Connecting With Students
There is no denying that faculty-student interaction is essential for engaging a student in learning. Student engagement is an important predictor of success and (the good news is) it doesn’t need to be a time intensive proposition.
Findings from a recent study published in the Review of Higher Education and reported in last month’s edition of The Teaching Professor reveal that even the brief incidental or personal interactions that occurred between professor and student made students feel valued and important.
This theme continues in a recent brief published by NSSE (National Survey on Student Engagement) titled: Promoting Student Success: What Faculty Members Can Do.
In this piece, various suggestions and examples of best practice are provided for Faculty including:
• Making sure that students know what to do to succeed.
• Providing meaningful feedback.
• Making time for students.
In a distance education environment, this may seem a challenge – given that most of your interactions with students will be in writing – whether participating in an online discussion or providing commentary on a print based assignment.
However, the Office of Learning Technology can help by providing the following resources to encourage interaction:
• An online group chat (which you or a TA can facilitate) via LEAP (UBC’s academic support site for students).
• Integration of Live Classroom into your online course (allowing you to provide a tutorial or host a Q&A session using voice and chat).
• Connect with your students individually by telephone, Skype or other service using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), periodically through the term to check in on a more personal level.
• Publish a competency guide (OLT can provide a sample) for students in online courses – to help them know what they need in order to be successful online and provide them with the links to resources that will help them build those skills.
Let us know if you want to discuss any of these options for your course. Note that UBC has a site license for the Teaching Professor, Online Classroom and Distance Education report. If you don’t already have access, leave a comment here and we’ll be in touch with the login details.