Communicate: Ongoing Communication 2.1.3

Communicate: Ongoing Communication 2.1.3

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.

To help with recall, a different color background and topic related image will be included in the communication as students and parents might find it more engaging to refer to "The Mountain Update", instead of to, "Section 2.6a and 2.6b project".  Images help make a personal connections- stunning photographs, clever comics, and creatively captioned images make an emotional connection.  Both of these connections have been shown to increase engagement and performance.

A FERPA compliant example of of a "Touch Base Tuesday" update can be found here:
Link to Dropbox file: Ongoing Communication Example

Projects in this course are larger than they seem.  Start Early!

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.