OVERVIEW

We often don't expect students to physically show-up to our offices in online courses, so what do office hours look-like in an online course? Should you have a policy on responding to your students? How often should you and your students interact? This module will cover methods for integrating interaction and engagement between students, you, and your course content. It will also address tools that you can utilize for online interaction.

HUMANIZING ONLINE COURSES

The process of humanizing an online course starts with interaction, which, when used regularly and substantively, can build community. An online course with community assists in sharing goals and experiences builds familiarity, closeness, and feelings of care (Boettcher & Conrad, 2018). When students get to know you and each other, meaning discovering where people are from, their experiences, cultures, and interests, they begin to form connections. When connections arise, community can begin to form (Brown, 2001). When a community is formed, it can be used as a hub for collaborative learning and engagement between students and yourself. Instructors are required to utilize regular interaction and are encouraged to design community-building strategies throughout their online courses.

STUDENT-TO-STUDENT

To prevent online students from experiencing potential boredom and isolation in the learning environment, it is essential to build activities that enhance engagement. We highly recommend the use of web-based applications, such as Twitter feeds, Google applications, or audio and video recordings. Here are more activities and tools for student-to-student interaction:

Text Messaging

• At the start of your course, structure student-to-student relationship building using ice-breaker activities.
• Use Laulima discussion for formal student discussions; encourage Slack or Twitter for more collaborative and informal student text-messaging discussions or online study groups

Video/Voice Messaging

• Encourage students to build study groups using Google Hangouts; or ask students to create video/audio responses to discussion posts using Screencastify or VoiceThread

Collaborative Group Projects

• Consider requiring Google Docs for text-based group projects or Google Slides for group presentations

STUDENT-TO-INSTRUCTOR

The use of multiple student-to-instructor communication channels may be highly related to student engagement. It is recommended that online instructors pay special attention to student-to-instructor interactions because this may affect learning outcomes. Rapport and collaboration between students and instructors in an interactive and cohesive environment, including group work and instructive feedback, are important for student engagement resulting in learning success. Instructors should consider using discussion boards, chat sessions, blogs, wikis, group tasks, Twitter, Zoom, YouTube, and screencasting. These technologies are also used for effective social-networking activities in online active learning for increasing student engagement. Here are additional activities and tools for student-to-instructor interaction:

Text Messaging

• Actively participate and review Laulima discussion forums; check-in with students using Slack; communicate to your class using Laulima announcements

Video/Voice Messaging

• Offer live, synchronous office hours using Zoom; send short, weekly video recordings using Screencastify and YouTube to give students updates on what's in class each week

Student Feedback

• Provide screencasting feedback using Screencastify or Screencast-O-Matic; provide online rubrics for evaluation and assessment using Google Doc's add-on Orange Slice

STUDENT-TO-CONTENT

Learner-to-content engagement is the process of intellectually interacting with the content, which can change a learner’s understanding and perspectives. Student-to-content interaction can occur while watching instructional videos, interacting with multimedia, and searching for information. Both synchronous and asynchronous delivery are seen as effective options that help online students in accessing content for critical interaction. Online students should not merely be given a list of resources to review, but instead instructors should design authentic activities that provide opportunities to examine the tasks from different perspectives and that encourage students to wisely use relevant information in the process. Here are more activities and tools for student-to-content interaction:

Recorded Lectures

• Create mini-recorded instructional videos using Screencastify and YouTube; produce podcasts using the audio-only option with VoiceThread

Live Lectures

• Offer live, synchronous lectures using Zoom

Activities/Assessment

• Build engaging activities and assessment options using SoftChalk, HP5, or Google Docs

Engaging Presentations

• Design visually engaging presentations using Slides Carnival or Google Slides that can include voice-over recordings using Screencast-O-Matic