Written by Cheryl Kautz, Adjunct Faculty in Computer Applications | Instructor-student communication is just as important in online classrooms as it is traditional face-to-face classrooms. Online course effectiveness is determined in part by the quality and frequency of communication. The following are five ways to use technology to help ensure successful communication in the online classroom:
- Provide timely communication for your asynchronous discussion boards; subscribe to them.
- Invite your students to meet you and their classmates synchronously online with Blackboard Collaborate Web conferencing tool.
- Offer synchronous, real-time communication, with Blackboard Instant Messaging.
- Suggest students set up mobile phone preferences in Blackboard so that they can receive course notifications via text or voice message for class cancellations, announcements, posted grades, etc.
- Allow students to provide anonymous course feedback at the end of the semester.
For detail and tipsheets on each of these tools, see the full blog post.
Although the above are excellent tools for communication in online classrooms, they are also effective communication tools for traditional face-to-face classes, allowing you to stay connected with your students between class meetings!
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