Know Your Technology
In an online course, there are many options available for presenting content and fostering student interactions, which is the main advantage of teaching in this format.
Instructor and social presence in a course can be established and fostered through a combination of text communication and interactive tools available. Here are some recommendations to get you started.
Establish Presence
Some ways for instructors to establish online presence are:
- Record a welcome video or narrated presentation introducing yourself to the class. Make it available in the Start Here area of your course. VoiceThread and Echo360 are good tools to use for this purpose.
- In a similar manner, record a Course Tour to help students navigate the course.
- Create a personal introduction, with a short description of your academic and work experience. Include a photo and perhaps a curiosity about yourself or a hobby.
- Participate fully in a welcome/ice-breaker discussion forum.
Maintain Presence
- Respond to students in discussion posts in a timely manner
- Send announcements consistently.
- Provide timely and thoughtful feedback to student submissions.
- Schedule progress meetings to check in with your students via a live meeting tool.
- Be present in discussion forums, sharing and encouraging personal experiences and stories and focusing discussion.
- Add your “voice” when communicating in text. When writing instructional guidance for students, use the opportunity to express yourself in your own authentic way, using a conversational tone: this is your chance to talk directly to your students.
- Create narrated slide presentations with weekly overviews and mini-lectures
- Create screencasts with practical demonstrations or detailed feedback using Echo 360 U-Cap.
Social Presence Ideas
In Blackboard you will find interactive tools and options to build a sense of community in your online course. Some suggestions:
- Ask students to add a photo to their Blackboard profile and VoiceThread identity as well as customize other account profiles used in your course
- Create a Student Introductions discussion forum with an “ice breaker” question where students can introduce themselves and share fun facts about their lives
- Set up a welcome activity using VoiceThread to allow your students to respond with voice and video.
- Organize team-based, collaborative or problem-solving activities through Discussions or Groups.
- Design peer-review assignments to engage students in providing constructive feedback.
- Start off your week with a comprehensive announcement, sent to students' emails, that encourages them to participate in the week ahead and informs/reminds of important milestones.
- When recording video messages or presentation content, be authentic, do not over-rehearse. Mistakes and imperfections will help make you approachable and relatable.
- In written communication, address your students in the 2nd person (“you” instead of “students”) for more personable and inviting communication.
- Be clear about your expectations for participation and interaction in the course, include reminders on netiquette as well as spelling, punctuation and grammar. More ideas from OSCQR Standard 39.
Glossary
Teaching Presence
Widely researched in the Community of Inquiry (CoI) theoretical framework where it emerges as “the binding element in creating a community of inquiry for educational purposes” (Garrison & Archer, 2000).
Social Presence
Creating a climate that supports and encourages probing questions, skepticism, expressing and contributing to ideas (Garrison & Akyol, 2013).
All Glossary Terms