First published Feb. 9th 2016 for ETEC565:

Reading this case study, my first impression is that Trinh fell into a common trap for educators who want to make themselves available online, which is that her students are spoiled for choice.   I too have made this mistake in the past, receiving student questions through more than one e-mail address (gmail and the school system), Edmodo, and wiki comments.  Students would ask why I didn’t reply to them, and it was because I hadn’t checked absolutely all of the different venues through which they might have contacted me!   I learned I could synch all alerts to push to my smart phone, but this wasn’t exactly ideal, either, as I still had to login to the specific platforms from which the message was sent in order to reply.

If I were to do this again, and the advice I would give to Trinh, would be to choose one (maximum two) venues for students to be in touch, and insist they stick to them.  Ample alerts and postings should be enough to hold at least post-secondary students accountable, and after a failed attempt at contacting the professor after not paying attention, they would likely not make the mistake again.  She could set a signature for all posts that remind students to be in touch through the preferred venue.

In previous courses with MET I’ve had instructors post specific times of the week where they could be reached via chat, through skype, typically.  Not all have been as available as Natasha, but I’ve never felt ignored by an instructor when I’ve reached out through their Blackboard contact.  By specifying these digital ‘office hours’, perhaps with exceptions granted when students were especially struggling, Trinh may find her correspondence needs more focused.

In another group Victoria raised the excellent point that Trinh may be able to enact preventative measures by encouraging students to assist each other in the course by turning to each other as peers, rather than relying solely on their teacher.  It has also been raised in more than one thread that live-streaming or video chatting may be a useful tool, which can be later archived and kept for others to view at a time that better works for them – just as Natasha recently did with the LMS Q&A sessions.

By whittling down her options to those that Trinh feels are the most useful, and stressing the importance for students to also be thusly focused, she would hopefully find her time more effectively managed.  I know I will be keeping these thoughts in mind for the next courses I plan and create a blended environment.