Communicate: Communications Guidelines 2.1.2

Communicate: Communications Guidelines 2.1.2

Welcoming Communication:

F2F Schools conduct “Open House” and “Curriculum Night” as a means to welcome parents and students as well as to inform them of and engage them in the learning process.  This is a tremendous opportunity to build relationships based on good will, trust, and mutual benefit. 

The online school should be no different.  Before the first day of the semester, welcoming communications will be sent via email to all parents and students.  Parents and students will be requested to keep the email for reference in the coming weeks for the valuable resources an links it contains. Of course, the email will include a well organized listing of the generic information that details the syllabus, expectations, method(s) of communication, resources, grading information, and other important academic policies. Embedded in the welcoming email will be links to (mostly) teacher created resources (welcome videos , “how-to” screen-casts and other multimedia presentations or tutorials hosted on the LMS) that further explain aspects of the online school experience.  These links will accompany each section of information and will provide a “how-to” experience to assist students and parents in the use of the resources.  (As examples, a screen-cast can be made of the process to sign up for remind101, or a video can be made to exhort students to sign up for the alerts and other helpful tools in their LMS.)  Additionally, a link to the instructors CV will be shared.

Personal Notes:

Within the first week, a phone conversation will be initiated to make sure students and parents are fully connected with the LMS and teacher.  At this time, the teacher will also verify contact information.  This phone call should be positive and welcoming, allaying as many fears of the “unknown” as possible for the learner and parent.  Special questions are addressed and ways to contact the instructor are reviewed.  Also discussed will be the importance of participating in both synchronous and asynchronous help sessions online. A personal email will follow this phone conversation to summarize and document the conversation.

Ongoing communication:

“Touch Base Tuesday” updates will occur each week that highlight the activities of the week , speak to solutions to problems that have arisen,  commend students on participation in synchronous or asynchronous sessions, and reminders for due dates or any project specifications.  These mass communication updates are to be team-building and supportive as collaboration is to be an important component of the online classroom experience.   Also included will be a direct link to the LMS login page so students and parents can access most recent grades- which will ALWAYS include detailed and useful instructor commentary. (Commentary necessarily includes notes on strengths and areas of improvement.) This update will automatically be sent to students and parents who have elected to receive updated via email.

Additionally, personal email, postcards or phone calls will be made/sent to reach out, compliment, encourage, and/or redirect students as necessary.  Compliments will also be given in this manner for exemplary work or performance.  Personal notes are extremely important to maintain high levels of student engagement and personal pride.

School Communication Policies:

With written communication, keep it professional, direct, and tactful.  Address the items of concern in a positive and supportive way.  Do not get bogged down in lengthy email- make a phone call instead and send a short recap to document the outcome.  In most communication, respond as quickly as possible.  For communication that has an attacking tone- wait some time to let any possible negative emotion settle before responding.  Again- keep it brief, and document it.

Tools available for effective communication range as wide as their purposes.  For mass communication, services like Remind101.com are helpful to send short snippets, alerts, or point the receiver to an important update on the LMS.  Blogs and full utilization of LMS features can enhance mass communication.  For personal communication, phone calls, post cards, and email can be most appropriate.

It is important to remember to keep ONE method of course communication as the standard.  Students can be overwhelmed with a variety of communication methods- receiving a tweet, a remind 101, an email, an LMS alert, and possibly even a phone call- all within an hour's time.  I will be considerate and communicate HOW I plan to use the different communication methods---and which method is the "gold standard" for course information.

Documenting Communication:

Documentation of communication will be kept in an organized and easy to navigate format.  A log will be kept noting the date, time, and context of the communication. Administrators will be provided with a copy of the information in cases of violations, parental concerns, major student concerns, threats, and on of any additional items requested by the administration or addressed in communication policies.