Trinh definitely has a tricky problem that I would guess quite a few online educators have to deal with as well. I suppose that this is the burden that we all face with regards to the ubiquity and accessibility of numerous communication mediums. I think the best way to manage the overwhelming amount of channels in which to be contacted is to strictly adhere by guidelines set to the students that they can only communicate via specific means. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like there is a great product yet that can manage all the various incoming channels. Although I guess smartphones are doing a pretty good job on the accessibility aspect. Now for the amount of messages Trinh is sent, that seems like the much larger issue. My recommendation would be to hire a non-paid intern assistant. Just kidding. However, it does somewhat address the real issue; Trinh doesn’t have enough time to respond to the amount of messages she receives. One possible alternative to this is to use an online community or discussion board for any official queries and allow (or require) students to be part of the process. Perhaps a question from Student A can easily be answered by Student B. It would be nice for Trinh to offload that work.
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Hi Patrick,
a community is always such a great resource. Trinh is responding to the same questions over and over again because the answer is seen only by one person. Community will benefit not just from seeing her responses collectively, but also from trying to reply to the other participants. We all know that we learn a lot when we try to explain and teach. And for Trinh, it would be such a relief.
Natasha
Hi Patrick and Natasha,
I really like that idea. We use a Peer Discussion Board in all the Blackboard courses in the program. Students taking the program become accustomed to seeing and using that feature in the courses. And since many of our online students are all over Canada, or they work late at night, often they are able to help each other out, before the instructor can address it. I find it works well for many of the courses I work on. It helps me because if I notice a common issue, I can add it to the FAQ’s, or we can make a point to make sure that issue is addressed in the course content.