THREAD: Communication with the students you’re teaching will be so critical during this academic year. Here’s a few things to think about - it’s not too late!
1/ Communicate regularly ideally have set times/days i.e. Mon & Fri - so students hear from you regularly and there’s some predictable rhythm to it.
2/ Make the LMS announcements page or equivalent the landing page for your course area, when combined with the above it’ll be one of the most dynamic components of your area and a genuine place of your presence and communication
3/ Be succinct not verbose - we tend to skim read online so avoid long, dense messages, and use writing for web techniques, headings, bullets and other techniques
4/ It goes without saying but a conversational tone in your writing is more preferable to a formal one. If you’re thinking about professional distance as an educator, you probably don’t need to worry about it!
5/ Things like emojis and emoticons can help reinforce intended meanings, reduce ambiguity and convey your personality.
6/ Ultimately, this is all a part of providing clarity, building relationships between you and your students and scaffolding their learning - all things that will help students succeed - something we all want to see
