Best Practices for Online Communication

Best Practices for Online Communication

There are many opportunities to communicate with your students from a distance. Here are a few things to consider:

Mode of Communication

Zoom? Canvas Chat? Google Hangouts? You might want to decide one or two platforms you will focus on using to communicate with  your students. The following pages will have advice on how to use each one.  Communicating course business only through email might get difficult to track.

EvCC IT Video Conferencing Resources Links to an external site.

Synchronous or Asynchronous?

In a fully online course, we encourage asynchronous participation, where students can login and do their work at a time that works best for them. If you are replacing what was an in-person class, you have the option of "meeting" online during your normal class time.  This might be difficult for your students during a closure because they might be caring for others or ill themselves. Is it necessary to all be in the "room" at the same time? Or can you record something for students to view on their own and set up a discussion or assignment to follow? Keep student accommodations in mind if requiring a live synchronous section.

Feedback and Communication Tools in Canvas

Here is a list of components in Canvas designed to help you communicate with your students. Each brief description includes a link to pages with more elaborate details and instructions.

Profile
Your profile is a way to display information about yourself to other Canvas users in your courses. We recommend you edit your name, add a photo, contact information and a short bio. 
Announcements
Announcements Links to an external site. allow instructors to communicate with students about course activities and post interesting course-related topics. Announcements are designed to allow instructors to broadcast information out to all members of a course or to all members of sections within a course. Students may be able to reply to announcements, but replies are not considered to be a conversation and do not appear in the Conversations Inbox.

What are Announcements? Canvas Guide Links to an external site.

How do I add an announcement in a course? Canvas Guide Links to an external site.

Announcements Overview Video Links to an external site.

Inbox
The Inbox Links to an external site. is a messaging tool used to communicate with a course, a group, an individual student, or a group of students. It is basically the email system within Canvas. You can use the Inbox to communicate with other people in your course at any time.

What is the Inbox? Canvas Guide Links to an external site.

How do I use the Inbox as an Instructor? Canvas Guide Links to an external site.

Inbox (Conversations) Overview Video  Links to an external site.

Discussion
Discussions Links to an external site. are forums designed to facilitate informal communication between students in a course. Discussions can also be created as assignments for grading purposes. Students can also respond to informal and graded discussions in the context of a group. All Discussions content is public, and all course students can view and reply to a discussion.
SpeedGrader
SpeedGrader Links to an external site. is a grading tool that helps instructors evaluate student work. SpeedGrader allows you to view and grade student assignment submissions in one place using a simple point scale or complex rubric. You can use rubrics for fast assessment and leave text, video, and audio comments for their students. SpeedGrader is also available as a Canvas mobile app on iOS and Android devices.
Quiz Feedback
You can add feedback Links to an external site. to any assessment question created with New Quizzes. Students can view your feedback when they view their results after submitting an assessment. In addition to general feedback, students will see all feedback comments relevant to their answer choices. You can also add feedback to any answer choice when creating a Multiple Choice question Links to an external site..
Chat
The Chat Links to an external site.tool in Canvas allows students and teachers to interact in real time. Instructors can use the chat tool to allow students to contact them when online, create virtual office hours, conduct group discussions or study sessions.
How do I use Canvas Chat as an Instructor? Links to an external site.
Panopto
Panopto is a video content management system used to publish lectures, screencasts, and other videos used in courses at EvCC. EvCC faculty, staff, and students who have a Canvas Links to an external site. account may either log in to EvCC's Panopto portal Links to an external site. directly or access Panopto through Canvas courses that use it to host videos. For assistance using Panopto, please contact the eLearning department. More...

 

Using Google Tools to Communicate

Google Meet

In addition to these Canvas options, our campus offers Google Hangouts and Google Hangouts Meet  directly through student and faculty Google accounts.

Gmail

Similar to Word documents, improperly formatted emails can create additional stress and worry for some students. Accessibility in Gmail follows a similar pattern to creating documents: using formatted lists, descriptive hyperlinks, avoiding using color for design, and incorporating image descriptions.

Zoom Web Conferencing

Zoom Links to an external site. is a video conferencing and meeting platform that offers video, audio, and screen-sharing features to allow real-time collaboration and communication online. Using Zoom, you can host a web-based conference call or meeting with up to 50 invited participants. In addition to video, audio, and screen-sharing, participants can communicate via real-time chat and share files. Sessions can be recorded for replaying at a later time, and the contents of Zoom chats can be archived as well. Zoom can be used on Windows and Mac computers in addition to a wide range of mobile devices, including iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.

Zoom supports many different use cases, and we hope that it will facilitate communication and collaboration to support both teaching and administrative functions at EvCC. Instructors may wish to use Zoom to host live online class sessions or to conduct online office hours, for instance. Staff may find it useful for hosting web-based meetings involving colleagues from other institutions or state agencies.

Two types of Zoom license are available to EvCC employees, described below. To request a license, complete the Zoom License Request Form on this page. A license is needed only to schedule and host a Zoom meeting. You do not need a license to join a Zoom meeting as a participant.

How to use Zoom for Online Learning Links to an external site.

Zoom Licenses

To acquire a Zoom license, please complete the online request form Links to an external site..

Basic license

Any EvCC employee (faculty and staff) can request a Zoom Basic license at any time using the form above. The Basic license limits meetings to 40 minutes and does not permit you to record your meetings. It is a good option, however, if you only need to host short meetings and you don't plan to use Zoom's advanced features.

Pro license

Short term

A short-term license is suitable for hosting occasional meetings that require Pro features. This license must be requested in advance before the meeting you wish to host. The license will expire a short time after the meeting is concluded, but a new short-term license may be requested again at any time.

Quarterly

A quarterly license is intended for EvCC employees who need to host Zoom meetings frequently, either for teaching or to conduct college business. They are issued for a full quarter and will allow you to host as many meetings as you like during that time. To promote innovate uses of web-based communication in teaching, several quarterly licenses will be reserved for faculty who hope to use Zoom regularly in their courses and agree to document its effect on their teaching practices or their students' learning.

Worried about "Zoombombing"?

"Zoombombing" is the term for unwanted or inappropriate visitors in an online Zoom session (this Inside Higher Ed Links to an external site. piece for more). Here are some resources for avoiding it:

What about recording?

If you are recording your class session, you do not need permission from your students if it is only distributed within your Canvas course. You would need permission from your students if you were going to share the video with another class or for any other purpose. 

What about accessibility?

Get in the habit of turning on the live transcription option Links to an external site. during Zoom meetings. Participants can turn it off when the host has enabled it, but participants who need it will have to request it from the host if it hasn't been enabled. Make access easy and unobtrusive. 

Making Connections with Your Students

Even before the quarter begins you can make connections with your students. Your class list in Instructor Briefcase will show both student names and the email address they submitted to the college on their application. You can send students a welcome message even before the Quarter starts using this email list! You can also open your Canvas course several days early and send a message to students using the Canvas email option. 

WHY THIS IS A GOOD IDEA:

There are several reasons why you should do this. One is to make a connection with students even before the quarter begins. The first time I did this in a class I got a quick response from a student saying that no teacher had ever done that before, and she said she was looking forward to the class! 

Another reason to do this is if a student has an "N" in the grade column. An N means the student is auditing the class. In all likelihood this is a mistake on the part of the student (they probably clicked on the wrong button during registration). If a student is listed to Audit the class, please contact them BEFORE THE QUARTER STARTS so they can change that, or alert them on the first day of class. The Registrar does not like to make that change at the end of the quarter!!!

We'd like to remind you again to check your class roster every day during the first week. If a student has not shown up for the first 2 class sessions, please send Karl Smith, the Registrar, an email with the student information. Remember that a student will get a refund that way, because they will have already paid for the class. Oddly, students sometimes forget they signed up for a section, and we want to make sure they get their refund as early as possible. 

Setting up Hours in Starfish

Set up online or phone office hours through Starfish Links to an external site. (instructions Links to an external site.)

Creating Connection in an Online Class

The short video below will discuss a few easy strategies for connecting with your students in an online course. See slides Links to an external site. to access links in presentation.

Additional Resources on Communication and Instruction

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