The dawn of new semester brings a sense of excitement, but this can quickly turn to anxiety for you and your students if you do not get your online class started off on the right foot. We would like to offer you some tips in making sure that you and your students are not overwhelmed by the obstacles of online education.
First off, you need to establish communication guidelines. Not only will this help you to manage phone calls and emails from your students, but it will help to establish a bond of trust between both parties. It is important to let them know when you will be available to answer questions and when they can expect to receive grades for the homework that they turn in. This helps to ease tension in the event of stressful situations. For example, if a student has a problem at 10pm on Thursday night and you only respond on Tuesday and Thursdays they may spend their entire weekend stressing over the situation and/or emailing you 50 times in the next three days when this entire situation could have been avoided if they had known that you would be sending out responses on Tuesday mornings.
Then, once you establish these communication guidelines do your very best to stick to them. This just strengthens their trust in you as their instructor. Look at it from the perspective of the student, you give them deadlines for their assignments and expect them to respond in the designated time. If they do not, you grade them accordingly. They do the same to you but instead of it being a letter grade it becomes your reputation. Of course we are all human, so if something comes up and you cannot meet your pre-established guidelines just let them know by sending out a class- wide email or by posting an announcement in your Blackboard course. The more you communicate with them, the more successful you will be in the online education arena.
Another way of forming rapport between you and your students is through personalized Blackboard homepages. Not only can you set one of these up but so can your students. We recommend that if you request this from them, that you do the same by setting up a page about you. You can create your profile by clicking on Control Panel and then on Staff Information. Similarly students can do this by clicking on tools and then on Homepage. Not only does this help to strengthen the connection between parties but it may also deter deceptive identities.
Let us know if we can help you in any way and enjoy your semester!
