Answer: Why is ongoing communication in the online classroom important? How does the newsletter differ from mandatory communications?
Ongoing online communication is important to making the student feel connected to the teacher, their classmates, and the content they are studying. Taking courses online removes the daily face-to-face communication that students would normally get in a brick-and-mortar classroom. In my traditional classroom, there are bulletin boards with announcements and exemplary student work with feedback; there are morning announcements made on the PA system or school TV network; and I meet frequently and informally with students to ensure they're doing ok, both in terms of class and in general. These are things that an online student would not necessarily experience unless the teacher intentionally recreates them in the online environment. The "disconnect" often causes frustration that leads to burnout. This is something I've dealt with personally as I've completed two online degrees.
Students (and more proactively, teachers) have to cross this digital divide. Teachers must recreate these opportunities for interaction, engagement, and enrichment. And teachers must foster productive communication! The two modes of online communication that I highlighted from the lesson are email summaries and the newsletter. I believe both of these are great ways of closing the digital gap and keeping students informed and engaged. I really liked the way one of the resources in the lesson put it...
"Texts, phone calls, emails—anything personal that shows a professor on the other end of the blank forum makes the student feel less like a screen name and more like a participant."
Email summaries are easy to generate with an LMS. Many LMS solutions offer the ability to generate progress reports, etc both from a teacher perspective, and that of a student or parent. In Google Classroom, students and parents can also opt-in to receive a weekly or monthly summary of students' progress. This automatically generated email includes a snapshot of the announcements and assignments that were shared during that period of time. It also gives a report of which assignments are completed, missing, graded, etc. There is no reason NOT to include such communication in an online classroom if the tools are there!
As great as these summaries are, I know that most people prefer a more personal touch. So I still send individual emails as well. (Example below). Additionally, I have used newsletters on occasion as well. I haven't used them a lot, primarily because of time constraints. So I was delighted to find ThingLink in this lesson. It's easy to use, very engaging, and FREE. Below is a sample newsletter I created with ThingLink.
I believe the newsletter is different from email summaries, progress reports, and similar forms of mandatory communication because its emphasis is less on grades or data and more on student engagement. I choose to highlight upcoming events (tests, projects, breaks!!), as well as recent highlights (individual or team achievements, etc). It's also a great means of tying together content. For example, in the newsletter below I highlight the starfish because it helps students link previous discussions on reproduction with recent discussions on evolution, while giving them a preview of content we'll be covering soon (food webs, ecology, etc).
Reflect: Think about the examples provided throughout this lesson. Identify two highly effective methods of communicating with stakeholders. Utilizing the resources outlined, create an artifact for each of the two identified highly effective methods of communicating with stakeholders.
(Although this was labeled as a "newsletter," it may be better described as "announcements.")
Ongoing online communication is important to making the student feel connected to the teacher, their classmates, and the content they are studying. Taking courses online removes the daily face-to-face communication that students would normally get in a brick-and-mortar classroom. In my traditional classroom, there are bulletin boards with announcements and exemplary student work with feedback; there are morning announcements made on the PA system or school TV network; and I meet frequently and informally with students to ensure they're doing ok, both in terms of class and in general. These are things that an online student would not necessarily experience unless the teacher intentionally recreates them in the online environment. The "disconnect" often causes frustration that leads to burnout. This is something I've dealt with personally as I've completed two online degrees.
Students (and more proactively, teachers) have to cross this digital divide. Teachers must recreate these opportunities for interaction, engagement, and enrichment. And teachers must foster productive communication! The two modes of online communication that I highlighted from the lesson are email summaries and the newsletter. I believe both of these are great ways of closing the digital gap and keeping students informed and engaged. I really liked the way one of the resources in the lesson put it...
"Texts, phone calls, emails—anything personal that shows a professor on the other end of the blank forum makes the student feel less like a screen name and more like a participant."
Email summaries are easy to generate with an LMS. Many LMS solutions offer the ability to generate progress reports, etc both from a teacher perspective, and that of a student or parent. In Google Classroom, students and parents can also opt-in to receive a weekly or monthly summary of students' progress. This automatically generated email includes a snapshot of the announcements and assignments that were shared during that period of time. It also gives a report of which assignments are completed, missing, graded, etc. There is no reason NOT to include such communication in an online classroom if the tools are there!
As great as these summaries are, I know that most people prefer a more personal touch. So I still send individual emails as well. (Example below). Additionally, I have used newsletters on occasion as well. I haven't used them a lot, primarily because of time constraints. So I was delighted to find ThingLink in this lesson. It's easy to use, very engaging, and FREE. Below is a sample newsletter I created with ThingLink.
I believe the newsletter is different from email summaries, progress reports, and similar forms of mandatory communication because its emphasis is less on grades or data and more on student engagement. I choose to highlight upcoming events (tests, projects, breaks!!), as well as recent highlights (individual or team achievements, etc). It's also a great means of tying together content. For example, in the newsletter below I highlight the starfish because it helps students link previous discussions on reproduction with recent discussions on evolution, while giving them a preview of content we'll be covering soon (food webs, ecology, etc).
Reflect: Think about the examples provided throughout this lesson. Identify two highly effective methods of communicating with stakeholders. Utilizing the resources outlined, create an artifact for each of the two identified highly effective methods of communicating with stakeholders.
(Although this was labeled as a "newsletter," it may be better described as "announcements.")
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