The following guidelines identify the minimum level of interaction and management needed between students and instructors to maintain a quality online learning environment.
- Follow the established course start and end dates. When students register for your course, they expect that it will start and end according to the Registrar’s calendar. Schedule adjustments may, however, be needed to accommodate early curricular needs or to meet deadlines for graduating students and others with special circumstances.
- Follow consistent guidelines for managing your online course. These guidelines identify tasks that should be performed daily, weekly or each semester. As you will see from the guidelines, the key to effectively managing an online course is to be consistently “present” in your online classroom. Regular contact with your students helps assure them that they are well-supported.
- Monitor assignment submissions and communication with students to remind them of missed and/or upcoming deadlines. You can help ensure a successful learning experience by practicing proactive course management strategies. Good practice suggests posting a message or announcement to your class at least once a week, to tell students what you will be covering in the coming week and to remind them of any due dates.
- Early in the course, establish a regular schedule for when you will be logging in to the course and communicate this to students. Normally this is once per day. Although many learners at UMBC are traditional college students, a growing population are adult learners with work and family responsibilities. These students tend to be more active in courses on weekends, so you may also wish to reserve time in your schedule to monitor courses at least once on weekends.
- Give prior notice to your students and to your department in the event that you will be unable to log into the course for several days or more (e.g., during professional travel). Providing this information up front will help to forestall many student inquiries. Consider finding coverage for your online course if you are going to be out of contact with students for more than a couple of days, especially if they are to be working on assignments while you are gone. If you will be away from the course in case of a personal emergency, please notify students and your department as soon as possible.
- Provide feedback to student inquiries within one business day. Timely instructor feedback is especially important to online learners. Without it, they may not be able to make progress on their coursework. If you cannot provide a detailed response within one business day, it is good practice to respond to the student within one business day to let them know when you will provide them with a more detailed response.
- Provide timely and meaningful feedback on student work using clear and concise language. You have ideal “teachable moments” when providing feedback on student work in a timely fashion (i.e., soon after it is due so you can positively impact their next assignment). Simply telling a student “good job” or “needs work” does not give them the information they need to succeed. They need (and want!) more specifics. Feedback should be measurable for students – what can they change or improve? Using a rubric to grade an assessment has several benefits. A rubric provides a clear and consistent framework for evaluating student performance, which can help students understand what is expected of them and how their work will be evaluated. This can foster a sense of trust and collaboration between instructors and students and can help students feel more prepared and motivated.
- What was it that made the work good? (So they can do it again!)
- What needs more work and how can they improve the quality of their work? (Specifically!)
- Communicate to your students in advance when you will grade and return all assignments and exams. Online students need to self-regulate their time and learning and will need to adapt as needed. How long it will take to grade assignments and send meaningful feedback to students depends, of course, on the nature of the assignment. However, students may not be able to proceed in your course until they get your feedback on how they are doing. Please strive to get graded assignments, complete with meaningful feedback, to your students as promptly as possible. As a general rule of thumb, it seems reasonable to expect that student will receive their grades, including feedback, within one week of submitting an assignment. If one anticipates that it will take longer than that to return students’ work, it is best to inform them in advance when their grades and feedback will be available.
- Contribute to the continual update and improvement of the course content. When teaching face-to-face, it is expected that an instructor is keeping the content of the course current and is routinely “tweaking” the course based on feedback from students, peers, and administrators. Teaching an online course is no different! Because your course is online, however, as you update your course content, learning activities, and assessments, you’ll need to also pay attention to spelling and grammar, as well as copyright, usability, and accessibility best practices.
- Maintain Transparency. Faculty transparency refers to the practice of being open and honest with students about the course content, expectations, and grading policies. This can involve sharing course syllabi, explaining the rationale behind assignments and assessments, and clearly communicating any changes or updates to the course. By being transparent with students, faculty can help them understand what is expected of them and how they will be evaluated. This can foster a sense of trust and collaboration between faculty and students, and can also help students feel more prepared and confident in their coursework. Additionally, faculty transparency can promote accountability and fairness, as it allows students to understand the criteria by which they will be graded and to address any concerns or questions they may have. Overall, faculty transparency can benefit both students and instructors and can help create a positive and effective learning environment.
- Aim for Flexibility. This can involve offering multiple formats for course content and assessments, providing alternative due dates or options for completing assignments and allowing for individualized support and accommodations. Flexibility in a course can help students who have different learning styles, schedules, or abilities to succeed in the course. It can also allow for modifications and adjustments to be made in response to changing circumstances or unforeseen challenges (for Faculty and students alike). Overall, flexibility in an online course can help create a more inclusive and effective learning environment for all students.
- Be proactive if you notice students falling behind. Reaching out to the student directly to discuss their progress and any challenges they may be facing. This can involve providing support and encouragement, and offering suggestions for how the student can catch up and get back on track. Additionally, connect with and encourage students to seek help from The Writing Center or Tutoring services and utilize the Academic Support Center.
- Create a Safe and Supportive Learning Environment. Trauma-informed teaching involves creating a safe and supportive learning environment for all students, recognizing the signs of trauma and its impact on learning, and using teaching methods and strategies that are sensitive to the needs of students who have experienced trauma. This may involve using trauma-informed assessment methods, providing access to support services, and using trauma-informed classroom management strategies.
Adapted from Penn State College of Earth & Mineral Science under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.