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As a teacher of younger students who are just learning to read, write, and use technology, I feel it is vital to remember accommodations and modifications for all learners. In creation of online discussions, activities, articles, etc., I always include visuals, checklists, and audio recordings that read the information to the students. This helps those students who are struggling with understanding the online content to have a better grasp on what is expected and what they are learning.

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Encourage an environment where it is accepted that we are all learning together. We will all try new things, including the instructor. Make information easily accessible so students can use it in other classes. We are all here to help build our toolboxes.

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I have found it to be vitally important to communicate assignment expectations with visual examples and models.  I try to provide a rubric, overly cleared directions, hyperlinks to help videos or doc, as well as an example of a completed assignment or something similar.

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Making Personal Connections With Students

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Making Personal Connections With Students

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I haven't done this much with online but the students I see everyday, I make sure I can connect with them. I feel it is important that students can feel comfortable to talk to a teacher when they need it. I sometimes feel that if you can get to know their interests or see something is wrong with a student that you can ask them if they want to talk. Online discussions with students can be the same just have to find the similarities.

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There is always a need that needs to be completed, however there are ways around getting that done. As an online teacher, you need assignments and discussions turned in. Can students choose which discussion they participate in? Can they choose how they complete their assignment? As long as they get the assignment done, and it is completed to your standards, they should have choice. The power of choice makes everyone happier.

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Contact with Parents (high school and younger)

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Contact with Parents (high school and younger)

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I feel as though, in the high school setting at least, parents are often left in the dark as to how their student is doing in school. I think any online online teacher that hopes to connect and engage the student must also connect with and engage the guardian. It is important that students are feeling a connection with the class and support at home. When their guardian becomes invested in their
education, hopefully the student will feel more supported. It might take a team to keep the student engaged and invested in their education.

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Personalized feedback is so important. As a student I am much more likely participate in online discussions and projects if I know I will receive personalized feedback. Personalize feedback allows for more personal growth and buy in.

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Online courses can be so dull and lifeless unless imbued with creativity! Instructional designers and online educators can do much to assure that learners experience and interact with diverse, multi-media, multi-modal content and expressions of learning.

Image: Julie Jordan Scott, CC BY 2.0, Flickr

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I have taken courses in which the professor takes time to reach out and introduce him/herself at the beginning of the course. And like Lin M posted, I think that initial contact is really important. However, I feel like it's incredibly meaningful for the student to know that the professor continues to CARE about his/her progress on a personal basis. Unlike a classroom setting where the teacher can easily check-in and ask about the student on a daily basis, once the online course gets started students typically only hear from professors on an individual basis when it comes to feedback on assignments. I think that making person contact via telephone, zoom, Remind, or even email would boost the student's interest and show that the teacher does really care about their learning.

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This combined with Brianna's post, I think, can make or break an online teacher. Receiving timely (and meaningful) feedback from online teachers really makes the difference. Since the online teacher is not able to physically see their students everyday; it can be difficult to quickly communicate/ask or answer questions from students. However, being able to quickly respond to emails, discussions, and provide a relatively quick grading/feedback, on projects or discussions is very important to make sure students are being successful. Without timely feedback, it can be difficult for students to learn from their mistakes to improve their learning and to make them feel successful in their course.

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One strategy my school has been working on has been consolidating information and communication where we can. Every year, we get complaints from parents and students that they receive too many emails from teachers. While learning to filter through this information is a life skill, we have tried to reduce the number of emails we send where we can. For example, every week our homeroom teachers send out an email to the students that has important weekly information from each of their teachers. They send a Google Doc to us on Thursday or Friday the week before, and we each edit in which information we'd like to include. This saves our families from getting separate emails from 6+ different teachers on Mondays. It also gets everyone settled into a routine. Students and parents know to expect this email, and how it will be structured. Do your best to be clear, concise, and consistent.

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Give students choices in what they learn and how they work on their own learning. Mix it up with opportunities for individual and group experiences.

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give students a choice, give students a chance v2

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Provide Personal and Meaningful Feedback. 

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Provide Personal and Meaningful Feedback. 

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Assignment feedback can be a great way to show your personality and your investment in your students’ progress.  Since online teachers do not get to be physically present like they are in a traditional classroom,  they need to work extra hard give feedback whenever possible.  One way to do this is to set clear expectations.  Let students know what kind of feedback you’ll be providing and when they will hear back from you and then deliver.  Online instructors can give written feedback through emails and apps like Remind.  Another way they can give feedback is by recording it on a screencast. Software like Screencast-O-Matic or Camtasia can be used to do this. In conclusion, instructor feedback is important.

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Online teachers need to understand how to ask the essential questions and be able to cultivate meaningful online discussions. Instead of focusing on the obvious, they need to be able to dig deep and get their students to push past the shallow, obligatory discussion posts. They should also know when to insert themselves into discussions in order to deepen their students' understanding.

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As an online student, I love being able to hop into a Zoom conference and hear what other students have to say around a topic, what questions pop up, and see how the professor acts and what they say. This helps me feel more welcome and safe when I am able to have this face to face interaction with a professor!

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What is SYNCHRONOUS LEARNING? What does SYNCHRONOUS LEARNING mean? SYNCHRONOUS LEARNING meaning

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A personalized projects with one-on-one synchronous sessions set up by appointment to guide students through is not only building relationships with students with project started to solve real-world problems but also foster good communication between instructors and students. Listen to my audio for my own story.

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Make your students believe they are Special to you

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Make your students believe they are Special to you

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When I first started my online course as a student, my instructor conducted a cellphone interview with me asking questions about my professional career, personal goals in this program and my background, hobbies. The personalized, warm comments made me feel instantly connected with my teacher and special. Conducting a phone interview is important and maintaining this connection with email check-ins.

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Students may initially feel uncomfortable communicating online, or they may be unsure of the tone that is expected. Be outgoing and positive, and encourage an informal, conversational style. Address students by their names or by nicknames they provide, and engage them in small talk to help them relate to you as a person.
https://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/lt/resources/handouts/Online_Communication.pdf

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Curiosity in Communications Matter! For examples or more thinking, see my thinglink below, clicking on the three tags. Curiosity is like an itch that must be scratched. Does the video embedded in the ThingLink below make you curious? (I beg your forgiveness in advance...)

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Curiosity in Communications by len.scrogan

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TOUCH this image to discover its story. Image tagging powered by ThingLink

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An example of an effective online teacher's communication habit is frequent check ins.