Establishing Rapport with Online Students is Essential

Even though my schedule is crazed, I'm really excited about teaching this semester. I just started three new sections (two 8-week English composition courses online and one 8-week academic writing class online).

Establishing rapport with my students is my number one priority this week. It's difficult enough to take a writing class, but to do so online presents even more challenges. Many students do not feel confident about their writing, so to send it to some virtual grade book can be intimidating.

It is important to establish an online dialog with students the very first week. I do this in many ways using several venues. First of all, I start the class with a welcome email. If I can, I send it a week in advance to get students thinking about the course. Then when the course begins, I resend it to establish an official connection. I also recorded an introductory podcast, so students hear my voice and get to see me as a person. I build on this with a fun insightful instructor page, where I introduce myself and my "teaching assistants."

It is essential that during the first week of an online class, the instructor email the students 3-4 times to encourage their participation. By the first day of class, they've already heard from me twice: once inviting them for a sneak peak at the course and again the first day of the course.

The day of the first deadline (or night before), I send a reminder email to motivate students to get on Blackboard and complete their assignments. I also make grading a priority and virtually stalk the grade book so that I can review the first assignment and give feedback. While it's not essential to give feedback on all the exercises, it's important to establish a connection within those first assignments.

In my Comp 1 classes, for example, students are asked to discuss several areas of their writing. When I review their responses, I look for something to grasp onto, whether it's a way to compliment them or a way to alleviate their fears or stress. The next thing I do is review their class homepage, which is one of their first assignments for the term. Again, I search for a connection and make comments as I find them. The goal is for every student to receive feedback from me during that first week.

Another thing I do is start a discussion board right away. This semester, I am taking a graduate-level class about preparing students to write in the workplace. One of my assignments was to write an advance organizer, which consists of ten T/F questions related to the course content, ten Interesting/Boring questions as a means to touch base with each students personal interest levels, and ten Agree/Disagree questions to tap into their expectations for the course. I posted an "extra credit" (yes, I lured them with the academic equivalent to candy) discussion board to talk about the survey. Then I cyber-stalked the discussion boards looking for reasons to respond and encourage participants.

I am now at the end of my first week of eight and my final email of the week is to those who have not yet logged in to Blackboard, gently reminding them of the importance of timely participation.

I think I've don just about all I've can to engage students this week and am looking forward to seeing how my efforts pay off throughout the semester.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Week 2 for English 1102 on Blackboard

Two weeks down, six weeks to go. This week marks the first week that students start researching for an actual writing project. They'll be choosing a statistic, and using that statistic to generate research.

Monday
Every week should begin with an announcement that gives students a peak at what will be expected of them not only this week, but next week. Students need the big picture to help them manage their time.

Because some students are still waiting for books to arrive and there are others who are registering late, I am allowing students another week to complete the week 1 assignments. I'm explained that this will not be the norm so that they understand that deadlines do matter.

My announcement includes a checklist of all the assignments they will work on this week. I've also created two, three-minute podcasts to further explain upcoming work. The first podcast explains Project 1, which will be worked on over a three-week period), and the second podcast presents a more in-depth look at the work they'll specifically complete this week.

Because this is a research-based course and students need to generate sources before they complete assignments, I constantly remind them to work ahead.

Later in the Week
I emailed students encouraging them to create some Google Alerts for their Project 1 assignment. I also sent emails to the two students who registered late. This is a slow week for me as I've put everything in place and am standing by for students to turn in their assignments. Since work is coming in at a slower rate than I'd like, I sent an email mid-week reminding students of deadlines and when discussion boards will close for good.

Jumping on Student Questions
One of my students emailed me because he was confused about an assignment. There was a document added to the Blackboard site, but the link was hard to see because it appeared at the top whereas the View/Complete assignment link was at the bottom. Thankfully, I was online and able to get back to him within 30 minutes (rare for a Friday evening.)

I checked out the grade book to see if anyone else had turned in this assignment yet. (It was due that evening.) No one had, so I posted an announcement pointing students to the assignment location and sent a follow-up email with the attached document.

No matter how much we prepare for these online classes, there are always bumps in the road that we need to act on quickly so we don't lose or discourage our students.

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