Title: Interaction: Instructor Contact

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Connections to the OEI Rubric

[Image: Pedagogy Corner]

Video

Watch the video from Helen Graves of the Online Network of Educators explaining the connections between Instructor Interaction and the OEI Rubric.

Credits: by Foods4Health (Author); source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkOUX1v_krE; licence CC BY-SA 4.0

Instructor Presence

[Image: Content]

How Important is Instructor Interaction in an Online Course?

The Importance of Instructor Presence

Introduction

Instructor Presence: Introduction

Community of Inquiry

[Image: Community of Inquiry]

Image Source: Simunich, 2014

In the article "Five Strategies for Enhancing Instructor Presence in Online Courses," Fu (2019) explained that simply put, instructor presence means "being there" in your class and having students see you as a real person behind the screen that they can reach out to when they have questions or need help with their learning; higher faculty engagement has also been shown to produce a positive impact on student satsfaction and retention in online courses.

How Does it Work?

While instructor presence is important in both face-to-face and online courses, promoting instructor presence in online courses can present some unique challenges because the traditional face-to-face interaction is not present. For example, online courses tend to focus on asynchronous and non-visual communication (time delay, missing body language). However, designing online courses around the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (Simunich, 2014) can lead to purposeful choices that promote increased instructor presence online. In the CoI framework, instructor presence includes teacher moves like: setting climate, supporting discourse, and selecting content.

How Does it Work?

What are Some Practices?

Some tools and practices that promote instructor presence can include:

- Sending out welcome letters
- Posting announcements highlighting connections between course content, activities, and assignments
- Facilitating in-depth thinking through online discussions
- Providing detailed specific feedback
- Reaching out to struggling students
- Making connections to real world applications and providing clarification when needed

What are Some Practices?

Monitor Canvas Interaction

Interaction Reports in Canvas

The Student Interactions Report is a Canvas tool that can help you analyze how regular your contact with students is throughout the semester. This report can also help you focus your communication efforts to students that you may not have communicated with recently, or as often as some other students in a semester.

Resources (external sites)

- How do I view a summary of all my students interactions in a course? Canvas Guide
- How do I view my interaction with an individual student? Canvas Guide
- How do I view the course access report for an individual user? Canvas Guide
- Use New Analytics to Inform and Prioritize Instructor-Student Interaction Canvas Guide

Monitor Canvas Interaction

Instructor Contact (Beginning of Course)

Instructor Contact

(Beginning of Course)

Initiate Contact

There are several ways to initiate contact with students at the beginning of your online/hybrid course. The important thing is to identify a combination of strategies and tools that facilitate meaningful connections with your students.

Here is a list of some common strategies used by SMCCCD faculty. However, this list is not exhaustive. We encourage you to get creative in engaging your students and getting your course off to a strong start.

- Welcome email or announcement
- Getting started welcome module
- Tips and tricks for course success
- Welcome video that details course structure and navigation
- Share contact Information in multiple locations (external site)
- Communication and feedback policy

Next, we will explore tools in Canvas to support instructor-initiated contact in a course.

Initiate Contact

Announcements

Canvas Announcements

Announcements are a great tool for instructor-initiated student communication. Announcements can include text, video, images, and other resources. Announcements may also be scheduled, delayed, and sent to students as a notification.  Learn more about how to create video announcements by watching the following video (2min 35sec):

Canvas FastTrack: Video Announcements (external link)

Canvas Inbox

The Canvas Inbox is linked to your SMCCCD email account, so when students send you a message in the Canvas Inbox, you'll receive a copy in your SMCCCD email account and you can reply from there as well. Responses sent from your SMCCCD email will also be reflected in the Canvas Inbox. Encouraging students to communicate with you through Canvas helps to track instructor-student contact in Canvas activity reports.   Learn more about Canvas Inbox by watching the following video (1min 38sec):

Inbox - Instructure Canvas Tutorials (external link)

Canvas Calendar

SMCCCD students often live by the calendar! The calendar includes all assignments and discussions that you assign a due date. The calendar can also be used to schedule student appointments and may also include events such as field trips, course reading, etc. Learn more about Canvas Calendar by watching the following video (2min 54sec):

Canvas FastTrack - Calendar (external link)

ConferZoom

ConferZoom is an online video conferencing tool that is free for the California Community Colleges faculty and staff, and it offers instructors the ability communicate synchronously with students. Plus, SMCCCD has enabled the ConferZoom Canvas plugin (or LTI), so you can access the tool from within Canvas too.

When you register for a free ConferZoom account (external site), be sure to use your @smccd.edu email address. This allows Canvas to pair your ConferZoom account with the LTI within Canvas. Please read the ConferZoom LTI Guide (external site) for information on how to use ConferZoom in Canvas.

Additional Resources (external sites)
- ConferZoom in Canvas Instructor Guide
- ConferZoom in Canvas for Students

ConferZoom Basics (external link)

Instructor Contact (Middle of Course)

Instructor Contact

(Middle of Course)

Stay in Contact

Below is a list of common strategies used by SMCCCD faculty to initiate and maintain student contact during the middle ofa course; please find tools and strategies that work for you.

- Feedback - Personalized and Group; Rubrics; Submission Comments
- Discussion Summaries - Identify themes/trends
- Summary Page in modules - Connect content between modules
- Status Update Videos - Used on overview/summary pages or check-ins
- Announcements (Daily) - Current events; Reminders; Tips
- Temperature Checks -How are you doing?
- Survey - Anonymous or Not Anonymous
- Office Hours - Synchronous using Chat or ConferZoom

Stay in Contact

Canvas Chat

Many SMCCD Instructors are using Chat in Canvas to support both synchronous and asynchrounous contact with students. One of the most common ways that faculty are using Chat isto support online office hours, and course content review. Students and instructors can log on to chat at the same time and engage in conversations that support student learning.  Learn more about Canvas Chat by watching the following video (2min 37sec):

Canvas LMS: Adding Chat Feature to Your Menu (external link)

Canvas Discussions

You are already familiar with participating in discussions as a student since discussions are an important part of this course. SMCCCD faculty use discussions to encourage students to communicate and share ideas, as well as a way to assess understanding and application of course content. While the discussion feature in Canvas has its limitations, it can be useful when trying to initiate contact during the middle of your course.  Learn more about Canvas Discussions by watching the following video (2min 40sec):

Canvas FastTrack - Discussions (external link)

Canvas Context Cards

Student Context Cards are meant to be a simplified overview of a student’s progress. This feature is helpful to monitor a student’s academic engagement to promptly and proactively engage in substantive interaction with the student on the basis of that monitoring. For more information about Student Context Cards, please review the How do I view a contact card for a student in a course? Canvas Guide (external site). Learn more about Canvas Student Context Cards by watching the following video (3min 40sec):

Teaching Tip: Student Context Cards Analytics (external link)

Status Videos & Temperature Checks

When students are engaged in online/hybrid courses, the semester goes by quickly and instructors don't often get to informally check-in with their students to ask the question, "How are you doing?" Creating status videos or temperature checks for students allows an instructor to "poke" students and nudge learning along the way. Below is an example of Glendale Community College's, Ethnic Studies professor Fabiola Torres, creating 'Learning Nudges' for her students (2min 05sec):

Learning Nudges (external link)

Instructor Contact (End of Course)

Instructor Contact

(End of Course)

Keep in Contact

There are several ways that you can initiate, maintain, and conclude contact with students at the end of your online/hybrid course. Below are some common strategies used by SMCCCD faculty. We encourage you to get creative in engaging your students and staying in touch with them until the end of your course.

- Survey - End of course survey
- Discussion Forums - Ask students to share their tips for being successful in the course for future students
  - Encourage students to use Padlet,or FlipGrid to share resources with future students.
- Course Wrap-Up Announcement
  - Thank students for their hard work and participation.
  - Let students know when and where their final grades will be available, and remind them of how to contact you if they have questions.
  - Next steps - other courses, resources, or pathways

Keep in Contact

Canvas: Creating Surveys

Creating surveys at the end of your course that solicit feedback from students are a great way to initiate a last piece of contact at the end of your course. Surveys can be used to collect all types of useful information that will both inform and enhance your course in future iterations. For example, we have surveys throughout this course to collect feedback from all of you. To learn more about Canvas Surveys check out "How Do I Create a Survey in my Course?" (external site)

Additional Resources (external sites)

- Six tips for designing course evaluation surveys
- Course Evaluation Question Bank
- Post course Survey questions
- Surveys 101

Quizzes - Instructure Canvas Tutorial (external link)

Canvas External Tools

Canvas: External Tools

There are a number of free apps you can use within Canvas to increase student engagement at the beginning. middle, and end of your course.

External Tool Highlight: Flipgrid

Flipgrid is a video discussion platform that allows teachers to create a discussion topic where students can respond with text, short video/audio clips and reply to one another with video/audio clips.

Some of the ways that faculty are currently using Flipgrid include: Topic Discussions, Q&A Forums, Introductions, and Reflections.

Flipgrid Resources (External Site)

- Using Flipgrid in Canvas Community Guide

Canvas Fastrack - Free LTIs (external link)

How Can I Learn More?

Instructor Presence Resources (external sites)

- Five Strategies for Enhancing Instructor Presence in Online Classes
- Creating a Sense of Instructor Presence in the Online Classroom
- Creating an Effective Online Instructor Presence
- How to Humanize Your Online Classes Infographic

How Can I Learn More?