Student Communication and Tools | Teaching and Learning Commons

Student in the current crisis have two separate but related communication needs. The first is an immediate need for guidance and reassurance from you, their instructor. The second is the regular and substantive interaction that is part of any quality learning experience.

Immediate Communication

Reach out now to your students now to offer reassurance. While it may not be appropriate for all courses or teaching styles, consider asking about their preferences and concerns about going online. Knowing half of your students will have unreliable connectivity may guide you towards different tools and techniques.

For More Information Assistant Provost Keith Bailey provided [docx] a message template you can use to reach out to students.

For More Information Here is information about the Academic Policy Changes that are in place.

For More Information Here is information about the services available to online students.

Sustained Communication

Regular and substantive interaction with your students is required as part of moving your courses online, even temporarily.

Students will be eager to know how they can contact you. Give that information to students early to assuage any concerns. Explain to the them how you plan to regularly communicate to them, and let students know how long you will take to respond to messages. Disclose any days or times you will be slow to respond or won't be responding at all; to set reasonable expectations.

The four cloud content and interaction tools, Collaborate, Zoom, VoiceThread, and Mediasite, can provide communication and engagement with your students, but not all students will have an easy time accessing those services. With that in mind, you can also provide communication and engagement with tools native to eCampus.

You can use Course Announcements and Discussion Boards inside eCampus to communicate with your students. Scroll down to the Course Tools section to see instructions for adding an Announcement and Creating Discussions on the eCampus 101 page.

Or visit the ITS page on Teaching Remotely During the COVID-19 Outbreak.

In addition to the options above, don't forget that email and phone can also be used to connect with students.

Students are especially concerned about exams!. If you are planning to give an exam, you can ease some student stress if you communicate exactly how that will work to students.

For More Information Reference our page about Assessing Student Learning.

Student Tools

The feedback you provide as an instructor on assignments and assessments is also student communication, giving students guidance as to where they still need to work to achieve mastery of the course learning objectives.

To do this most effectively, you need to know as an instructor what tools you can recommend to students. We are working to gather some of that information. If you have a unique need please submit it to our request assistance form.

For More Information Check out our helpsheet for [pdf] mobile scanning.

Google has lots of trainings and help documentation for Google Meet, a meeting tool from Google that can be accessed with a student's MIX account.