Connect with My Students

INTRODUCE YOURSELF

Upload a recent profile photo to your Canvas Course. Your profile photo, or a photo of you at the start of the course alongside a brief bio will allow students to get to know who you are even though they can't see you in person. Introducing yourself personalizes the course so that students feel invited to participate and engage in a real course with a real human being.

• See How Do I Add a Profile Picture?

ASK STUDENTS TO INTRODUCE THEMSELVES

• See How Do I Create a Discussion?

In remote and online instruction, “teaching presence” refers to the way that instructors can convey their virtual presence in the online classroom. Providing guidance and instruction on how students should be participating, engaging with the material, interacting with their peers, and progressing toward the learning goals all create a sense of teaching presence in an online classroom. Teaching presence does not always have to be synchronous; we share some ideas below for conveying presence via recorded video, email communication, and sending regular course announcements.   

STAY ACTIVE ON DISCUSSION BOARDS

• See How Do I Reply to a Discussion?

SEND TIMELY ANNOUNCEMENTS

• See  How Do I Add An Announcement?

CONSIDER PROVIDING VIDEO OR AUDIO FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS

In the remote classroom, students still want to connect with their instructors as teachers and on a human level, and it can be difficult to re-create those occasions for connection as easily when we are all behind computer screens. One additional way you might consider projecting your "instructor presence" into the course is by leaving audio or video feedback on student work. You do not need to leave the Canvas system to do this; both instructors and students in Canvas can upload audio and video files alongside text comments on a student submission. The image below highlights the icon within Canvas's Speedgrader tool that will allow you to do this:

Collecting early student feedback early is a great way to assess how students are experiencing your remote course. Weeks three, four, or five of the quarter are a good time to collect early feedback from students on how their learning is progressing. Early feedback from students at this point in the quarter helps to identify what is working well in your course(s), as well as challenges or concerns students have. Often, at this point in the quarter, students reveal challenges they may not otherwise have shared that can be acted upon fairly easily. There are a few ways you can collect student feedback:

Request support from an Education Specialist in the Teaching + Learning Commons Engaged Teaching Hub who can provide consultation on survey questions, collect and summarize student feedback, and provide guidance on responding effectively to the feedback. We can host an anonymous survey for you and provide summary results to you; or we can help you to adapt a survey of your own. (Click to request a consultation (Google Form)).

Create a Google survey or an anonymous Canvas survey with open-ended questions, embed the link in an announcement in Canvas, and encourage students to fill it out. If you have time during lecture or another synchronous meeting to have students fill the survey out, this can be a good strategy for raising response rates. We recommend questions that focus on student agency in monitoring their learning environment. We have found these questions to be effective (Google Form). (Please email Engaged Teaching Hub if you would like support with adapting a survey in Canvas or Google forms: engagedteaching@ucsd.edu).

3. Encourage students to reflect on their own challenges and to seek support.

Whether you choose to work with an Education Specialist or design your own feedback tool, this point in the quarter is also a good time for students to check in with their own learning and consider what changes they might wish to make going forward. We encourage you to include a question in your survey that asks students to reflect on what they could do to enhance their learning in your course, and to address these ideas in your response to the student feedback you collect.

Facilitate a regular meeting time for students to connect via Zoom and watch your pre-recorded videos together! This provides an opportunity for students to meet other students, as they work through the instructional media you have made available in the course.

CONSIDERATIONS 

• • Assign a TA or a student volunteer to coordinate the Zoom sessions. They will need to schedule the regular time(s) and allow one attendee to share their screen while watching the videos. Be sure the host is aware of Zoom meeting safeguards.
• • Provide discussion questions that can guide reflection after the students have completed the videos.
  • Be available to answer questions, but don’t necessarily lead the sessions – this works best when students are watching together.
  • Ensure equitable access to the sessions, by publicizing the days/times and encouraging scheduling at different days/times.

Zoom works well for holding remote office hours: instructors can answer questions in real time, demonstrate problem-solving strategies, and meet individually or in groups with students to work through difficult topics or continue in-class conversations. Just like face-to-face office hours, it can be helpful to talk with students about the importance of office hours, and give them a sense of what to expect. If you welcome students to come to office hours and simply chat about your research or their own aspirations, emphasize this to students and remind them regularly during lectures and class meetings that you look forward to seeing them at office hours. 

Hosting office hours on Zoom:

• To meet students individually: Turn on the waiting room feature to allow for a one-on-one OH setting. This can allow you, as the host, to admit students one at a time or a group of students who are working together.
• To have students work together or rotate between individual students: If you want to be able to have students work together or if you want to rotate between students, you can move students from the main room into breakout rooms. See Getting Started with Breakout Rooms. This will allow students to be split into small groups to discuss topics or to work on similar problems. Alternatively, you could put students into individual breakout rooms for them to be able to work while you rotate through the breakout rooms. 

Considerations to make your OH accessible to the most number of students:

• Poll students to find a time that most can attend, or vary the time of your office hours from week to week to accommodate different student schedules
• Use Canvas Scheduler or Google Calendar to have students sign up for an appointment slot and avoid long waits
• Consider setting up a discussion forum to act as an asynchronous space for students to ask and answer questions. 

For more strategies regarding remote office hours, see the full Engaging Students Through Remote Office Hours resource.