Student-Initiated Communication Plan

We just had you consider and create an instructor initiated plan for communication. Now let's take a few moments and focus on the importance of creating a plan that encourages student-initiated interaction. Remember by intentionally creating both the instructor initiated communication plan and the student initiated plan you are building the foundation or beginning to knit your online class community together.

Woman on laptop with smartphone and coffee

Communication Policy Considerations

Students take online classes for a range of reasons and many do so because they simply are not available during the hours of traditional education. Does this mean you must be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for your students? Absolutely not. Does it mean they should be crystal clear about when you are available, how you prefer to be contacted, and how quickly you will respond to their inquiries? Yes, it does.

A clear communication policy is one avenue for you to establish Regular Effective Contact with your students. A well-written communication policy is like an open door, inviting students to come in and seek feedback or help. At the same time, just as you are not expected to sit in your office all day with the door open, you are not required to wait at your computer all day either!

Your students need time away from the course, and you need time away from the course too! Be really careful not to set yourself up for around the clock availability. There are some things that you should do to be flexible, however, you also should set your boundaries. For example, you can let students know that you are not available on Sundays or on weekends at all if you like. You may also tell students that they should use the Q & A discussions because you check those more often than you do your email.

Tips

When you craft your communication policy, here are a few tips to keep in mind.

Your contact information should be readily accessible to students, and be very easy to find (e.g., on the home page, in the syllabus, in the orientation module).
Be clear about when you'll be available. If you plan to not work on weekends (or some weekends), then specify that you will respond to emails, phone calls, or the Q&A forum Monday - Friday between the hours of 9am and 5pm (for example).
Be clear about your response time. If a student sends you an email, when should they expect to hear back?
You may want to indicate something like: "If you don't hear back from me in 24 hours, assume I did not receive your email and resend it." This is a good way to build in protection for email malfunction issues. The last thing you want to have happen is for a student to sit and wait for a response to an email that you never received.
This use of a Q&A discussion may cut down on your email traffic. Students then see each other's questions and your answers and benefit from each other's queries.

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