Communicating with students

A column on The Chronicle of Higher Education’s website recently reported that students’ #1 technology request is to have online chat capabilities with their instructor (here’s a report on the CDW-G study examining the role of technology in higher education). I’ve been kicking this around in my mind since first reading that CHE column. What does that result really mean?  Since the study considered on-campus tech resources, I’m assuming that these are students in traditional classrooms that have in-person access to the professors, yet they still want more. Is it truly synchronous chatting that they are longing for? Or do they simply want additional ways to communicate with their instructor? And, do they want to know that their instructor will actually hear them and communicate back within a certain timeframe?

Communication between instructor and students is extremely important in traditional classrooms, and is even more important in online classes where instructors need to work to create and maintain instructor presence. For example, a recent study by Dennen et al. (2007) asked students to rank the importance of different instructor practices in online courses. Six of the eight most highly ranked behaviors involved communication, including: checking email, posting in discussions, providing timely feedback, responding to student inquiries, communicating rules and expectations, and modeling communication protocols (the other two factors related to information needs, and included providing examples and providing appropriate course materials and activities).

So for instructors who would like to build better communication with their students, these are good places to get started. You can examine these six areas to see if you’re doing all that you can to communicate with students… are you regularly checking and responding to email, or other student inquiries? Do you regularly post in discussions so students know you are there reading the responses they work to create? Do you provide timely feedback on course assignments? Have you communicated your rules and expectations for the course so students know how to be successful? And finally, do you model professional communication throughout the course? If this seems too much to tackle at once, pick a few things to focus on and get started. Remember that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” (Lao-tzu). Both you and your students will be glad that you took that step.

– Gail E. Krovitz, Ph.D. –
Senior Academic Trainer & Consultant

Dennen, V.P., A. A. Darabi, and L.J. Smith. (2007). Instructor-learner interaction in online courses: the relative perceived importance of particular instructor actions on performance and satisfaction. Distance Education, 28(1), 65-79.