Today’s tech tip is about having a plan for Regular Effective Contact in your online and hybrid courses and making it visible.
One suggestion is to add a “Regular Effective Contact” section to your Syllabus that outlines your plan for communicating with your students online. This is also a great place to list your expected response times on questions and grading, and to quantify any contact that happens outside of Canvas, such as in-person office hours.
Here is just one of many possible examples:
What You Can Expect From Me:
- Weekly Announcements with a checklist of what we’re working on, answers to FAQs, other pertinent info.
- Weekly input in class discussions; capstone post summarizing and bridging ideas.
- Brief videos of me introducing each unit.
- The following response times for questions and grades:
- Email and Canvas Conversations – within 48 hours
- Class Discussion board questions – within 48 hours
- Grades for Quizzes – upon submission
- Grades for Final Exam – within 1 week of submission
- Grades for Discussions and Homework – within 2 weeks of due date
- Grades for Research Project – within 4 weeks of due date
- You can also find me in my office on campus, Holt 121, M-W-F 3:00-4:00 PM.
As always, let us know if you have any questions!
-Jenn Azzaro
Completing the POCR review process for my Psych 02 (Statistics for the Social Sciences) course was a challenging and rewarding experience. The process made me view my course through a new equity lens to make sure all students had the accessibility to be successful in the course. I learned a lot from the process and my skills on CANVAS were sharpened. I am able to use the information I learned from the POCR review and apply it to other courses that I teach.
I would highly recommend the POCR process for any instructors seeking to take their online course to the next level. Having gone through the process twice, I can say with confidence that my online courses are more organized and student-centered than ever. This process really allows you to dive deeply into online learning and provides you with the opportunity to develop a course that takes into consideration the varying learning styles of students.
I thought my classes were pretty well organized and dialed in until I went through the POCR process. I was able to raise my online course to a much higher standard. The process is very structured and clear and for me it revealed several areas that needed improvement. The support team were all amazing and very well organized and more importantly, they understand how challenging it is to design a class while teaching. I would encourage every instructor who teaches online to consider the POCR process.
Moving my Eng 1B through POCR made me rethink every choice I make in my online teaching. Is this the most effective way to structure a lecture? Is this the most impactful and relatable assignment? Have I taken enough steps to ensure that no student gets lost? Looking at my class with fresh eyes has made my class more organized, accessible, and engaging for my students.
At a time when the Covid-19 pandemic required faculty to become proficient at executing virtual instruction, I found the POCR process to be invaluable to my goal of designing effective hybrid and asynchronous courses that supported my students’ success. I frequently receive positive feedback from students describing their appreciation for varied elements of our courses spanning content presentation, interaction, assessment, and accessibility which I attribute largely to the professional development that I have received through the POCR process.
By going through the POCR review process, my class is more accessible, presentable, and organized. Students liked accessing this class which was organized and manageable.
