How Often Should You Communicate with Your Students Online?

Tweet

Pixabay.com

I teach several undergraduate online courses per year and have often wondered how and when faculty members communicate with their students each week. Some schools actually have guidelines (really requirements) for how often faculty should contact their students to find out how they are doing, but my school leaves it up to the individual faculty member.

I personally like to communicate with my students a few times each week. In looking at my faculty evaluations each semester, students always give me high marks for communication. When I ask them specifics, they have said -


"I like the class news that Prof. Heath sends us at the top of the week."
"I like that she puts upcoming deadlines two to three weeks before in her emails to us."
"Her weekly emails are informative and help keep us on track."
"I love that she took the time to call me about my assignment and ask if I had any questions!"

Okay, I admit it - phone calls are hard to do especially with larger classes. But sending weekly email newsletters are not, if you plan them out ahead of time. I have done them and actually use a template for my classes. Below is a typical week of my course emails.

* Day before the "week" starts - I send an email entitled "{course name} - Week {#} class update from Prof. Heath". It includes a "theme" for the week, start/end due dates, what students will learn this week, activities, assignments, reminders, my thoughts on the material, upcoming activities, how to send emails to me. The tone of this email is informative. Students have told me that they really like having the week "set up" for them. They use this email to calendar the dates and assignments due for the week.

* Middle of the week - For this communication, I send an email with a similar title of "{course name} - class update from Prof. Heath". It is a short note of encouragement to "hang in there", check grades - adhere to feedback and follow the rules for posting / replying in discussions. Also, I give students any heads up information on school happenings (i.e. server down, etc) that will affect them. This email is supportive. Students have really appreciated these emails and thank me for "reminding" them about assignments and offering support to their endeavors.

* Corrective emails - If an event has occurred in class (i.e. plagiarism, inappropriate online behavior or crappy assignments that have been submitted), I will send the class an email note entitled, "{course name} - important note from Prof. Heath (PLEASE READ)". My purpose in this email is to be professorial and corrective. Feedback from this type of communication is generally positive. Students have been respectful of these emails and have even apologized!

* End of the week (1-2 days before the end) - This email is similar to the "beginning of the week" email in that it follows the same format. It reminds students to complete any assignments/submissions by the deadline for the week. It also gives information for the next week. This email is again informative. Students have told me that they like that this email reminds about what is coming up.

I must say that although I focus on emails here, I have used other technologies such as webpage announcements in the LMS and audio messaging. I have found that my students are most comfortable with email and find it easier to keep up with. I find that emails take less time to create and are easier for me to track students' response with.