Managing Online Courses: Strategies to Support Students
Imagine that you are the student, on your own, trying to make sense of what is in front of you on the screen.
Try to envision how your students are experiencing the class for the first time when everything is new, and they do not know where to start and what is most important. Also, try to get to know your learners to understand how differences in their backgrounds and abilities, such as age, culture, motivation, online experience, and other characteristics, may influence learning. Knowing your learners is important to providing the help and support they may need to succeed.
Instructors set out to support their students throughout a course to the best of their ability. This need to support eLearners is even greater for online instructors, as the online environment significantly affects the learner experience, especially regarding interactions between instructors and students. Furthermore, each student’s learning background, skills, and motivations can either minimize or increase the impact of the online environment on their learning experience. Online instructors who recognize which student skills and motivations can help with the learning process will be better equipped to support their eLearners.
Why is it important?
The online environment's impact on eLearners is due to two main factors: the requirement of technology and the physical separation of instructor and students. The first factor means that students must be proficient with technology to access course materials and communicate with others. The second factor—the physical separation—means that students have increased autonomy over their learning process and, with that, increased responsibility and need for self-discipline. They might also have increased anxiety regarding the learning process. All of these elements require heightened attention to support online learners.
How to put it into practice?
Instructors face both challenges and opportunities when it comes to supporting eLearners. Although they must take into account the same technological and physical factors of the online environment that impact the learning experience for students, instructors have the opportunity to counteract those challenges for students through a variety of support structures and strategies:
In an online course, learner supports have three main goals:
- Acquaint students with the online learning experience.
- Address obstacles that interfere with learner success.
- Provide contact information or links to people or services that can help the learner.
Here are a few specific examples of support for learners:
- student orientation
- welcome letter
- course organization and rhythm
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Student orientation
A well-designed student orientation can help fulfill the first aim of support for learners by including one or more of the following:
- Introduction
- Course Overview
- Instructor biography and contact information
- Syllabus (downloadable copy)
- Schedule
- Assignment & assessment rubrics
- Technology requirements, training, and support information
- Student support services information
- Community-building activities
- Read more about how to support students with an orientation module and syllabus.
Welcome letter
The welcome letter briefly introduces the course, covering important navigation instructions, necessary prerequisite knowledge, and pertinent information regarding the online environment, among other things. It introduces the instructor(s) to the students and is usually emailed to students. A welcome letter typically includes these items:
- Name of the course
- Instructor name and contact information
- Course description (in-depth)
- Format (e.g., fully online or blended)
- Organization & structure
- Important dates (including start and end dates)
- Estimated weekly time commitment
- Textbooks or required resources
- Course technology (including technical requirements)
- Tips for success and/or next steps
- How to access the course
- Support & troubleshooting (technical assistance)
- Read more about how creating a welcome message or video sets the tone for inclusive learning in your course.
Course organization and rhythm
Course content and materials are only effective if students can follow along. Thoughtfully organizing your course intuitively and navigable helps minimize the mental energy students expend finding what they need to be successful, thereby allowing students to focus on the learning activities themselves. Therefore, organizing the course, Canvas site and other online components is important so they are easy to navigate.
A course map and rhythm documents are helpful planning tools, even if they will not necessarily appear in the course. Within Canvas, Modules can group a given topic’s materials, activities, and assessments. A clearly defined schedule can show when and how quickly they should proceed through each module. Read about how to organize a course and develop a course rhythm to help students focus on learning.
How students learn
There are seven research-based principles regarding how students learn that should inform the support of eLearners. These principles were originally developed by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in 2010.
The following table provides instructional strategies for each principle.
| Principle | Examples of Instructional Strategies |
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| Principle 1: Students’ prior knowledge can help or hinder learning. | Collect data about students and use it to design instruction; for example, have students assess their prior knowledge through a survey, quiz, or poll. |
| Principle 2: How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know. |
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| Principle 3: Students’ motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn. |
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| Principle 4: To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned. |
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| Principle 5: Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning. |
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| Principle 6: Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning. |
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| Principle 7: To become self-directed learners, students must assess, evaluate, plan, monitor, and adjust as needed. |
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Reference: Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., Lovett, M. C., DiPietro, M., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: 7 research-based principles for smart teaching.