Keep students engaged, alert, and on task by personalizing the learning activities with video, audio, and communications/monitoring.
- Live Chat: This messaging tool allows you to chat (text, audio/video) directly with your students.
i. Make yourself available to chat when it is convenient for you
ii. Online office hours
iii. Have a set time of when you will be online to answer questions - Instructor Notes: In the online study environment, students will be most successful if they can feel your presence
throughout the course.
i. Add your own voice to the activities that your students complete online via Instructor Notes.
ii. Provide additional instruction
iii. Give a tip on a particular question
iv . Provide a specific reminder about a grammar topic
v. Add a model
vi. Offer words of encouragement! - Monitoring and “Check-ins”: Monitor students’ online work and provide regular feedback.
i. Assign instructor-graded activities and provide personalized feedback
ii. Send “just checking in” emails or messages throughout the semester
iii. Utilize “Announcements” in your Communication tool - Instructor-Created Content: Further personalize your course and meet the needs of your students by creating an activity that specifically relates to a lesson theme, cultural topic, reading, or communicative activity.
i. Student audio recordings and written compositions
ii. Students respond individually with an open-ended oral or written response. These activities can be enriched by adding text, photo/image or audio references. Here are activity ideas: - Leave a voicemail/note for a specific purpose
- Submit a review of a cultural reading
- Descriptions of images
- Oral assessments
- Assign a weekly dialogue journal in which students communicate with you about different cultural or language topics
- Have students reflect on what they’ve learned at the end of a lesson
i. Partner Chats – create Partner Chats that you can complete with students
ii. Video
iii. Upload a YouTube video of yourself and assign another activity for students to compare, review, comment on - Forums: Enable students to leave audio and text in threaded discussions. Students can review peer responses and replies.
For example:
i. Describe your family. Try to talk for about 1 minute.
ii. Listen to the responses of three of your classmates, and reply to their descriptions with a 30-second comparison of your family to theirs.
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