On the other hand, some students may be shy in a face-to-face setting or prefer written to oral communication, making them more comfortable in an online discussion than they would be in a face-to-face classroom. Others may appreciate the ability to think through their answers to questions and write them out in a deliberative way rather than being put on the spot in a real-time discussion. Whatever your students’ preferences, you’ll find that establishing a rapport and encouraging interaction early and often will probably help everyone participate more fully and begin to create a vibrant online learning community.
I like to use introductions and ice breakers early in the course and to encourage a lot of first-week interaction to try to get to know my students and help them get to know each other. I usually post a photo of myself along with a warm introduction that shares my professional qualifications and some of my personal interests in an effort to make myself real to my students, and I invite my students to do the same. I start to make connections between students by noticing common threads in their introductions and suggesting ways that the students might benefit from each other’s experiences and expertise.
Lines of communication
As the course gets underway, I use all of the communication tools at my disposal — email, discussion boards, chats, etc. — to stay in touch with students and foster communication (both student-teacher communication and student-to-student communication). If someone hasn’t posted to the discussion board in a couple of days, I send them a personal message making sure that they aren’t having technical difficulties and inviting them to jump into the conversation. Don’t forget that the telephone is also a tool that online teachers can use to get in touch with students when higher-tech strategies have failed or when speedy communication or a stronger personal connection might be more beneficial.
Of course, one of the best ways to ensure good communication is to model it for our students. Logging in daily (even several times a day), promptly replying to emails and discussion posts, reaching out to students who are not yet participating fully, posing open-ended, thought-provoking questions, and responding generously to student questions and comments all set the tone for an inviting, engaging learning community. Once you’ve found your own communication style in the online environment, I think you’ll find that online communities can be places where students and teachers communicate very effectively, developing a strong rapport and engaging in exciting discussions that will get everybody thinking and learning.
In my next Instructifeature on online teaching, I’ll explore some of the ways that you can share information with your students in an online course. -KATHRYN WALBERT
Dr. Kathryn Walbert has developed and taught several online courses in the fields of online teaching and U.S. history. She serves as a consultant on U.S. history, oral history, and academic skills to LEARN NC and other organizations throughout North Carolina.
Photo credit: larskflem on Flickr.
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