Building a Supportive Online Classroom: Strategies for Student Success
Ashley Mowreader’s article “Survey: Students Value Instructional Clarity, Active Learning” suggests that students value active learning and instructional clarity. They rate professors higher when they receive student support and perceive their instructors as professional and caring. Knowing this, we can improve student success by applying some different techniques.
Techniques for Virtual Classrooms
To translate this to an online course, I recommend that course designers, instructors, and Subject Matter Experts (SME) include a “Get to Know Me” discussion in the first week of class, asking students to explain their reasons for choosing the course and share a unique personal characteristic about themselves. Responding to every student in the forum and offering positive welcoming messages is essential for building community from the start of your course. Evidence demonstrates that student success improves when they have a sense of community early in their classes.
Strategies for Student Success
Another valuable practice is providing examples of successful assignments before students submit their work. This helps them understand the rubrics and expectations, encouraging stronger submissions and student success. After all, “defines the topic and research focus” can mean different things to different instructors and in different courses. Helping them see what my expectations are for this specific assignment can encourage stronger submissions.
Providing clear and thorough feedback upon assessing student submissions requires a slightly different approach, by connecting feedback to specifics in the assignment rubric, providing examples for improvement, and offering in-line comments and revisions for written assignments. Recently, I began adding audio and video feedback to students’ assignments. Students have already commented about the value of both in providing a better sense of my tone when providing corrections or commendations. In both cases, they can now understand the concern in my voice and the areas that I care most about based on voice inflections.
Professional and Caring
Students also need to know that their instructors care about their success and support options. I’ve previously written about Mentoring Online Students, but we also have to guide them within our individual courses. One way to do this is by allowing students to redo failed assignments but only allowing these resubmissions to earn the lowest possible passing grade. This allows students to understand where they missed the mark, improve their grade, and learn the material.
I also encourage professors to talk to their students, even in online courses. Discuss their feelings, needs, and circumstances to better get to know them as people, and not just students.
Building Relationships and Community
I ask students to sign up for a video conference with me within the first month of the course (earlier if it is a shortened class). When we meet, I ask them how they feel about the course so far, how I can help them succeed in the course, if there are any aspects of the syllabus or assignments thus far that need clarification, and whether they have any special circumstances that may impact their ability to succeed in the course. If they respond with a special need or circumstance, we discuss ways that I can help them overcome the issue or point them to an institutional service for their concerns.
In these meetings, I have learned so much about my students. In an online environment, it is often difficult to build relationships with my students, but this is an effort that I make because I see my role as both an educator and a mentor. Studies show that online students are often reticent to seek out assistance within the institutional structure. As their primary point of contact for the college or university, part of our roles, as instructors, is to encourage them to use those resources and, in some cases, connect them with a person directly.
Continuing to improve my teaching requires commitment to my students’ success and my own personal growth. Using these strategies and continuing to learn new ones keeps my job interesting and, I hope, continues to positively impact the students I encounter.
References
Mowreader, A. (2024, February 23). Student survey gauges importance of a college degree. Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs. https://insidehighered.com/news/student-success/academic-life/2024/02/23/student-survey-gauges-importance-college-degree
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