Great. Very useable information.
Projecting presence in the online classroom is important to establish authority. This can be done by posting your professional and academic credentials.
Finding something in common with the students, sharing some personal experiences that they can relate to can be a good ice breaker in establishing a teacher-student rapport. It doesn't have to be super personal but maybe like a hobby like playing video games or the type of music you listen to or maybe a favorite movie, tv shows or food. I teach computer science and I enjoy playing video games and when I tell my students that I play, it immediately becomes a conversation.
I feel it will be easy to represent myself as a person from behind a computer and have students do the same. The anonymity of online courses allows students to let their defenses down. Students today are engaged in social media such as Instagram and Snapchat. They already follow netiquette online with their peer groups. I think the key here is careful monitoring of communication to keep it within school standards.
Provide interactive opportunities for students to egage with you in a collaborative manner. Make sure that you stick to the subject and keep the dialogue informative.
Giving students the opportunity to post information about themselves, their hobbies and interests, their level of experience within your subject area, and reasons why they are taking your class can give you an insight as to their level of interest in our class. Getting to know your students can make them feel more comfortable and connected in your class.
I find it important to be able to relate with your students. This humanizes you and creates a more open atmosphere for learning.
Fostering good relationships with your students goes beyond face-to-face aspects within the classroom, but also through online presence as well.
I liked the suggestion to contact students individually within the first week. This may give them an opportunity to ask questions or address issues they are uncomfortable posting to the group.
The idea of posting both a video and its print transcript (as common sense as it might seem!) struck me as a rather novel strategy. In the past, I only did one or the other. Definitely, I plan to adjust my method.
In order for students to feel comfortable and trust the instructor in the online setting, the instructor needs to communicate information about the instructor's academic background, credentials, and experience. This helps students to develop a relationship with the instructor, the same way you would develop the student/teacher relationship in an actual classroom setting.
I learned the importance of maintaining a presence by helping my students feel comfortable being secure online. Provide a bio on myself of my educational skills, achievements, and hobbies. I would want to establish a good relationship with my online learners by having each student provide a brief bio of themselves and also having a discussion as to what their expectations are of me.
I plan to beef up my bio with things that may be more relateable to my students (hobbies, outside interest, etc.) Hopefully something will help in building those relationships that are helpful to the success of the class/student.
It's important to be somewhat transparent with students so that they will feel comfortable with you. Teacher and students need to create a short biography so that they can get to know one another and begin a safe teacher-student relationship.
I learned a nice strategy that I will implement, which is asking the student to post their bio as the first assignment.I think that would be a great way for me and the class to get to know one another. I would also ask them to read and comment on atleat one other person's bio if they share similar interest, bithdays or hobbies.
Projecting my presence for this school year if we are online will be interesting because many students are familiar with me from the previous school year, but some will be freshman who I have never met before. An ice breaker activity at the beginning of the year to create a sense of community and communicating my qualifications will be beneficial.
I learned how important it is to be a real person to your students and different ideas for how to appropriately get to know each other in an online platform.
E-Learning is fundamentally the same as in person. Meaning that you have to get to know each and everyone of your students so that you can connect with them. The more invested you are in them,the more effective you will be in teaching them.
I love the idea of having students post a short bio of themselves on day one. I have been thinking how difficult it will be not meeting the studens face to face in the classroom this fall. Having students post bios is a great way to get to know them and each other.
It will be important to establish concrete relationships, with your students, through varies on-line platforms.
