At the beginning of her online course, it is imperative that Trinh establishes a clear set of expectations in regard to course participation and communication options between the students themselves and between the students and the instructor. Anderson (2008) notes that part of the teacher’s role in establishing an online learning context is to devise and implement student activities that encourage this discourse among the students and teacher involved in the learning environment (Anderson, 2008, p.345). Trinh wants to be sure that her expectations are clear and that she quickly establishes an online learning environment in which the students feel safe and comfortable participating in the discussion areas and various activities while at the same time, she must be sure to be doing so in a way that is reasonable and manageable for her to maintain as the course instructor.

One of the best ways to set yourself and your students up for success at the beginning of any learning endeavour, is to be as proactive as possible. I would firstly suggest that Trinh review her introductory course materials to be sure that her expectations and the design of her modules is as clear and explicit as she is able to make them. Not even master teachers can anticipate every bump in the road that may arise as the students progress through the course, but paying special attention to the clarity of instructions can be time well spent in the long run. This focus on clarity may help to reduce the overall number of student queries throughout the duration of the course. Paying attention to student feedback from past course evaluations could also help with this proactive approach as troublesome or ambiguous areas from the past can be improved upon for future students.

For the problems that will undoubtedly surface as the students work through the course materials, Trinh needs to set up a specific area of discourse for trouble shooting and general inquiries. She could even go as far as starting threads in advance to help organize where the students post their issues. Under a general topic of ‘Course Queries and Technical Troubles’ she could pre-establish some anticipated topics and have threads already to go such as ‘Technical Support,’ ‘Assignment Clarification,’ and ‘Module Queries.’ Having the students post their questions in an area of the learning platform that is visible to their classmates could also be a potential time saver. Trinh should encourage the students to view the previously posted questions of their classmates in order to determine if their question has already been asked and/or answered in the past before they post their new inquiry. By using a discussion thread for this purpose, it also provides the students in the class with the opportunity to support their classmates by sharing their own trouble shooting advice. Trinh should inform the students that contacting her directly via email should be used for urgent correspondence only. Trinh needs to make a firm decision about whether or not the students are able to use her blog and Twitter account as a means of communication for support. Unless Trinh is prepared to make the time commitment to check Blackboard, her instructor email account and extra communication mediums too, she should let students know that they should not use either her blog or Twitter for course queries or support. I do not see how using additional communication applications outside of Blackboard could ever work for an instructor who is dealing with a student population of 150 or more. From the questions that Trinh is regularly asked (or has been asked in past courses) she should develop and continue to add to a frequently asked questions thread. She could also use the announcement feature for instructors within Blackboard to send out messages to the entire student base when a new frequently asked question surfaces, so that she is able to efficiently provide an answer to everyone all at once.

In regard to the question at the end of the case study ‘Were this a F2F course, she would set up office hours – but that’s not an option in an online course, is it?’ I believe that the answer is that it is in fact possible to offer ‘office hours’ in an online course. In one of my past online courses, the instructor offered limited ‘office hours’ via Collaborate on a need be basis. Initially, office hours were offered for a set time every other week. Eventually however, the instructor altered the frequency of the support hours based on student demand, which usually increased when an assignment due date was approaching. Offering this occasional synchronous support met the needs of the students and it did not seem to be a hardship for the instructor as the set times were not lengthy and happened much less frequently than was originally planned for. Trinh wants to be sure to maintain a reasonable balance in what she is offering and she should try not to extend her working day by too much so as not to burn herself out. I recall when teachers in our school district first received email accounts and our email addresses were published on our school websites for parents to access and use. I can remember how alarmed some teachers were and some of them actually wanted to draft up a letter to parents explaining that email messages would not be read and/or responded to after a designated hour that served to end the work day. I am glad that in the end this letter did not actually take shape as every teacher is different in regard to the hours that they keep and the time that they are willing to spend on discourse such as this.

In summary, Trinh needs to invest time prior to the course start up to be as proactive as possible in regard to her course design and instructional materials. She will also want to invest time early on in the course to help establish a sense of community among the learners as this will be an asset down the line for collaborative problem solving and student-to-student impromptu support.

References:
Anderson, T. (2008b). Teaching in an online learning context. In Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and practice of online learning. Athabasca University. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/14_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf