Build - Supporting Student Interactions

Consider the questions asked in this video: How do I connect with my instructors? Links to an external site.

Students often have limited experience with interacting online in a professional or educational setting. They may have extensive experience in Facebook, or texting, or online gaming. Some, of course, have never interacted with others online at all. And while more and more students have some online learning experience, they are not familiar with your expectations for class conduct.

There are several areas where it’s helpful to clarify your expectations. Many of these fit together well in a “Course Communication” section of your syllabus. They can also be discussed in the Communications Expectations part of the Start Here module.

Clearly State Your Response Times

For every story of an online instructor who only checked classroom discussions and email once a week, there’s a story of students who emailed at 1:30am, 1:43am, and 1:51am, becoming increasingly agitated at the lack of response.

On your syllabus, clearly state how quickly you will respond to emails and discussion forums. Responding within one or two days is important in an online course. Email and discussions are the key forums where this communication occurs. Some sample statements:

  • I will respond to emails within one business day. I will read discussions at least once a day, sometimes more frequently.
  • I will respond to emails and discussion forums within 24 hours, however it may be up to 24 hours before you get a response to a message. (Keep in mind that 24 hours means checking on weekends as well).

On your syllabus, clearly state how quickly you will provide feedback on assignments. If you can’t make that deadline, provide a status update to students. Particularly in online courses, assignments and activities are the conversation of the course, so a faster turnaround is better.

Some sample statements:

  • Weekly quizzes are automatically graded, and feedback is available as soon as you complete them. Assignments are due on Friday and will be returned by the following Wednesday.
  • Discussion posts will be graded within two days of the deadline. Feedback will be provided on all assignments within one week.

Clearly State How You Will Communicate

Canvas has a number of different ways to reach students, including Conversations (the email tool), discussion forums, announcements, and events and activities on the calendar and syllabus. As you saw when setting up your profile, students can control how they are notified when you use one of these tools. Requiring students to set certain notifications for your course is not appropriate, as the notification settings apply to all courses.

You can help students manage communication from the class by explaining how you will communicate with them. For instance:

  • Communication about class matters will occur via announcements in the course. Due dates for all assignments are listed in the Course Calendar. Please be sure you check the course or set your communication preferences to be notified at least twice a week.

Require Good Netiquette and Respectful Language

“Netiquette,” or Network Etiquette, is a set of rules that help guide communication on the internet. Typically, it includes ideas such as:

  • Use good subject lines in messages
  • Don’t use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS since it is perceived as shouting
  • Be professional and polite in messages
  • Appropriately use private email vs. public discussion forums

A quick search on the internet will deliver lots of sample netiquette policies Links to an external site., including these:

In the class, you can link to one, or better yet, collaborate with your students to compile a short list of the rules particularly germane to your class. They can be included as part of a Communications Expectations document in the Start Here Module. 

One challenge in classes is setting expectations for academic discourse. In the page What do great discussions look like? there are more details on how to set expectations via rubrics. Adding something to your netiquette statement will help students start thinking about how to write for the discussions.

Balancing Expectations and Flexibility

Having said all this, one of the key goals of online and hybrid classes is flexibility, so students with schedule constraints can still move forward with their studies. In a similar vein, students should be able to manage their own technology environments. To balance your expectations with their reality, consider the following principles in your expectations:

  • Focus on the communication product, not the technology used. For instance, don’t require students to participate in discussions only via logging into Canvas on a PC; require students to participate using clearly written messages with good subject lines.
  • Don’t address this as hard-and-fast rules for all students; focus on helping students with limited experience develop skills to function in a professional environment online. For instance, don’t require that students turn on text alerts about the class; require students to check in on the class every (day, week, etc) for updates. Help them identify multiple ways to do that.