Even in student-centered, active learning focused classes, instructors play a vital role in facilitating learning. In online courses, instructor presence is particularly important for student success and satisfaction in the course, and it helps build community among your learners.

Be a Role Model

Perhaps it goes without saying, but it is important for you to set a good example of what you expect from your students. If you want students to be engaged in the course, then you should be engaged. If you want students to meet assignment deadlines, then you should meet your deadlines for posting materials or grading assignments. If you want students to respond to you in a timely fashion, then you should respond to student inquiries when you say you will. Students will appreciate your presence in the course, and you can reinforce the habits that are most important for success in an online course.

If you want students to be engaged in the course, then you should be engaged.

Post Weekly Announcements

One effective way to establish your presence in an online course is to post regular announcements in Canvas. These announcements can contextualize the ideas or provide some reminders for a given week or module. Canvas allows you to post text, images, audio, and video, and announcements can be set up so that students are able to reply with questions or comments. By using supportive language in your announcements, you can also communicate that you are willing and available to help students when they need it.

Use Supportive Language

In your syllabus, your assignments, and your communications, using language that is supportive in tone and invites students to contact you tends to build a sense of community and increase student satisfaction in the course. Students sometimes have difficulty reading tone in text documents and emails, so creating disciplinary and logistical content—such as voice-over PowerPoints and webcam recordings—that provide audio and visual cues can help relieve student anxiety and convey your support.

Virtual Office Hours

While students can always contact you via email or Canvas, you may want to give students the opportunity to meet with you virtually during regularly-scheduled office hours using the campus-supported webconferencing tool Webex Meetings. Webex Meetings allows you to share a whiteboard, applications, and files so that you can review a student essay or explain a challenging concept in real time, just as you would in your physical office.

Requiring students to visit you in virtual office hours for a conference early in the semester is one way to encourage them to visit you later when they need assistance. Keep in mind, however, that not all students will be available during your scheduled office time, so be sure to include "and by appointment" on your syllabus and invite students to schedule a time that works for them. It is helpful to remind students from time-to-time that you're available to meet during virtual office hours.

Let Students Know How to Contact You

In your syllabus, you should let students know the best way to contact you and how long it will take you to respond. A 24-hour or less turnaround time for replying to student email inquiries is standard. If you can provide students with other ways to contact you, such as by phone or text, they are more likely to reach out for assistance when they need it. Whatever you choose, let your students know!

Be Yourself

Just like in face-to-face classes, students in online courses want to feel connected to their instructors. Perhaps more importantly, they want to know that there is a real person on the other side of the screen, so if you tend to share anecdotes about yourself in your face-to-face classes, find ways to do so in your online courses. If you have a quirky or funny personality, let it come out through your videos or PowerPoints. Online teaching doesn't mean you have to be someone you are not—be yourself.

Provide Assignment Instructions in a way that are easily understood by students.

Adopting a framework, like Transparent Assignments (Links to an external site.), can help students understand what they need to do and understand why it is important while reducing the questions you may receive. Connect with students about the assignment by offering relevant and prompt (Links to an external site.) feedback. You might also think about ways (e.g., in your syllabus, during the first week, etc.) to manage student expectations regarding assignment feedback (e.g., how long can they expect between the due date and your feedback?). Finally, if you have students submit assignments in Canvas (Links to an external site.), you can use Speedgrader (Links to an external site.) and rubrics (Links to an external site.) to evaluate and give feedback on assignments quickly.