Niagara College Canada

How can I build relationships with and between my students online?

Build your instructor presence

Like a traditional class, when you’re teaching online it is important that you create a safe and comfortable environment for your students.  More importantly, your presence should help to decrease any uncertainty they may feel in terms of course expectations, understanding where they are in their learning, and communications.  Some ways to engage students with your presence is through contributing timely feedback, providing clear mechanisms for answering questions, setting up an organized clear structure in your Blackboard, and encouraging and acknowledging students’ contributions.

Develop rapport with your students

You can build a relationship of trust and empathy online through small actions.  For example, writing a welcome email, sharing a personal story, answering emails quickly, returning assignments when you say you will, engaging in discussions, and sending impromptu personal messages, i.e. “Have a great vacation!”

Create opportunities for student to student interactions

Building community comes somewhat naturally in a classroom because of the proximity of students.  Online, it’s important to open up opportunities for students to engage and to enhance rapport building. For example, you may ask students to share a personal experience related to an assignment or to answer questions on a discussion board where they can learn about each other and the content. Other tips: Create low stakes opportunities to engage in group work, make it easy for them to come together by designing simple logistics procedures, and offer them chances to collaborate, i.e. Wikis.

Effectively communicate with your students

Take a look at this short document outlining seven ways to effectively communicate online with your students.

How do I build online presence?

Designing online courses around the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework can lead to increased interaction with and between students, and help to create a meaningful and engaging learning environment. The Community of Inquiry framework demonstrates how the educational experience of students happens at the intersection of instructor, social and cognitive presence. (Source: https://coi.athabascau.ca/coi-model/) Take a look at this PDF document from the University of Toronto to see a visual representation of the CoI. Below is more detail on each of the three components.

Teaching presence

The goal of this presence is to help students create meaning in their learning and to engage them as active learners. It comprises three areas – the design and organization of an online course (i.e. ensuring Blackboard organization is clear, such as folder naming convention and set up), the ways that discourse is facilitated (i.e. how you encourage participation or lead discussions) and direct instruction (i.e. presenting content from various sources, providing timely feedback, and summarizing discussions). (Source: Tolu, 2012: 1052; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042813001584)

Social presence

Creating this presence ensures that students are able and comfortable to be themselves. It can be created in a number of ways. One, by encouraging open communication.  For example, synchronous communications can help to quickly develop, build and model social presence. Another way to create social presence is to encourage group collaboration where students work together successfully to achieve course outcomes.  Some instructors are linking “net presence” into courses, which are informal social networking tools that allow students to share more about themselves. Finally, providing students and the instructor with avenues to share emotions such as through storytelling, emoticons, pictures or video can also increase social presence.

Cognitive presence

This presence is defined by the students’ “ability to reflect, reconstruct and confirm meaning through participating in reflective discourse practices” (Tolu, 2012: 1052; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042813001584)  Promoting cognitive presence is about moving your students and yourself through the following four phases, which is called the Practical Inquiry Model (Garrison et al, 2001; https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Practical-Inquiry-Model-Garrison-Anderson-Archer-2001_fig2_285177901).

• One, a triggering event where learners recognize a problem exists.
• Two, exploration, where they look for information, discuss and share to create solutions.
• Three, integration, which involves them taking all the information they have accumulated to derive a solution.
• Four, resolution, where they apply their new knowledge in other situations or problems, and test it.

How can you create each of these phases for your learners? For example, perhaps you open up your synchronous class with a quote and ask them whether they agree or disagree. This will trigger them to reflect, discuss and share. Core to cognitive presence is an active teaching presence and social presence so that there is greater capacity to obtain, share and filter information in a collaborative, open and trusting environment. Check out this resource, which provides specific ways to create cognitive presence.

How do I use Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in online course design?

The UDL framework outlines guidelines for how instructors can create inclusive and accessible learning environments for students.  It consists of three principles: Multiple Means of Engagement, Multiple Means of Representation, and Multiple Means of Action and Expression. Visit the CAST web site for more detailed information.  There are a number of ways that UDL can impact course design.  Below are some examples of what you may consider.

Multiple Means of Engagement

This principle focuses on the “Why” of learning – the ways you will promote engagement and motivation for your students. How can students be motivated to meet the learning objectives through varying learning activities and choices in assignments and evaluation? As you develop your learning activities consider a variety that will engage different students and allow for active participation, challenge and exploration.  For evaluation you may break large assignments into smaller pieces and provide formative feedback to enable students to minimize or make corrections. To provide support to your students you can offer various ways for them to interact with you. For example, you might offer a discussion thread or opportunity to meet with you through online office hours. The idea is to offer multiple opportunities for engagement to enhance learning and to think about ideas as they relate to your backward design process (a way to design your course by setting objectives before choosing instructional strategies and assessment methods).

Multiple Means of Representation

This principle focuses on the “What” of learning – how students will access and process course content. Consider how you will present the content in various ways throughout your course. One of the best places to start when determining multimodal content is to focus on asynchronous opportunities so that you have time to review the content at your own pace and identify potential barriers to learning. Some examples are to: present information in different ways – through text, video, graphics or audio; ensure presentations are consistent in structure and accessible; and have a clear, organized teaching and learning plan outlining key expectations.

Multiple Means of Expression

This principle focuses on the “How” of learning – the different ways that you will engage students to demonstrate what they have learned.  For example, you can develop five assignments for the term and request students to select and complete three of them. Instead of just a written assignment you may ask students to choose from a number of presentation options. For exams you could offer different alternatives that are weighted the same and ask students to complete three of five options. The idea is to provide students with the opportunity to choose how they show that they have met a learning objective in a way that reduces barriers to their learning.

How can I set my students up for success online?

Provide your students with tips and strategies for taking online courses

Online courses present their own unique challenges for students, especially if they have never engaged in the online course environment in the past.  To assist them and help to set them up for success, you can provide them with some tips to guide them and demonstrate your willingness to help. Check out this post – Tips for Taking Online Classes – for some ideas on what you can outline for your students.

Include additional guidance to your teaching and learning plan (TLP) or Blackboard site

As part of your TLP, or perhaps on your Blackboard Welcome page, you can outline specific expectations related to your course. This will set the tone of your teaching and set clear expectations from the beginning of the course. For example, you may include how you will interact with and engage with your students (i.e. “I will post a video every Monday to discuss the week ahead”). You might also explain how the course is structured online and places you will answer questions, provide feedback or post assignments. If you would like to see additional areas you can consider, have a look at this course expectation template.

Build accountability

In online courses, the onus is most often on the student to take control of their learning and success. However, there are ways to build their accountability so that it helps to reinforce positive behaviours and empowers them.  In addition to developing an online presence (teaching, social and cognitive) there are other actions you might think about taking. This website – Creating a Culture of Virtual Accountability in the Classroom – (while focused on online work training) offers a number of areas to consider that are equally important to online learning in both a workplace and a course.