With the absence of in person interactions and the online format being new to many students, remote classes can easily lead to students feeling lost, alone and not knowing where to get information and help. It is therefore important to build an instructor presence outside of class meetings i.e. ways to have students feeling their instructor is available and cares to help and assist them.
Instructor presence can be established in many ways including and not limited to:
- A welcome message/video sent to students with information on the instructor, the course and the course site and material (virtual orientation)
- Clear availability and office hours posted on Blackboard; letting your students know you will reply to emails during office hours or reply within 48 hours can remove the anxiety students feel from not getting a response and lower the instructor’s time consuming burden.
- Offer group and individual office hour sessions and encourage student questions via multiple venues (Discussion Board, live chat, email, online meetings).
- Regular (at least once a week) announcements and reminders. Such messages or videos can include deadlines and instructions, general feedback on a test, portions of the syllabus (grading and academic integrity policy) to emphasize, links to real-life events and publications in relation with the course, a supportive note, advice for studying, etc…
- Instructor’s comments on the posts in the Discussion Board
Links
- More about Instructor Presence: Five Strategies for Enhancing Instructor Presence in Online Courses by Jingyuan Fu; Creating an Effective Online Instructor Presence by Community College Research Center Teachers College, Columbia University; Engaging Online Programs: 10 Ways to Enhance Instructor Presence in Online Programs by Wiley Publishers.
- Welcome Message good practices here
- Examples of Welcome Messages here
- More about Videos here
- More about Office Hours here