Social distancing should NOT exist in the online classroom.
Overview
In a time when social distancing is highly encouraged due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools, colleges, and universities moved face-to-face classes online. This doesn’t mean social distancing should exist in the online classroom. In fact, communication is essential for the teaching and learning experience in every online environment.
Content
This post provides the following information:
Definition of Communication
Why Online Communication is Key
Establishing an Online Presence
Setting Expectations
Increasing Learner Engagement
Creating a Supportive Online Community
Applies To
This post is written with the following individuals in mind:
Face-to-face faculty and trainers now teaching online due to current events 2020
New online faculty and trainers
Instructional staff (e.g. instructional designers, course developers, consultants, etc.) providing support to faculty teaching online
Anyone looking for new or different tips in online teaching and training
Anyone looking for opinions or a different perspective of online teaching and training
Definition of Communication First, let’s define communication. Communication is the act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to impart or exchange information or express ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc.
In a face-to-face class, learners can view a faculty member's physical cues and mannerisms. For example, a best practice for delivering a presentation or lecture is to pause to provide learners time to process the information provided and indicate a transition between topics or points. Learners may also watch a faculty member's body language and facial expression to gauge what information may be crucial for noting and retaining.
In an online class, physical cues are not available, unless a faculty member recorded a lecture capture to include voice over. In the cases where lecture capture is not available to learners, other means of online communication is key to delivering class materials and feedback to learners.
Why Online Communication is Key It’s easy for learners (and faculty) to feel isolated, alone, and lost in an online classroom environment. Believe it or not, there are learners uncomfortable with technology, which is why they often choose to attend a face-to-face class.
Unfortunately, with recent events and changes to instructional delivery methods due to school closures and social distancing requirements, learners may feel intimidated by the sudden need to rely heavily on technology and asynchronous learning. After all, much of your class, if not all of it, is now asynchronous, which is not how the semester started for many.
My niece registered for a blended/hybrid college class, scheduled to start on March 15th. A blended/hybrid class is one offered both online and face-to-face. Probably because of current events on school closures and some educator layoffs, her class didn't have a faculty member assigned to teach it in time for the start date.
According to my niece, last semester she registered for a class that also didn't have a faculty member assigned to teach it in time for the start date, but she received an email from the college letting her know of that well in advance.
In this recent case, however, my niece didn't hear from anyone until last week. For 2 weeks, she never heard from anyone, couldn't reach anyone with an answer, and thought the class was cancelled.
It's essential for you to reach out to your learners to ensure them that while the delivery method and class format changed, they are not alone in completing the class. You should reassure your learners by:
establishing an online presence,
setting expectations,
increasing learner engagement, and
creating a supportive online community.
These reassuring measures apply to any online classroom environment, whether you're a faculty member teaching online for the first time, an experienced online faculty member, or any other educator or trainer wanting to make a positive online learning experience through effective communication.
Establishing an Online Presence If you are a face-to-face faculty member who met with learners in a physical location this semester prior to March or April 2020, you’ve already created a strong presence at the beginning of the semester. Learners were granted an opportunity to know you, your instructional style, your passion for the subject matter, your physical cues, and perhaps even your personal ‘triggers.’ Now that you’re not meeting with learners in a physical classroom, you need to re-establish your social presence in the online, virtual classroom. Let your learners know they’re not alone in the online classroom, and that you’re actively still there to guide them through their lessons. Sending email announcements is the most common method of online communication. If you're fortunate to use a learning management system (LMS), check to see if there's a feature that allows you to post an announcement within your online class and send a copy to your learners via email. At least this way if a learner doesn't login to the LMS, they will see the announcement in their email. Alternatively, if a learner doesn't check their email, they will see the announcement within your online class.
In my niece's case, once a faculty member was assigned to teach the course late last week (2 weeks after the start date), that faculty member personally called each learner. Learners still interested in completing the class were told to wait for an email announcement that described the next steps for starting the class within the institution's LMS. Although late, the faculty member established a presence by calling learners first, followed by the first online form of communication via email, and continuing with communication efforts within the online classroom.
For some, an online classroom isn't just restricted to an LMS. Believe it or not, smaller institutions and businesses don't have the budget or equipment to manage a full-blown LMS to be utilized by faculty members, learners, and staff. For those with limited resources available, a website or blog, virtual cloud storage for file exchange, or an email client are possible alternatives. In this scenario, you may consider utilizing multiple online tools for the delivery of your class and communication efforts.
Check with your institution to see what resources are available to you and your learners. While some institutions may not utilize an LMS, many have access to other instructional tools you can utilize. For example, if you are using a Google account for educational purposes, you have access to Google Classroom. Some faculty members I've consulted in the past chose to keep things simple by using Dropbox for file exchanges and an email client for communication efforts.
Setting Expectations Ground rules for classroom behavior is traditionally established on day one in the physical classroom, or earlier if made available in a class syllabus. Rules of conduct help minimize the disruptive and challenging behavior. Doing so may further your credibility as a faculty member and possibly help increase learners’ classroom performances.
Make sure learners know how you expect them to “behave” online, what you expect them to achieve upon completion of different aspects of the class, and what they can expect from you in return. Consider these rules as the "Do's and Don'ts" you want learners to abide by.
In my syllabi for online professional development classes, I always included a communication plan. My communication plan informed learners of the following:
netiquette (online etiquette),
my preferred (acceptable) methods of communication,
virtual office hours,
when they can expect a response for inquiries,
how and when I'd provide feedback on activities and assessments,
their participation requirements,
how I'd handle late submissions, and
other ways I would be actively involved within the online classroom.
When you set ground rules in your online class, make sure you lead by example and abide by your own rules. For example, if you encourage learners to link to external resources (i.e. research databases, blog articles, YouTube videos, etc.) to support their discussion post or written assessment on a particular topic, you can set an example of this behavior by doing the same with discussion posts or lecture notes you share with the class. Make sure the rules you set for your class are within the policies and regulations established by your institution or school district.
You also need to set expectations about criteria for success. You likely already have criteria for acceptable performance on activities, assessments, and more. Make sure you've clearly identified those same criteria with your learners, specifically in writing accessible within the online classroom. Assessment rubrics, lesson objectives, and tasks lists are examples of criteria your learners can reference.
I included this information in my syllabus since I always considered it as the class contract for everyone to abide by. Even though I want everyone to refer to a syllabus regularly, I know that many learners don't. I also included this information as text-based content within its respective area of the online classroom. If you use an LMS, there may be features where you can input criteria into form fields, making it easily accessible as you're grading or reviewing tasks, activities, and assessments within the LMS.
My niece decided to continue with her class, even though it started 2 weeks late. There are designated areas for her and her classmates to submit assignments. Within those areas, the faculty member provided information about each assignment. The faculty member made it clear how to submit an assignment and how much each assignment counts towards the final grade. However, my niece complained that there are no clear guidelines or criteria on how the assignment will be assessed and graded. She's unsure what the faculty member deems as acceptable performance for a passing or exceptional submission.
Providing clear guidance and expectations on assessment performance will not only help learners organize their efforts appropriately, but it will help minimize the number of clarifying questions learners will ask you about activities and assessments you require of them. In turn, having criteria in writing will give you a reference to ensure fair grading across all activities and assessments for learners in your class.
Increasing Learner Engagement You need to keep learners engaged by providing them a reason to interact with resources and tools you made available or require learners to utilize. Several variables will determine the types and number of resources and tools made available. At the very least, submissions and feedback should take place within the online classroom. As mentioned earlier, an online classroom may be delivered through an LMS or a variety of online tools such as a website or blog, virtual cloud storage, or an email client.
You can upload instructional materials, such as lecture notes or PowerPoint presentation, to promote learner-to-content interactions within the online classroom. When you provide feedback or responses to submissions and general comments or inquiries, you're promoting and participating in learner-to-faculty interactions.
Furthermore, you can promote learner-to-learner interactions by encouraging online discussions, virtual presentations, and collaborative group work. Such interactions would help facilitate a more active learning online classroom environment, especially if your physical classroom activities are more social, following the "guide on the side" approach to teaching and learning.
Creating a Supportive Online Community Provide learners multiple opportunities for communicating with one another to build an online sense of community. Online discussions, collaborative group work, and virtual presentations are great ways to get learners to work together and communicate regularly. When you've set expectations with ground rules and clear criteria, learners will ideally support one another in their learning efforts through online communication.
Even if learners complete a majority or all your tasks, activities, and assessments individually, consider providing a space or a means for them to communicate or collaborate with one another within the online course or through another online tool or resource.
I've consulted faculty members who encouraged learners to setup virtual study groups to collectively prepare for a final examination. This is a great way to allow learners to discuss, debate, and reflect on the class content.
At the very least, consider providing a space in your online classroom for Q&A. Encourage learners to post class-related questions to this space and respond to questions they know the answers to. Also let learners know that they should contact you privately for personal or confidential inquiries. Something as simple as this could be enough to create a supportive online community.
Summary
It's essential for you to communicate with your learners often, and for them to communicate with you and others in return. By establishing an online presence, setting expectations, increasing learner engagement, and creating a supportive online community, you're reassuring your learners that they're not alone in their online learning efforts, and that they have the resources, tools, and support needed to succeed in the class.
Next Steps
Login or Sign up to share your ways you communicate with your learners and any tips you would like to share that I did not address in this post.
In the coming weeks, I'll continue my thoughts and tips for online communication that may interest you. Topics I'm currently drafting include netiquette in an online classroom, creating a communication plan, and providing helpful feedback. With my experience as an instructional designer, course developer, trainer and facilitator, there are many other topics I will address further in the future. Feel free to let me know if there's a topic you're specifically interested in.
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Thank you for reading.
Respectfully,
Jernaley
Disclaimer: All views and opinions belong solely to Jernaley based on her own experiences, tips, and opinions. They are not representative of any person, institution, or organization Jernaley may or may not be associated with professionally or personally, unless explicitly stated and quoted.
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