Watch the zoom recording of this Teaching Remotely Presentation

I have taught in an online setting and really have enjoyed it. Building personal relationships is key for student success. These are some of the strategies I have used in the past to assist with building strong relationships with students.

1) Before the course begins, every student receives a, "Welcome Email". The email is for the instructor to 1) Say Hello 2) Remind the student of the Course Start Date 3) Ask the student if they know where to log in for the first day of class.

2) Live Class Meeting, within the first three days of class. During this class meeting, say "Hi" to everyone who comes into session. Review syllabus, expectations, screen share, and explain how the course will run, share your contact info, and when live sessions will be happening. Lots of students seem to show up for this session. Online learning at times seems to be like a diet, everyone is super motivated at the start, then sometimes people start to "give up" or slack as time goes on. (just like in real life, LOL!) I try my best to keep the momentum going.

3) At the start of the course, I created an introduce yourself PPT, as an instructor, I made a video about me to share with the students. I asked students to create their own introduction. They could either just write some information about themselves, record a podcast/audio recording, post a picture, or create a video. I like them having choice. It was fun to learn all about them and see what they would create. Some of the questions, I would ask in the forum would be, what year they were in school, what they like to do when not in school, what are some of their favorite things, etc. It was a great way to learn a little bit more about your students.

4) I schedule check in throughout the semester to all students, I would then document this, I would ask them about progress, what they thought of the course, how could I improve it, what they thought was easy, and what was challenging. It important to ask how the technology was working for them. (Were videos playing for them, did they have the closed captioning or screen reader if they needed it, any questions on a particular assignment)

5) Make contact through, mass text messaging, email, and auto-calls. Be sure to be upbeat, warm, and encouraging. Tone means everything.

6) Weekly "short" videos at the top of the course stating assignments and expectations for the week. They did have the pacing guide, but I like using video since it seems more personal. I would also text the video out as well, hopefully, encouraging students to watch.

7) Playing games during live sessions creates a sense of community and fun. We played in our live sessions using Kahoot, GimKit and Flippity tools. I would make a fuss for the winner telling them they had "bragging" rights and email them a certificate. The students and I got quite a laugh and it made, student-student, teacher- student, relationships stronger.

9) It is a lot of work to build these relationships, but in the end, I did have students texting graduation pictures to me. This made my heart quite full.