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Online Participation Strategies

Frequent communication is important in an online course, including between instructors and students and students and students. Therefore, it is important to understand the dynamics of online communication and how to encourage students to participate online. While the course is in progress, there are several communication techniques that can be employed to manage the participation of students in the online environment.

Tips for Dealing with Student Participation Challenges

One of the best ways to prevent behavior issues is to communicate expectations early and often. The following are strategies for keeping online students focused and on task:

  • Be explicit and detailed in the syllabus about course participation guidelines.
  • Make sure that expectations—and intolerable behaviors—are clear to all students at the outset.
  • Reinforce due dates, schedules, and timelines.
  • Post materials and conduct activities on a preset schedule.
  • Allow students to keep track of their progress.
  • Be organized — model the behavior you would like to see from your students.
  • Create clear and concise grading rubrics that define what is expected in each assignment and how the final grade will be calculated.
  • Model the expected behavior in discussion postings and sample responses.

Explore several communication techniques by clicking on the drop-down topics below.

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Become familiar with the University Code of Conduct for students. For additional information, please refer to the section in the Student Handbook titled Student Academic Disciplinary Procedures. UW-Madison provides the following: Student Academic Misconduct Policies.



Keywords:
online, teaching,
Doc ID:
123151
Owned by:
Karen S. in Instructional Resources
Created:
2022-12-20
Updated:
2024-08-23
Sites:
Center for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring