{"id":387,"date":"2018-08-15T14:26:42","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T19:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/?p=387"},"modified":"2018-08-15T14:26:42","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T19:26:42","slug":"helping-students-one-email-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/helping-students-one-email-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping Students – One Email at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can one email really make a difference for a student?\u00a0 I’m pondering that question after reading this article<\/a> in The Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I will be teaching an online class this Fall – for the first time in several years – and I am spending a lot of time thinking about how I should craft my course.\u00a0 Crafting a course means thinking through not only the assignments and assessments, the due dates and course rhythms, the policies and support links – it also means thinking through the communication plan.<\/p>\n

I took the eight-hour Quality Matters training earlier this summer and found it to be very helpful.\u00a0 While I have taught in an online setting for . . . probably 20 years, there are still things I can learn about effective, engaging, and active online teaching and learning.\u00a0 I also took training in July on using VoiceThread – another interesting and creative tool for the online teaching toolbox.\u00a0 Can I take advantage of these professional development opportunities to craft an effective approach to communication?\u00a0 Absolutely.<\/p>\n

It’s easy to be an effective communicator in the classroom – that’s why we love the classroom.\u00a0 It’s more challenging to be an effective communicator in an online setting.\u00a0 How do you communicate (effectively) about course navigation?\u00a0 Learning objectives?\u00a0 Course activities?\u00a0 How you will measure students’ learning?\u00a0 How students should use the available instructional materials?\u00a0 How students would benefit by actively practicing learning in a particular course?\u00a0 How students should participate in the course and engage in learning the materials?\u00a0 How they can find help with their learning (e.g., learning labs, accessibility services, technical support)? There are multiple answers because I just listed multiple questions.\u00a0 Course navigation can be communicated initially with a “Start Here” button.\u00a0 Active learning can be instilled with a discussion board or a blog or a wiki or VoiceThread.\u00a0 In some instances, the communication possibilities are numerous.<\/p>\n

But most importantly, how do you communicate your interest in each student and in their learning?\u00a0 How do you communicate when a student seems to struggle with a course assignment?\u00a0 What do you say when a student fails to submit work?<\/p>\n

The latest idea is “nudging”.\u00a0 Can you help a student by a nudge?\u00a0 A nudge is a gentle push, a reminder, a slight prod to action.\u00a0 Will nudging make a difference?\u00a0 Don’t we offer nudges in the classroom?\u00a0 Don’t we say “this is only the first exam, and you can each learn from this experience so that you can adjust your approach to studying”?\u00a0 Don’t we say “please come see me during office hours and we can talk about how you did on this assignment”?\u00a0 Don’t we nudge by our very presence in the classroom?\"\"<\/p>\n

So my question for myself is “how can I nudge” in a way that helps my students in an online setting?<\/p>\n

I’m going be intentional in my communications plan for the semester.\u00a0 And my plan will include some personalized emails.\u00a0 Calling students by their names, helping them to connect with their classmates as well as with their professor, sending out reminders of due dates, gently nudging students to assess their approach to learning in the class – all of these things are something I can and will do this Fall.\u00a0 And I’ll let you know how it goes.<\/p>\n

This image is a work of a\u00a0U.S. military<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Department of Defense<\/a>\u00a0employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a\u00a0work<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0U.S. federal government<\/a>, the image is in the\u00a0public domain<\/a><\/b>\u00a0in the United States.<\/i><\/em><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Can one email really make a difference for a student?\u00a0 I’m pondering that question after reading this article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. I will be teaching an online class this Fall – for the first time in several years – and I am spending a lot of time thinking about how I should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}