M2: Engaging with your students

Online courses can provide rich and engaging learning experiences for students when there are opportunities to interact with the instructor, the other students, and the course materials. One model, referred to as the Community of Inquiry model (developed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000)), identifies three dimensions of presence that define learning interactions, and suggests that effective learning experiences occur when the three dimensions coincide.

Social presence is about interaction with peers.
Cognitive presence is the extent to which learners are able to construct meaning through reflection and interaction with content.
Teaching presence is the design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes to achieve learning outcomes through interaction with instructors.

While each of these dimensions is distinct, incorporating the easy-to-implement strategies in the checklist that follows will help you to address all of the dimensions. This will help you to create an engaging learning experience, and may also help to reduce your workload because students will be aware of the course requirements and know a little bit about you and other students in the course.

Checklist #3: The first week

The first few weeks of the term are the most important time for connecting with your students to create a community of learning, and one of the key factors is how you establish your teaching presence in the course. This checklist includes three engagement interactions to help you to connect with your students at this critical time. Using these methods will help to get you off to a great start for the rest of the term. We also recommend you connect with your Teaching Assistants (TAs) if applicable.

Engaging with students

Introduce yourself and send a welcome message to your students.

A welcome message lets students in on your personality as an instructor and understand the expectations for the first week of class. Some of the content in your message might be repeated from the course introduction materials, but students will find it helpful to see what you emphasize and think is important. Your welcome message could be in the form of text or recorded video. You may consider mentioning that you will be asking for feedback during the course (refer to Checklist 4: Communicating with students during the course) and at the end of the course (see M3: End-of-course communication with students). Refer to Empowering Students through Your Personal Narrative Links to an external site. for tips on creating a video and Keepteaching.ubc.ca for instructions on recording and uploading videos to Canvas.

The welcome message is a good place to introduce yourself and establish yourself as a unique individual sharing the classroom with other unique individuals. In addition to providing your academic background, it allows you to convey your excitement for the subject you’re teaching and helps students understand what appealed to you about the subject when you were a student. Including information about your positionality - the position from which you view, listen, and act in your life, may also be interesting to students (Grain, 2022).

Encourage students to introduce themselves in the Introductions discussion forum.

If you have an “Introductions” discussion board, help students to connect with each other by getting the ball rolling, and posting your own personal introduction. In this post, tell your students what information you would like them to include in their own introductions. You may also consider giving students different options to introduce themselves (i.e., some may use text, some audio, some video, etc.). Don't forget to review the personal introductions that your students post to the class discussion forum and respond to each, or to the entire class in a single note, as a way of welcome.

At the end of the first week of the course, contact students who have not yet accessed your online course.

In Canvas, you can easily see who has, and has not, accessed your class through the Course Access Report Links to an external site.. If a student hasn't accessed the class yet, there may be a problem that needs your attention.

Engaging with Teaching Assistants

You may have done so prior to the first week of the course, but if you have not, it is essential you make plans to meet with your teaching assistant(s) during the first week of the course, to discuss their roles, expectations, and availability over the duration of the course. Workshops to assist TAs with developing skills for using technology, grading assignments, and facilitating discussions are available through the CTLT.

Checklist 4: Communicating with students during the course

The tips in this checklist will help you to create a teaching presence during your course (by implementing dimensions of the Community of Inquiry Model), and connect with your students.

Mid-course feedback

Collect information from students near the midpoint of your course so that you can make adjustments and improvements during the remainder of the course. You may also wish to review the UBC Mid-Course Feedback website.

Asynchronous engagement activities

Send a course-wide announcement at least once per week by using Canvas email Links to an external site., announcements Links to an external site., or discussions Links to an external site.. In this announcement, include a written or video recorded short overview of the week that outlines:

A review of key points from the current week. If a discussion forum has ended, include a summary of what was discussed and point out any overall misconceptions or misinformation that you noticed in the discussion posts.
A list of frequently asked questions about the course and each assignment that could be used across sections and terms.
A summary of key learning activities for the upcoming week.
You can also “bring the outside into the class” by posting announcements about related events happening at UBC (see UBCV Life Blog) or externally.

Provide students with feedback by checking and responding to email and discussion forums frequently throughout the week. If a post appears vague, ask for clarification by letting your students know what elements are missing and what you expect to see. If your course has a TA, ask them to assist with facilitating and monitoring the discussion board conversations and responding to emails.
Check student participation (view login, page views, discussion posts) and check-in with students who may be disengaging. Try to help them stay focussed through feedback, contact, and monitoring engagement in the Canvas course (e.g., dashboard, discussion forum, etc.). The Canvas Analytics Links to an external site. tool may be useful for providing you with information.
If you have an off-topic discussion, encourage students to discuss other topics that may be of interest that may not be directly related to the course. You can also post things of interest to you here!
If you have a Q&A discussion, respond to the questions asked. You can also encourage students to answer questions from other students.

Synchronous engagement activities

Offer 1:1 synchronous, flexible office hours. Be flexible with how office-hour support is made available and offered; remember that students may be balancing challenging workloads and/or be in different timezones.
Offer group virtual office hours that students can attend in a group. This allows you to respond to student questions or concerns collectively rather than individually.
Set up an online drop-in room for students to use. Promote the use of Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Students can use this for live, synchronous engagement with one another, to practice setting up their mic/video, or to practice presentations.
Before major assignments or exams, schedule a synchronous Q&A session so you can answer student questions all at once instead of having to respond to individuals. Consider creating a discussion forum in Canvas for students to submit questions ahead of time, allowing students to ask questions during the session by chat and by voice. You may also consider recording this session for students who are unable to attend.

If your course includes synchronous meetings, a web-conferencing and collaboration tool, such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams will let you meet with students in real time online. Refer to the Technical Support section in the Course introduction for more information about setting-up and accessing Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

During your first class session, orient your students to the environment and share your expectations for online participation (e.g., join early, stay on mute, raise your hand, etc.).
Engage students during live sessions. Using Zoom you can do many activities such as: present using whiteboards, share screens and resources, interact by voice or text chats, enable group discussions using break-out rooms, and administer polls. These activities can help students to build social connections as well. Refer to the Zoom Instructor guide for information about scheduling and running real-time sessions in Zoom.