Tips for communicating with students in online classes

If your course relies on contact between students during group work or small group discussions, think about how you will encourage collaboration among students, whether in person or online.

Take the time to explain to students why collaboration is an important part of the course, describing how group work is connected to learning goals and outcomes. Rather than prescribing a specific online collaboration tool, offer recommendations for useful tools that students can use (e.g., Microsoft Teams ), and then give them the flexibility to choose what works best for them. Keep in mind that students may need to learn new technologies in addition to the course content, so try to keep the number of required tools as low as possible.

You can start group work by having groups create their own rubric to define how they will measure their own success. Encourage them to ask themselves: What does effective group collaboration look like for us? The rubric they develop will help them set their own expectations and guide their engagement.