E-mail:

1. Try to divert as much email as possible to common areas such as announcements, discussion forum, and FAQ pages in Blackboard or another discussion forum service such as Yahoo eGroups.
2. Don’t discuss content in individual messages. All students should have the benefit of your answer. If the question is a good one, share it and the answer with all students.
3. Make it clear that you will not respond to email if the subject line doesn’t indicate the reason for the email or the chief issue addressed in the email. For example, a student who provides the subject “assignment 3” has given you no clue that he needs help in completing assignment three before the deadline will probably not receive a response in time
4. Suggest student include their last name in the subject line of all messages as in” Smith-questions about #3.”
5. Don’t answer email questions that are answered in the course syllabus or assignments. Be sure you announce this up front if you decide to follow this guideline.
6. Create folders in your e-mail inbox for classes and/or small groups. Save the e-mail messages in the appropriate folder as soon as you read them. It’s easier to retrieve a message later if the messages are organized into folders.

 

Discussion forum/Virtual chat:

1. End each lecture or presentation with one or more short questions. Use these questions in a discussion forum.
2. Create a discussion forum or virtual chat with the purpose of students becoming acquainted with each other. Require everyone to contribute.
3. Don’t create too many discussions for students to participate in. Both you and your students will be come frustrated and overwhelmed trying to keep track of more than 3 discussions.
4. Pose a problem in a discussion forum. Allow students to discuss solutions or questions about the problem. Involve yourself in the discussion to ask open-ended questions or probing questions but keep a low profile. Remember the old “wait time”? Use the same restraint to give students a chance to respond to each other before you jump in.
5. Create online buddies or small groups at the first of the semester to help students get acquainted and to encourage students to rely on each other.
6. Suggest to the student that his or her question is an excellent one and that it deserves to be posted to the common discussion area.
7. Turn lectures into a discussion forum. You present a basic concept or idea and then ask students to comment. End that segment with a brief summary and move on. Then you present another segment, open it for discussion, summarize, and proceed through several segments that way.
8. Create discussion forums that serve as study groups.
9. Set a time limit for a specific discussion so that it doesn’t draw out over the semester.
10. Remind students how they feel in a face-to-face class when someone doesn’t respond to their questions or comments. The same feeling of isolation results when no one responds to a classmate’s comments. Encourage students to support each other by responding in meaningful and supportive ways.
11. Teach students how to collapse and expand discussions if you have very active discussions with many messages. Collapsing discussions makes the list of messages much shorter and is not nearly as intimidating.
12. Clarify your expectations for participation in a virtual chat. Students should know what kinds of information they are expected to share and comment on, how much and what kind of participation is acceptable, and what they should expect to know at the end of the chat.
13. Always schedule a practice chat to help students learn how to participate. Advise students to long on to the Virtual Classroom from their home or school computer to make sure that their connection and software will work with the Blackboard Virtual Classroom.
14. Invite students to join you in the lab during a virtual chat if they are uncertain about the whole process.

 

General:

1. Avoid sarcasm and dry humor, as it can be easily misunderstood in online communication.
2. Be sure that a significant part of the participation grade depends on group interaction rather than email to you.
3. Create a “get acquainted activity” such as a treasure hunt in which each student is given one treasure to share.
4. Make announcements weekly to keep students on task and to get them in the habit off checking for announcements.
5. Apply the same strategies that build good communication in face-to-face classes to your on-line communication.

 

Resources:

Collison, G., Elbaum, B., Haavind, S., & Tinker, R. (2000). Facilitating online learning: Effective strategies for moderators.

 

Palloff, R.M. & Pratt, K. (1999) Building learning communities in cyberspace.

 

White, K.W. & Weight, B.H. (2000). The online teaching guide.