Here are 4 Tips to Improve Student Communication Online

It’s important to be able to encourage student communication online during times when classes on campus are disrupted by institutions. Regular communication and touch points will help you facilitate collaboration and discussion in your online classroom.
These 4 tips will help students communicate online.

1) Communicate at the very least 5 times per week
You have two options: WebAssign or your learning management system. This will allow you to communicate with students on a regular basis. WebAssign lets you create and schedule class announcements, and send private messages to students.
You can enable the Ask Your Teacher function for students who are having difficulty with assignments or topics. Students can also use this function to ask questions and send you a problem or assignment. This will enable you to see exactly what assignment or problem they are working on, and help you support them effectively. You will ensure that your students know you are there for them by communicating with them and responding to their questions at least five times per week.
Pro Tip: Ask My Teacher messages can be sent to you via email notifications. Make sure this is enabled in your course.
2) Provide online office hours
Students can feel isolated in a digital environment and may become frustrated when they are unable to solve a problem. Online office hours can be a great way to foster a collaborative learning environment.
Notify your students about the times you will be available for office hours. They can also use the Ask Your Teacher feature and private messages in WebAssign for any questions. To encourage participation, you can require students to attend at least one office hours session. You can make it work and your students will be grateful!
3) Assign group work
Group work is a great way to encourage student communication online. WebAssign allows students to work together on a scenario or assignment as a group. It also gives them the opportunity to collaborate beyond the traditional classroom. WebAssign makes it easy to create group assignments and you can choose the groups randomly or intentionally.
These best practices are important to remember:
Ideal for groups to have 3 students each
Each member of a group should be assigned a role
To foster an exchange of ideas, students should work in diverse groups throughout the term.
Group diversity is a benefit – include a mixture of lower and better performing students so that they can support each other.
4) Encourage discussion
WebAssign allows you to create as many discussion forums online as you like. Make sure to explain your expectations to students when you create discussion forums. This will ensure that they are able to understand how to use them.
Your students should be able to participate in the discussion. Ask them questions about assignments, class topics, or to share study tools. To increase their effectiveness, make sure they respond to classmates’ questions and posts a part of their grade.
The result? The result? Students will be more engaged with your course concepts, converse more with each other, and you may even notice that your students are asking questions of each other, which can give you much-needed time back in your day.

Are you looking for more WebAssign tips?
It can be stressful to transition to a hybrid or virtual course. Let us help! These resources are available to help you.
You can find more WebAssign peer tips and success stories, as well as best practices, here.
For step-by-step instructions and tutorials, search topics in WebAssign Help.
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