Strategies for Course Communications with Teaching Tools

Creating dialogue between your students can be a challenging yet fundamental part of teaching. Effective communication can help to build and foster a safe learning environment where students can thrive, prosper and learn. In addition to the rhetorical moves you may use to structure your speaking style and structure your communication, you can also develop a plan for various ways you use technology to deliver your message. Develop a strategy for when and how your students will communicate back to you as well as use instructional technologies in your class. Having regular two-way communication that invites all students to participate is essential for building trust (How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive, 2019). Decide when regular, expected communications need to happen, and how you can best fit these duties into your own schedule. The table below (modified from U of Wisconsin and Instructure), provides various examples of communication strategies and when to apply them in your course.

Table of communication strategies to use with students

When	Communication Strategy	Example	Technologies Used*
Prior to the course start	Introduce yourself to students	Add your photo and a short bio to the course welcome page, and link students here from a welcome email.	Canvas Pages Class Email Microsoft Teams
During the first week	Help students meet each other and "break the ice"	Ask students to update their Canvas profile, and use Name Coach to help learn how to pronounce their names	Canvas Profile Name Coach
	Learn more about who students are and their needs for learning	Assign an anonymous survey in Canvas, Google Forms or Qualtrics that asks students to share questions or concerns they have about the course. View their images through the Class Roster	Canvas Quizzes Canvas Discussions Class Roster Google Forms  Qualtrics
Ongoing weekly	Reach out to "inactive" students in Canvas	Use "Message students who..." to contact any students who haven't completed the Discussion or Survey in the first week.	Canvas Grades
	Provide a place to ask general questions	Create a Discussion board in Canvas that's available throughout the course and intended for general questions. Create a Teams or Slack group for your class	Canvas Discussions Microsoft Teams
	Give students low stake assessments to help master material	Conduct formative assessment for instant feedback during a presentation in Top Hat. Create low stakes automated quizzes in Canvas that students can complete and receive feedback on course material	Canvas Quizzes Google Forms Top Hat
	Kick off each unit or week	Post an Announcement to start each week that connects the prior week's activities to the upcoming activities. Please note you can preset announcements for each week with reminders of upcoming test or due dates for assignments, or tips on how to prepare for class.	Canvas Announcements Multicourse Messages and Announcement
	Provide regular opportunities to discuss course content	Ask students questions to formatively assess how well they learned material through Top Hat. Use Discussions to ask deep dive questions around course content.	Canvas Discussions Microsoft Teams Top Hat
	Provide regular opportunities to ask individual questions	Hold office hours, either drop-in or by appointment, Face-to-Face, in Teams or by Zoom	Canvas Chat Microsoft Teams Zoom
	Provide timely feedback to students	Students are introduced to the Rubric as part of the activity directions. Instructor uses the Rubric as part of their feedback, and encourage or require students to revise their submitted work based on the feedback. Instructors use Speedgrader to provide students with audio or video feedback​, and/or students use peer reviews to provide audio or video feedback to their peers.	Canvas Rubrics Speedgrader

Pre-Course Survey

One way to improve engagement with your students is to learn more about them. A precourse survey is one way to help develop a connection with your students, and get to know them beyond what is shared in an introduction discussion.

What do you want to know about them?

Diligent student in college with classmates, taking notes of teacher lecture.

A survey can help you conduct a needs assessment about where your students are at in terms of prior knowledge, demographics, mindset, learning preferences, goals, content confidence level, preferred feedback style, and/or access to technology.  Because this takes place “behind the scenes” and is only shared with the instructor, rather than in a public discussion forum, you may be more likely to receive candid responses.

What strategies and skills will students need and/or develop in your course?

These kinds of questions can help students flex metacognitive skills and become more aware of their learning habits. As an instructor, this can help you provide more specific feedback on student work, suggesting similar strategies and stretch goals.

• Reflection on Strategies: Metacognitive reflection questions ask how students get things done. Do you take marginal notes or highlight as you read? What conditions do you need to do your best work?

• Planning Ahead: Beyond what has worked for students in the past, you might ask about strategies they will use specifically in this class. What times each week do you have earmarked to work on this course?

• Setting Goals:You might ask them to review the learning objectives, asking what they will commit to accomplishing. And beyond the learning objectives for the course, are there other skills or competencies they plan to work on in the course? Do they have any suggestions for the instructor about strategies for helping meet those goals?

During the first week of your course

Providing students with an opportunity to quiz themselves not on the course topic but on the course itself–how to get started in the course, how to navigate the course, what the course should help students accomplish, and how the course is structured–can help instructors send fewer emails saying, “It’s in the syllabus!”

Given multiple choice or true/false question types, these kinds of pre-course surveys can be automatically scored. Don’t forget to compose feedback for incorrect responses and allow multiple attempts!

What tools are available?

IU supports the Qualtrics survey tool and Canvas includes a dashboard feature that allows instructors to create a type of quiz called ‘ungraded’ that can be used as a survey. In Canvas, once the survey, or ‘ungraded quiz,’ is published online, students can login to their Canvas course page and participate. IU also has access to Google Forms and Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Forms are Available in the Channel and Chat features) for quick survey and quiz creation.

If you’d like support implementing a pre-course survey or questionnaire in your online class, or in any other aspects of teaching and learning, please contact me at your earliest convenience with your availability.