Communication Corner Podcast

March 8, 2024

Transcript: 

Jeff Child:

Welcome to The Communication Corner, a McGraw Hill podcast for the Communication Discipline. I'm your moderator for this session and my name is Jeff Child. Today we brought together five guests to discuss the focus of our podcast today, which is about building meaningful relationships in an online environment. Just want to quickly go over the structure for our podcast today, have each guest introduce themselves and then dive into the topic at hand by having each panelist pose a question that then we will talk about that's related to our overall theme.

So welcome. I'm your moderator. My name is Jeff Child. I am a full professor and chair of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I'm also a McGraw Hill author and have been involved with online education from my days at grad school, so for over 20 years. I'm excited to serve as the moderator of this panel today and look forward to all the remarks and interactions that we will have. So before we dive into questions, I'd like each of the five guests today to introduce themselves and tell you a little bit about their background and we'll hear first from Ben Hollis.

Ben Hollis:

Hi, everyone. I'm Ben Hollis. I'm the executive director at Kent State University for Kent State Online, and I've been working in online learning for almost 20 years and very much looking forward to the conversation today.

Jeff Child:

Great. Welcome, Ben. Our next guest is Jennifer McCullough. You want to introduce yourself?

Jennifer McCullough:

Sure. Hi, I am Jenny McCullough. I am an associate professor and the basic course director at Kent State University in the School of Communication Studies, and I've been teaching and designing online classes for over 15 years.

Jeff Child:

Fantastic. Next is Angela Hosek.

Angela Hosek:

Hi, I am Angela Hosek. I'm an associate professor of Communication Studies at Ohio University. I'm also the foundational course director as well. Like Jeff, I am also McGraw Hill author, a co-author, and I've been teaching college students for 23 years, so almost half of my life, and I've been involved in creating online courses and building those out and training other graduate teaching assistants faculty to teach those courses as well.

Jeff Child:

Angela, it's crazy when you say almost half your life. It's been a journey, hasn't it? Next is Bethany.

Bethany Simunich:

Hi, I'm Bethany Simunich. I'm the Vice President of Innovation and Research at Quality Matters. I've been in higher ed for over 20 years. In a former life I was a communication instructor, but I've been in online learning now exclusively for about 15 years. But I always try to bring that comm perspective back into everything that I do. So really happy to be here for this conversation.

Jeff Child:

And Bethany, we love that you do that. I'm excited to have you here and your perspectives finally is a student. I'd be remiss if we didn't have this conversation from also thinking about student perspectives on building meaningful relationships and online engagements. So it is one of my students from here at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Scheherazade Polling. Do you want to introduce yourself?

Scheherazade Polling:

Hi. Yes, I am studying under Dr. Child. I am a non-traditional senior, so I'm actually on my way out. But I also work in digital marketing and media, so I do comm every single day.

Jeff Child:

Yay. Welcome. We're excited to have you all here. And so we'll jump into our first question related to this topic of building meaningful relationships in an online environment, and that will come to us from Ben. So Ben, if you want to put forward your question, we'll have some discussion.

Ben Hollis:

Yeah, happy to. So I thought just by setting a baseline for today, what does it mean to build meaningful relationships in an online environment and what does that look like? So my contention, I'll answer, share some thoughts and I welcome others, but that learners may define and seek meaningful relationship in different ways. So how do we prepare for those differences? My mind immediately goes to the online community of inquiry framework. Garrison, Anderson and Archer have written a lot about that. It's cited a lot and I think works well in practice. And in a nutshell, we're looking at three different presences. Cognitive presence, roughly defined, you have students engaging with course materials. Social presence, students interacting with other students. And teaching presence, students interacting with the teacher.

So across those three domains, when I think about designing online courses to build meaningful relationships, that's kind of the mindset that I approach that work. And then when I see it, I think if I have a stamp that said meaningful relationships and I get to stamp it when I see it in a course, what I think it looks like in a cognitive presence, so when students are interacting with their assignments, things like that, I stamp it as meaningful when I get feedback either through a learning management system when you're submitting an assignment that says, "I enjoyed this project, or I shared this project with a family member or colleagues, or I really needed to do this for work." And maybe that also comes through an email after the class.

In terms of when students are interacting with each other, when I'm in a discussion forum or they're doing a peer review and I see that a learner has made a really clever elaboration or given a great insight or great feedback that I didn't see myself, I sometimes have this pride and ego moment too of like, "That's really great. Oh, and why didn't I think of that?" I think that's creating and seeing evidence of a meaningful relationship across students. And then in terms of teaching presence, it's response to feedback. So again, through comments or emails or after the class, "Hey, thanks for that feedback that really helped me shape this assignment, or I really appreciated the notes you gave me on this, or I appreciate the video feedback you gave me." Those kinds of things. So just notes on the feedback that you can provide as an instructor. But I welcome others. I don't want to take your job, Jeff. I really want to hear what else has to say about this.

Jeff Child:

No, that's a great introduction and great question. What do the rest of you think about that?

Jennifer McCullough:

Yeah, I think when you first posed that question, Ben, with my instructor hat on, I immediately go to, "How do students know that I'm there for them, that they can come and that I am present in the classroom, and it's not just them watching lectures or doing the readings in this kind of isolated environment?" So for me, so what does it look like? I'm making sure I'm getting some sort of feedback from students that they know they can come to me with questions. So whether that be them posting comments when they submit their assignment or getting emails or clarifications, I always kind of see radio silence. Sometimes the no news is good news.

I see no news as like, "Okay, they don't think that I'm here for them in some way. They might have questions, that uncertainty." So I try to build in different ways that they know that they can reach out to me and that they know that they can come to me, whether that's from virtual drop-in office hours. So sometimes even just that label of office hours can be intimidating for students that might not know what that's like, or I like to do lots of individual personalized feedback so that they feel that I'm actually responding to them as an individual rather than just the class as a whole.

Jeff Child:

Yeah, that's great. Bethany, you had a comment?

Bethany Simunich:

Yeah, I just wanted to build on something you said, Jenny, that I think is so important about giving students some examples of why they would reach out to us. Research tells us that online students simply are not as proactive about reaching out to their instructor as they are in the face-to-face classroom. Part of that is because we really have to be proactive about building some rapport and trust with our online learners so that they can feel confident about reaching out to us. I remember I used to get emails very, very frequently from students or hear feedback from students that said, "I don't want to bother you." And I almost had to convince them, "This is literally my job to help you to answer questions, to provide that guidance." So just even, I think, letting faculty know that our online students are a little bit more reticent to reach out and to provide some really good transparent examples of, "Here's why you might want to reach out to me, or here's what we're going to cover in our office hours." And that can really serve to start to build that trust.

Jeff Child:

That's a great point, Bethany. I often teach a research methods online course, and those students take that course sometimes wanting to hide. They're not good at it, they're not confident in their skillset. So reminding them that, "Hey, I'm here. It's my job. I want you to be successful and help you" is an important message that they don't always hear enough, right? Yeah. Very good. Angela?

Angela Hosek:

Yeah, kind of building on what Bethany was saying and thinking about the teacher's role in this process, I think it's important that we keep seeking those different ways to engage in building those relationships. So learning what the platforms have to offer. So we're moving to a new learning management system, and I realized today I can send videos to them as an email message instead of typing it, or I can do little emojis as I write feedback to them. And thinking about what are all the other capacities that those systems have to build those relationships with them in those meaningful ways. So whether it's like when they submit an assignment, the feedback loop becomes a little bit of a chat feature with them on that assignment. So really staying up to date and spending that time learning about all those features I think is important. And some folks who are a bit more reticent to the online learning environment I think maybe not put enough focus on their own training to learn those tools that can help them build that relationship.

Jeff Child:

That's a really good point. Some small tools can have a big impact, right? And we'll talk about that theme later on. And what are some things that we can do if you haven't tried much to engage more with students? Scheherazade?

Scheherazade Polling:

To build on something that Ben said earlier, and then also that Angela just said, when Ben was talking about the peer review, I think a lot of times us as students we're scared to say something that maybe the professor didn't say, because we don't want to seem like we're stepping on your toes or we're teaching the class. So sometimes when we do have that moment, where as professors you're like, "Dang, why didn't I think of that?" The encouragement of being like, "This was a really good idea. Thanks for your input", it gives us the reassurance of not only that we're learning the material correctly, but also that it's okay to think outside the box or say something that you all didn't teach us.

Jeff Child:

Yeah, that's great. Fantastic. Well, great. It's a great initial question to get us going and get us thinking and talking about stuff. Let's move to our second question, which comes from Jennifer. Jennifer, do you want to present your question and then some thoughts on it?

Jennifer McCullough:

Sure. I think we started to kind of hit on some of these things, but my question was what strategies for creating instructor presence in an online environment have been successful at actually engaging students? As I said, I think I mentioned, I'll kind of jump in here, for me, it is regular communication with them. So I like to start right away, I think, even in week one of an online class that sets expectations for students in terms of whether you're going to be there to be able to answer any questions. I actually started an assignment this semester where I actually required all of them to email me personally separate from our learning management system. And it was a great way to kind of check in with every single student personally rather than in a global platform.

And I don't think these engagement strategies necessarily need to be these huge elaborate things. It's just quick little things that can check in with students so that they know how to reach you and that you're available to them. That accessibility feature I think can be helpful. Because I think, Bethany, to your point earlier, we do get emails. It's like, "I don't want to bother you." And it's another way to emphasize, "You're not bothering me. I'm here to help you if you need me in some way." And so I think for me, it's starting that early and setting expectations. But then also throughout the course being prompt and consistent with responding so that if a student does reach out with a question, they're not left hanging and wondering if they sent the email to the correct place or if their question made sense, just trying to reassure them in those smaller ways. But I'm curious to see what other people have to say too.

Jeff Child:

Yeah, that's a great question and a great prompt. I'll just add some thoughts too, and then we'll go to Bethany what your thoughts are. But I would also say one of the ways that I've tried to create online presence with my students is to get to know them a little bit more so that to the degree that I can connect what I want them to learn to applications in their own lives. But that can be difficult in an online learning environment unless you adapt more to the interactive multimedia kinds of engagement opportunities that we have now with our smartphones.

It doesn't need to be just static, asynchronous chat and interactions between you as a faculty member and students. To the extent that we can get more richness in our interactions, we can get to know our students and then help connect what it is that we're trying to help them master to their own personal lives. Because they'll remember that more than definitions or things that they read in the textbook. So that's one of the things that always runs through my mind is, "How can I build a stronger connection and understand what my students are going through? What's on their mind, what's going on in their lives so that I can bring the content into their world more fully?" But Bethany, your thoughts?

Bethany Simunich:

Yeah, Jenny, I think you really hit the nail on the head when you were talking about consistent communication and interaction and early interaction and communication. Just to add some additional tips and ideas to that, sending out a welcome letter to your online students in advance of the course is something that I always do and I always recommend. You would not believe how many students sign up for an online course and they don't realize it's an online course.

So this is a way to tell them in advance and let them know the modality, whether it's asynchronous or synchronous, but that's a big first fundamental piece of communication. It's where they kind of first learn about you as an instructor, learn a little bit about the course, but once they get into the course, I also think your instructor introduction, especially in an asynchronous learning environment, is really crucial. That is your opportunity to really talk about your teaching philosophy. Hopefully you're doing this as a video so that your students could see you, they could see your nonverbals, they could hear the tone of your voice. We know how much meaning in terms of our communication is embedded within our nonverbals and our voice. So don't just be a text-based presence in your online course as an instructor. And then also that student introduction, that can really help your students.

But the other thing that I really wanted to bring into the discussion, because Jeff, this is building off something crucial I think that you said, really understanding where your students are, where they're coming from, maybe some barriers they might be facing. That first week. In my online courses, I always have a reflective journal as the concluding activity, and it's actually not about course topics, because we haven't really had a good chance to dive into the course at that point. But what I do ask them is, "Do you anticipate any barriers to your success in this class? Anything that you're nervous about?" And here's where I learned that for some students it might be their first online course or they're nervous about the technology. But it really allows me to start to get to know them as an individual, and that allows me to really individualize my communication with them.

Jeff Child:

Great points, Bethany. I love those. That initial activity that you do, because you're right, at the end of the first week, you don't have much content, but it is an opportunity for you to collect that information and see where they're at. Yeah, Angela?

Angela Hosek:

Yeah, Bethany and your comments, Jeff, are making me think about this approach that some of my colleagues have written about. It's called Narrative Pedagogy, Erin Willer and Jody Conan Kellis. And I do this with my in-person classes following that model. I'll have my students come and have a meeting with me, and the only question I ask them is, "Tell me your story." Right?

Jeff Child:

Oh, wow.

Angela Hosek:

They can decide whatever that is they want to share with me. And I haven't done this yet, but I wonder if there's a way to replicate that in the online space because it probably would foster a meeting through an online platform like this where you both get to see each other. When I think about it, there's probably been, as many years as I've been teaching, I've probably only had an online meeting with a student maybe like five times. But this might build in that opportunity to engage in that. And then they can just tell you their story. And the goal isn't for you to really say anything, it's to let them narrate that to you.

And then the full approach is that then you type up what you have heard them say and share it back to them, but you could also redo that as a video. So I think that's one approach to doing that. And then the other thing I'd like to add is that making sure that you literally are a presence. So if you have students doing discussion boards or discussion videos, that you're part of that too. So the whole week doesn't go on where it's just them interacting, and you haven't come into that space too. So I think that is one way to continue your presence, whether it's textual or through video too.

Jeff Child:

Great point. Yes, very good. Some great ideas. Thank you for that question, Jenny. Let's go now to Angela who will shift our focus from what we've been talking about to more of the student to student interaction. So Angela, if you want to introduce your question and then we'll have some discussion about it.

Angela Hosek:

Sure, yeah. So my question ties to what are the best practices for planning and cultivating student to student relationships in an online environment? So since I spoke last, I'll let someone else chime in and then I'll add some thoughts as we go.

Jeff Child:

Sounds great. Anyone have some thoughts? Yeah, Jenny?

Jennifer McCullough:

Yeah, I think one of the things with student to student interaction, I think the traditional discussion board, some students kind of groan at. They don't like the standard like, "Me too. I agree." That's not the most engaging conversation, and they don't really feel like they're engaging or connecting with each other. So one of the things that I've worked on when I do think a discussion board, even a traditional discussion board, is appropriate for the class, is to require them to do some of that application and connection to their own lives so that not only is the individual student with their initial post elaborating and connecting the content to their own personal experiences, but then in the response posts to each other, students are able to see their similarities that they might have or differences that they might have and how they approach different situations. And they can comment back on based on what we talked about in class, their experiences may have differed or how they may approach things differently.

So it goes beyond just the, "Me too and I agree." But they're able to share similar examples. So if somebody says an example and you have a similar example, explain what that means, explain the connection. So part of what I tell students in their discussion boards is you have to not only comment, but you have to form a connection with what somebody is saying so that you get more examples and more current examples from students' experiences on whatever the course content was for that particular week or module or unit that you might be exploring. So I think it kind of gets to Jeff's points and you get to know students a little bit more in terms of the examples that they share. Students get to know each other a little bit more. And then as the instructor, even though it's more student to student focused, I'm able to have those examples that I can draw on in subsequent video discussions or summaries or weekly announcements that we might talk about as well.

Jeff Child:

Yeah, that's a great point. I'll just add one piece that kind of connects that, and then we'll go to Scheherazade for your perspective on this. But yeah, I think one of the things I've tried to problematize in that area, Jenny, is sometimes if you don't build a structure in as a professor for that, you get students that do the connecting and the interacting right up to the deadline. And getting that sort of authentic understanding of what their peers think and then them stepping back and thinking about it and reconnecting with their own examples, it just doesn't happen. You don't get the same kind of discussion that you might have in a classroom environment where some are holding back and thinking and then they'll chime in.

So what I have tried to do is to put in a sequence of mini deadlines for an initial post, a first reply, and that you build in discussion and student to student connection as a meaningful part of a course, but that it doesn't happen just on one day. Because it doesn't authentically happen in that sort of critical thinking level, in my experience. I've had to restructure that because I'm like, "Oh yeah, they'll get on early and do it." No, if the deadline is at midnight, they're all on from 10:00 to midnight. You know what I mean? So planning more for that enables for a more authentic connection and understanding of where their peers are at. So Scheherazade, tell us what you think about interacting with other students.

Scheherazade Polling:

I am guilty of waiting until midnight. And aside from that, in my lower level, like 100 level courses, I remember one of our professors had us do the virtual find someone bingo. We're normally in a classroom, you have the piece of paper and you're like, "Find someone who has the same birthday as you." So in one of our courses we did the same thing. So it initially made all of us put our posts up right away because you know that your end game is to get as many squares on the bingo as possible. But what really made it worthwhile is once you get to your upper level courses, at that point, you're probably going to have the same 20 people in your class. And then you remember from Comm 102, "Oh, Julia, I remember you, we both Lord of the Rings, or we both have the same color." And it kind of builds that relationship. So it takes it from an online space to an in-person space as well.

Jeff Child:

I think that's great. Yeah, I love that. And that sounds like a really interesting activity to do. The bingo online. I've done that face-to-face, but I haven't really tried that in an online environment. Ben and then Angela.

Ben Hollis:

So I moonlight teaching a few classes as well, and in a design class designing visuals for education, the learner every week will build something and then give peer feedback on it. Because what we do in the field. Rarely do I build something and say, "This is ready." I write a colleague and say, "What do you think?" And I stamp it into every course where I'm doing a peer review that I've come up with five different things to consider before they engage in a peer review. The first one, I've got it on my screen here I'll read. Provide suggestions and considerations is rule number one. Number two, try to limit I and you statements. It doesn't mean it can't be personalized, but I think there's just a difference between saying, "You should adjust." Versus, "Perhaps adjusting and talking about the work." I think will land differently.

The other one is provide specific examples and suggestions in your notes. So it's tying it back to the course material. So what is the theory we talked about this week? How does that inform the comments you're making? If they've never heard it before, I say, consider the sandwich approach. So, "Great job, you're the best. Here's some suggestions and go get them." And then at the very end, I always say, above all else, be kind. And just remind them that sharing your work is very brave stuff. So, I'm just reading this, let's be sure to build each other up at all times. And I've had students say, "That really helped me, or I see the evidence of that receiving this feedback and it made it a little easier for me." Because it is kind of scary doing peer review.

Jeff Child:

Yeah, that's great. Thank you for sharing those tips and what you use because you're right, we have to teach students how to be ethical critics and how to engage with one another in ways that they're going to have some good experiences coming from that. very good. All right, Angela?

Angela Hosek:

Yeah, and just to add a little bit to what Ben was saying, that it's important that we help them build these relationships, not just in the discussion board place so also in the assignments. And I was going to suggest too that giving that feedback process is really important as well too. And one thing that I've done with the discussion post things, I've had the students be the discussion leaders for the whole week. So it's not me that leads the interaction. And like Jeff, I have them do a Wednesday submission and a Friday submission. But that way it's their peers leading it, so they want to support and help their peers out. And then it's a bit less about me. So a bit more of that flipped classroom idea, a bit more of the student agency and that learning process.

And a lot of the courses I teach have a presentational component, so the student's giving feedback to each other on all of their presentations. And they all have to listen, so each student has to respond to at least three people. So making sure that they're doing that work. And they get to really know each other's interests and passions sometimes even better than I do, that you can see it through the end of the semester when they're doing that last bit of reflection and feedback. And I really love those five ideas, Ben. You can hear them say, "It's been so great to see you grow over the semester." And seeing all that feedback from them. But it's because they've been responsible for giving each other feedback. And I think that sometimes that matters sometimes more than what our feedback is, right? So yeah.

Jeff Child:

I love the student leading the discussion. You're right, that gives them control and agency to what they want to focus on. And you're right, I think in comm we build a lot of these opportunities in because we know that student to student interaction is so valuable and meaningful to their growth and their building of relationships. This is a time period that hopefully when they get out of college, like I am still connected to some of the learners that I learned through my degree, that hopefully they'll connect and carry on those relationships.

All right, so up to this point, we've discussed a range of different ways for instructors and students to build meaningful relationships online. And our next question comes from Bethany about planning more for those interactions. So Bethany, do you want to introduce your question and give us some thoughts about it?

Bethany Simunich:

Yes. Okay, so my question is how can we capitalize on the requirements and policies around regular and substantive interaction, otherwise known as RSI, to build better relationships with our online students? And the reason I wanted to ask this question is to kind of flip the policy and our reaction to it a little bit on its head. I know that as faculty, we often have that knee-jerk reaction to a policy, "This is one more thing you're making me do." But I like to talk about RSI because I think it encourages online instructors to be really purposeful and to create a plan for presence. Because really what RSI is asking you to do is to answer the question, "How will you be present in your online course for your students?"

Now, we don't have to do this face-to-face because interaction happens naturally. It happens organically. We're there with our students. But especially in an asynchronous online course, when we're looking at how we're going to interact with our online learners, it's not just that direct instruction that is already in the course. So you have, whether it's video lectures, text-based lectures, whatever method you're using to provide direct instruction, how else are you going to be present for your online students? And I think especially if we sit down, because this happens in the design phase as well, we know that providing feedback and guidance is a huge part of how we're present with our students online.

So we have to even look at the sequencing and timing of our assignments to make sure that students are getting feedback when it matters. Me providing a host of good feedback after that midterm exam, especially when that final's not cumulative, that's not providing feedback when it matters. So looking even as we're designing our courses, what are some lower stakes activities that give our students a chance to, quote, unquote "fail with us"? Those good opportunities for feedback where we can help to redirect their learning or ask them to review some material, looking at those chances for formative assessments and really guiding our students to then improve their performance per summative.

So we have those ways for feedback and guidance, but also looking at ways that we're going to make regular announcements that are going to be akin to those face-to-face reminders. "Next week we have this project coming up, or you have your homework due, or let's talk about this assignment." Being very purpose-driven even with our office hours. Using them to go over larger assignments just as we would in our face-to-face courses. And recording that and say, "If you can't attend, we're going to then put this recording in the LMS." And give some examples of that assignment and whatnot. So instead of really looking at this as just another federal policy, I think it's really rich with opportunities for a conversation for how we can really be present with our online students. Because our plan for presence is what starts those meaningful relationships.

Jeff Child:

I love that question, Bethany. Planning for presence. I'll just add one example. A course that I regularly taught was a performance-based speech class, and I taught it in five weeks and they did a speech a week, because that's what they do in the regular 15-week course, and we want parity with what they're doing. If you're going to do it in a condensed period, you're going to still do the same thing. Well, I had to think about exactly what you're saying, is my presence and interaction and the way that I interface with students giving them meaningful feedback when they need it? Of course it's a building, right? The first speech we add new things, we practice some things, we refine, we move on, they get some feedback from peers, but they need my feedback too.

So it means on Sunday when they record and turn in their speeches, Monday, I'm doing nothing but grading and giving all of that feedback so that they're not getting information about, "How can I be a better speaker? How can I be more meaningful in how I approach the topic?" While they're working on their next speech and it doesn't come after they've already prepared for it, they're already giving the second one. So that that feedback is planned. And your question forces us to think a little bit about how are we planning that in a meaningful way. So I love it. I've grown in that and trying to do more in that area. Angela, you have thoughts?

Angela Hosek:

I do. To add to what you're saying, Jeff, actually last year I started doing this. I have a big calendar on my wall and I actually started, I didn't realize that I was planning my presence, but now I know the language for it, which is great. I literally write down all of their due dates, which I was just thinking about, "How do I do this so I can build in my writing days?" But it made me realize that, "No, that's due this day." So I have to grade it the next day, or it's just going to spiral out of control in that way too. But actually building in, I think sometimes we mistakenly think, "Oh, the grading will happen. That will happen. The feedback will get done."

And then it's like days and days later and then you run into that trap of, "Oh, that's getting closer to the next assignment. What does that mean? Or how can I really grade this now because I'm really behind and should I not take this off as many points because of that?" Right? So you have this whole struggle internally with yourself. But I've literally put it in, I just looked at this today, "Grade this assignment today." So that way I can keep on track of that myself. But really it is a function of I'm ensuring they get the feedback back, but in the online space, making sure that they know that I'm there and I care and they get that feedback. So literally planning in that presence.

Jeff Child:

I love it. Hey, I am a Type A planner. I will get my calendar out and do all of that the next time I teach. Ben, you have thoughts?

Ben Hollis:

I do, yeah. Bethany and I actually have talked about this, how do we design, when we're building our course, design for these opportunities? And I've seen other institutions start to talk about RSI in a way that... Bethany listed a great number of opportunities that you can build this into your course. And I've seen many institutions saying, "Okay, here's the list of things to think about. Identify two of these approaches that you're going to use in your course." And I think that's a very reasonable, practical way to get started with this. Just creating awareness of, "These are some designed interaction opportunities and let's point to two of these in the list you're doing in your course." And while I'm citing work from other institutions, I need to go back to my five tips for peer review. Those were based on lots of great design articles that I read about giving design critiques. I just want to make sure I give everybody credit for their work.

Jeff Child:

I love it. Jenny?

Jennifer McCullough:

Yeah, I just wanted to go back to something Scheherazade had said earlier about online discussion where you don't know if you're stealing the instructor's thunder. I think that part of our initial feedback to students sometimes is like, "Oh, a student isn't doing well. I need to make sure I'm following up individually." So not necessarily planning out the RSI quite as much, but in terms of our intermittent involvement with students, we tend to kind of go to the troubleshooting. And I don't think it's as intuitive sometimes to make sure that we're following up and planning ahead with the general like, "That was a really good individual discussion post." So being involved in the discussion boards, as an example, making sure that you're really connecting with those things that are said that are really good so that a student that might feel more uncertain knows that they're on the right track as we're going through things, rather than just trying to maybe stop the students from falling behind, but making sure those students that are doing really well are actually being supported with feedback continuously as well.

Jeff Child:

Great point. All right, our next question comes from Scheherazade, who will bring our focus to tech tools that may assist us in building online relationships. So Scheherazade, do you want to ask your question?

Scheherazade Polling:

Sure. As a student, obviously we're up-to-date on tech and we're always on our phones and we have literally mini computers in our pockets. What are some ways as educators that you guys are staying up to date with the tech tools, especially when it comes to building online relationships? Something that I've noticed and my classmates and I have noticed is sometimes we get the one professor who's proficient in Blackboard or Canvas and you're like, "Oh, they're on it." They can use the calendar, they're putting in the assignments, and then you get to another class and you're waiting for your assignment and they're, "Oh, I put it in the syllabus. Just look at the syllabus." But how am I supposed to turn it in on a syllabus if it's not in the online portal? So what are some ways that you guys stay up to date with that?

Jeff Child:

Great question. Thoughts about that?

Ben Hollis:

Well, I think just meeting the learners were there. You mentioned mobile devices, and I think it's just important for the workflow of design and developing at least an online course, check it on the app and see how it looks. How much work can be done on a mobile device? There's some movie directors that create these Dolby gigantic surround sound movies, and they say, "It's an affront to me that it's being watched on a mobile device. It wasn't intended for that." But online courses, I think it's okay to say there's a lot of productivity that can be done on a mobile device and that's okay, let's meet the learner where they are and make sure it looks right, operates, the videos are functioning. Those kinds of things needs to be part of our workflow. Because yeah, it's in hand.

Jeff Child:

Yeah, great point. Jenny?

Jennifer McCullough:

Yeah, I think as faculty it can be hard to keep up with all of the new options. So I have kind of two responses. One, I sometimes hunt this and I seek out information from instructional designers and ed tech specialists that know more of the new technologies going on and kind of present, "This is what I'm trying to do in my class. What do you think some options are? What might be the pros and cons of these different tools?" Those types of things. So I think trying to use those resources, and we have great ones at Kent State that can be helpful.

In addition, in terms of a specific tool, I use Flip, which was formally Flipgrid, a lot for video discussions. And I've had students really enjoy, particularly for introductions, even if I'm not doing a ton of other video-based discussion, at least doing the introduction assignment so that students can see each other. You can see the nonverbal communication between students, between you and students. That's one way that I've used new technology in my classes. But I always go to the experts and see what's new and available that you might be able to incorporate in new ways and trying small things, so you're not trying everything all at once, but trying to figure out what works best for a particular problem or learning outcome that you're looking for.

Jeff Child:

Great. Angela?

Angela Hosek:

Yeah, I think it's also helpful that whatever you're asking them to do in the class that you also mirror. So if I'm doing a course that has presentational speaking as part of that, that I am showing them videos or sending them videos of myself doing things and that I request that same thing of them or the audio options, so that way they can see me mirroring and modeling the behaviors as well. And a tool that we use that I really like for this is VoiceThread. I've gotten a lot of good use out of that platform too. So I like that a lot. And really realizing that students are not on email as much as I think that they are or I want them to be. So thinking that even if I just email them something, they're not going to get that. So knowing that I need to make it as an announcement post. And we also have a video on top of that.

So I think thinking about how we engage them with material, so from a Universal Design for Learning approach, that I'm giving them the textual piece of things, but then I'm also doing a video or an audio explaining assignments as well, and then having those multiple modes of expression for them to tap into that learning too. But I think I try really hard to learn one new thing a year. So I'm always paying attention to the emails that come from the university and I'm like, "I don't know how to do that." So for example, we're moving to Canvas as our platform and I'm part of the pilot group to learn how to use it because I don't want to be left behind not knowing how to do that when I transfer my whole program onto that, right? So putting myself in that space to learn at least one new thing a year.

Jeff Child:

That's great. Well, we are almost at the end of our time, so I will throw out our last question, which is a good summative question. If you could suggest maybe one simple strategy that instructors might try to test out that for you has had a big impact on building relationships in an online environment, what would it be? So for me, I would say one of the things that I tried during the pandemic and I've continued to do that has had a big impact, is to post synchronous sessions with students that are not required that I also record and I post. There's no new information provided in it. It's an opportunity for them to drop in, to talk to me about the assignment, for me to help them, to brainstorm, to get to know them, to spend time just going over material that's already there.

And it's amazing to me that when I've done it, I usually only get about maybe 10 to 20% of my students who drop in, because of the time, when you're in an online course, you can't find a time that will work for everyone. That's why I don't require them. But many students watch them and they look for them and they find that casual, ongoing interaction meaningful to their progress. And a lot of the questions that students ask that I can answer in a second or two are similar questions they have while working on the assignment that they don't feel like they have to send me an email or schedule a Zoom session to talk with me about things. So that's one thing that I think can help, at least from my vantage point, that I've tried that can help build connections and relationships with students in an online learning environment. Others of you? Yeah, Bethany?

Bethany Simunich:

I would say create a space for a little bit of fun, maybe some casual conversation. And the reason I'm suggesting this is research tells us that in face-to-face classes, those times before and after class where students are discussing the football game or their weekend plans or even the weather, they serve a very important function and they start that creation of trust and rapport in these low level ways and aren't related to high pressure course topics and whatnot. So just as two examples, I have a faculty friend who she does a tremendous job at this. She teaches synchronously primarily, but she always encourages students at the beginning to share pictures of their pets. And she has a pet parade and she's like, "If you don't have a pet, you can share the picture of a pet that you wish that you had." Right?

Jeff Child:

I love it.

Bethany Simunich:

Even things like that, and it gets students talking. It's a sort of before class activity. When I teach asynchronously online, especially if it's around Thanksgiving, I'll ask students to share their favorite Thanksgiving recipes and I'll have a discussion form for that. But it's just a little bit of something that gives you some comradery and lowers that entry barrier, I think, to getting to know one another.

Jeff Child:

Great point. Scheherazade?

Scheherazade Polling:

Something that one of our professors here does at UNLV, and to Angela's point and also mine with technology about us as students not really being on email, she allows us here on campus, we are a Google based platform, so our email is through Google, she allows us to use the G Chat feature. So we don't have to email her on a question or something she gives us, obviously we have to be respectful of certain hours. But if she knows that we're not likely to email, we can just shoot her a G Chat, which is basically on our end, like a text message and she'll get back to you even if it's not within her set office hours. And so it kind of brings down the barrier of having to write this formal email and making sure we're getting the salutations and things like that right, where you can just send a quick text like, "Oh, I need help with question so-and-so in this module." And it makes it a lot easier to build that trust and communication because you just feel like you're texting your professor.

Jeff Child:

That's great. Ben?

Ben Hollis:

All right, I know we're close to time and I'm going to try to sneak in two quick ones. So we've already talked about student introductory forums that are kind of a fixture in an online course, "Let's introduce ourselves." I always recommend going back to that forum when you're engaging with a student and email or feedback, pick up on pronouns, preferred names and use those in that narrative. I think it's really important to have that cycle. And then the other one is if there's a situation where a student says, "For whatever reason I'm having difficult time and I can't meet this deadline." And if your approach to that is flexible, mine is, "Hey, that sounds like a lot. Don't worry about the deadline coming up. Let's talk about the deadline that works for you." If there's that kind of flexibility in your course, it's important in that moment that if I can, I go right into the grade book for that assignment and put a comment and say, "This student, we've communicated about it, is not going to make this deadline."

Because what can happen is when it comes time to have your grading day and you go down the line and that student didn't turn in their work, and then you might send out a message to those students that, "Hey, I haven't received your assignment. Just a reminder, maybe that was submitted." And if that student gets that message, it kind of can hurt that relationship to say, "Wait a minute, I'm already down. And now you're saying, I thought we already talked about this and it was okay?" It's just a small practical thing that I've done that's really helped me bridge that gap, that proximity between that message I answered a couple of days ago and now I'm in grading day to make sure that I'm sort of honoring that grace period that we've talked about.

Jeff Child:

I love it, Ben. That's a great suggestion. I have been accused of being absent-minded as a professor, and I'm likely to do that. So I appreciate that strategy. I definitely will use it. Well, I want to thank you all for being guests of this podcast and this panel today talking about how we can build meaningful relationships in our online coursework. And hopefully you've learned something new that you might utilize as you're tuning in and listening to this podcast. And we look forward to seeing you at our next episode of The Communication Corner.