It's important to collaborate with the students through acknowledging their presence, emotional state, and anxieties. Sometimes students need to find the answer themselves, but through collaboration we can help guide them to a better state of mind and into a place of learning.
Comment on Mae Dorado's post: I agree that building is important. I do not want to be seen as just doing my job, I would like to be seen as trustworthy and supporting.
Comment on Clifford Vaught's post: and they are easy to adapt.
Comment on Jennifer Williams's post: Looking back, I don't self disclose too much, but it will now be a option that I will entertain.
It takes more than a mere email to connect with a student. Care has to be given with a email to ensure that one is acknowledging the student by name and acknowledge their emotions. Read carefully and read between the lines. I have to acknowledge their concern. Going forward, I will surely use emojis within my emails. I liked the response sequence as well.
I know that my communication with my students will be enhanced from reading this module.
Consistent and valuable feedback interaction is paramount for online learning. Also, integrating the ARCS writing technique when communicating with students is valuable: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction.
Giving prompt positive feedback and relationship building and communication go a long way both online and in person.
Effectively communicating to our students with positive enhancements to engage the modern learner.
Using emotional awareness to reply to students.
There is so much information regarding the communication style of the online educator and the retention and satisfaction of the student. An educator needs to be mindful and deliberate with communication they have with students. This seems like a practice that takes time but is very important in the success of a class.
Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of online communications, and the need of learning new writing skills to improve online communications.
I learned the importance of word choice and reinforcing positive feedback.
Basic use of relational writing to create a rapport environment and improve retention rate. The sequence of the response to regulate student’s emotions to a logical decision-making.
There are systematic ways in which a sense of community can be established and maintained in the online teaching environment.
Comment on kenneth gay's post: Agreed
Communication is the most important thing within classes and students.
Communication is essentially online human touch (BETTS). Students knowing that their instructor is approachable and professional is the key to good therapeutic communication. Having an arsenal of template emails for different purposes is good too.
Sometimes students have approached me with requests I found ridiculous. One student argued that, since they already had an A for the course, they should be exempt for the final exam. I think in these cases there is no need to be tentative. Students need to observe appropriate boundaries.
I always believe in doing discovery and not approaching students roughly or with accusations and this module helped validate that. It gave specific techniques and examples to utilize and I think we can make small tweaks to our communication as an organization to perhaps have increased retention.
Excellent example below! I loved learning about descriptive immediacy!
Jane:
"This class is horrible! No matter what I do, points are always taken away. I really don’t want to FAIL!! How do I drop this class before I fail?”
You:
Hi Jane (acknowledge presence). Thanks for reaching out to me for help (interactive statement). It sounds like (tentative stem) this class has been frustrating (acknowledge implicit emotion), and I get the sense (tentative stem) that you’re feeling somewhat anxious about continuing (acknowledge implicit emotion). Is that right (check-out)? Jane, (acknowledge presence) considering your outlook, I can see how you think it may be a challenge to pass the class (acknowledge thought, positive language). Let’s schedule an appointment to discuss this over the phone so that I understand your situation more fully (acknowledge concern). Together, we will find the best solution [smiling optimistically] (descriptive immediacy).”
