Generally, in the online classroom students and the instructor connect synchronously or asynchronously while in separate locations. Thus, making it vital for instructors to play a pivotal role in student engagement and retention to avoid or minimize challenges beyond those of a traditional classroom. This blog article focuses on potential challenges that often emerge for instructor-student interaction in the online classroom.
Marketing
Touchpoints
Hicks, Gray, and Bond
(2019) posited using marketing touchpoints to solve instructor-student
interaction challenges. A touchpoint is a marketing term used to refer to any
point a customer comes in contact with a business, before, during, or after
they make a purchase. From an educational perspective, touchpoints represent an
opportunity for instructors to “inform and remind students about the value of
class content and the value of how they should engage with the classroom
content” (p. 2). Using a touchpoint blueprint for connecting with online
students helps to build and establish the instructor’s presence in the online
course and engagement with students.
Instructors can utilize
touchpoints throughout the three phases of an online course (preclass, during
class, and postclass). Hicks, Gray, and Bond (2019) identified email,
announcements, and discussion board posts as primary touchpoints in an online
classroom to optimize instructor-student interactions. “Instructor-student
interactions may occur on a one-to-one, small group, or whole-class basis”
(Davidson-Shivers, 2009, p.24). A welcome email before the course begins is an
essential preclass touchpoint to show students that the instructor is present
and available. Active class touchpoints occur once the class begins and before
it ends. One active class touchpoint is a weekly reminder to all students of
the start of a new week to provide a brief discussion on key concepts or help
focus students on important details of an assignment. Another active class
touchpoint is directed feedback to individual students or small groups, such as
reaching out to a student who struggled with a concept or a discussion board
post to a group to provide additional resources. One postclass touchpoint for
the whole class can include an end-of-course message recognizing and praising
students’ successful completion of the course.
Instructor
Personalized Audio Lectures
Steele, Robertson, and
Mandernach (2018) examined the value of instructor-personalized audio lectures
as a means of fostering students’ engagement with course content and the online
learning experience. The authors compared instructor-generated audio lectures
to non-personalized, standardized content presentations (OER, publisher or
standardized content materials). Qualitative data indicated higher satisfaction,
connection, and engagement from students listening to personalized audio
lectures. Instructor-generated audio lectures “created a more engaging
connection between online students and their instructor” (p. 139).
Audio lectures provide a
means of promoting instructor-student interaction in a more personalized
manner. The following are instructional strategies for integrating audio
lectures into the online classroom (Steele, Robertson, and Mandernach, 2018):
- Integrate audio supplements at the onset of an online class to establish rapport between the instructor and students.
- Use audio lectures as announcements to summarize weekly activities and expectations.
- Offer audio supplements, such as podcasts, as an alternative to text-based content provide in the course.
- Use audio lectures as an on-the-go option for listening to a course lecture.
- Provide audio feedback to students’ assignments.
- Response to students within the discussion forum with an audio response rather than a written reply.
- Audio lectures provide a key opportunity for instructor-student interaction, but also give students more control over their online learning experience.
Conclusion
In conclusion, instructor-student
interaction is key to student success yet challenging due to the remote nature
of the online classroom. Preclass, during class, and postclass touchpoints are
effective for increasing instructor-student interaction in online courses.
Also, instructor-generated audio lectures provide another opportunity for instructor-student
interaction. To be fully engaged in the learning process, students need to
connect with the instructor in a meaningful way. Students’ interaction with the
content and other students play a vital role in the online classroom as
well.
References:
Davidson-Shivers, G. V. (2009). Frequency and
types of instructor interactions in online instruction. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 8(1), 23–40. Retrieved from
www.ncolr.org/jiol
Hicks, N., Gray, D. M., & Bond, J. (2019).
A blueprint for executing instructor-student interactions in the online
classroom using marketing touchpoints. Journal of Educators Online, 16(1),
1–11. doi:10.9743/jeo.2019.16.1.4
Steele, J. P., Robertson, S. N., &
Mandernach, B. J. (2018). Beyond content: The value of instructor-student
connections in the online classroom. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching
& Learning, 18(4), 130–150. doi:10.14434/josotl.v18i4.23430
Cite this blog:
Washington, G. (2019, August 28). The
Online Classroom: Instructor-Student Interactions [Blog post]. Retrieved
from https://pedagogybeforetechnology.blogspot.com/
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Altmann from Pixabay
