Increasing Instructor Presence in the Online Classroom
Creating a meaningful and impactful classroom experience can be challenging in the online world. Here are a few ways to make it more enjoyable for you and your students.
Meeting the needs of students today has become more of a challenge for many instructors. Many of the students we see enrolled in online classes often prefer a traditional face-to-face format. However, they now find themselves in an online environment if they wish to pursue their education. Maintaining a presence in an asynchronous environment is essential for instructors who wish to see all their students succeed.
Tips to enhance your presence in asynchronous courses:
Welcoming Students to Your Course
Educators often send out welcome letters or announcements to students at the start of the semester. How about trying a welcome video? This way the students can “meet” you virtually and get to know you. Elements to consider including in your video are:
- Your experience as an educator
- Educational background
- Tips for student success
- Best methods of contact
- A story about yourself
- Cameo appearances of your pets
- The Do’s and Don’ts for the class
- Pet peeves
- Anything else that you feel is important in letting the students know who you are.
Weekly Announcements
Weekly announcements or reminders are an excellent way to stay in touch with your students. Students often appreciate and look forward to updates from their instructors that offer additional support. These announcements can be written, included in a brief video, or can be a combination of the two.
- Remind students of important due dates. Reviewing reading material and assignments verbally can help the audio learner and less organized students stay on track.
- Provide detailed instructions in these announcements and anticipate questions (Hankins, 2016).
- Remind students to set up their LMS account to receive announcements via email or on their phones so these messages are not missed.
- Share a video or interesting article that pertains to the week’s content. Helping students connect the material to the real world can deepen their understanding of the content.
All these announcements can be scheduled in your LMS and posted at various times throughout the week to best fit your course design and schedule. This also ensures you can spend more class time teaching.
Online Tools for Support
Panopto allows you to screen share and record your voice so that you can navigate through your class and show them things that they may have difficulty finding. You can do a walk-through of your LMS setup to help them navigate.
- Remember not all students are comfortable in this online environment. Therefore, showing them how to navigate early in the semester can eliminate many stressful situations as well as an abundance of emails asking for clarification and help.
- Take this opportunity to share additional information on assignments that may be more challenging for students. This verbal explanation can help students relate and comprehend the details of the assignment.
- The videos you send to your students are best kept to 3-5 minutes.
- Panopto also has an option for you to record a video of you talking if you are comfortable being on camera. This is an easy-to-use site that takes a couple of clicks to record your screen or yourself. You can choose to save it on Panopto or send it to YouTube. Either way, closed captioning is included in both formats.
Flipgrid is best for meaningful, insightful video discussions where students can express their understanding of class content. Discussion can take place as structured prompts or informal activities and conversation starters (Columbia University, 2021).
Flipgrid allows you to have classroom presentations in an asynchronous learning environment. Students can watch the videos of their classmates and record a video reply just as if they were in the classroom watching, learning, and conversing with their peers.
A time saver for grading in Flipgrid is the ability to speed up the video. If your students record a two-minute video, you can change the setting to listen to it in half the time or adjust as you see fit.
As the instructor, you can provide written instructions, or you can record your own video with the instructions or examples you wish to share with them.
A few example Flipgrid activities:
- Create a model of a neuron or brain with household items.
- Solve a math problem so you can see the steps the students take.
- Give an oral presentation on an event in history.
- Create a poster for a marketing campaign.
Columbia University. (2021). Learning Through Synchronous and Asynchronous Discussion. Retrieved from Columbia University: https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/
Hankins, A. (2016, July 15). Five Ways to Help Students Succeed in the Online Classroom. Retrieved from Faculty Focus: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/five-ways-help-students-succeed-online-classroom/#:~:text=Five%20Ways%20to%20Help%20Students%20Succeed%20in%20the,in%20an%20online%20classroom%20are%20no%20exception
Huezo, E. (2017, March 16). 5 Ways to Increase your Online Instructor Presence. Retrieved from insider: 5 Ways to Increase your Online Instructor Presence
Jacobson, S. (2020, October 01). Students struggle to adapt to online classes. Retrieved from The Spectrum: https://www.ubspectrum.com/article/2020/10/students-struggle-to-adapt-to-online-classes
Wang, H. (2010, February 18). Eight Ways to Increase Social Presence in Your Online Classes. Retrieved from Faculty Focus: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-course-delivery-and-instruction/eight-ways-to-increase-social-presence-in-your-online-classes/
My name is Catherine Matson and I have been teaching for over a decade in the Behavioral Science Department, Health Services Department, and Human Service Department online and in the classroom. I teach or have taught at a variety of 2-year and 4-year institutions throughout the Chicagoland area. Some of the colleges are: at Triton College, Moraine Valley Community College, College of Lake County, Wilbur Wright College, Harper College, Aurora University, Roosevelt University, Columbia College of Missouri, National Louis University, Purdue University Northwest. McHenry County College, Waubonsee Community College, and Rock Valley College. I hold a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education, Masters degree in Counseling and PhD of Philosophy in General Psychology. In addition, I have 18 credit hours towards a Masters in Higher Education. I worked counseling parents and children of special needs and behavioral problems for a period of time when I was first starting my teaching career. In the field, my current role is crisis intervention. I complete assessments for children and adults that are suicidal, homicidal, struggle with addiction, or having behavior issues.
