Communicating in uncertainty

TELT Tips

Communicating in uncertainty

Orientation for first year med students in 2022 – an empty theatre with 100+ students on Zoom

This year the university is aiming to have students back on campus and learning together in a physical classroom. In a teaching situation where some students are likely to be working remotely due to quarantine, barriers to travel, or school closures, being able to stay in touch and up to date is critical. Students may need to transition between on campus and online learning and back again at different times, and at short notice.

In these situations, facilitating quality interaction between teachers and students is much more difficult, as students don’t have the same in-person time together to build relationships. Online students often struggle to participate effectively when most of the cohort is face-to-face.

Here are a few tips and strategies to help you maximise how you communicate with students using Wattle and other ANU tools, so that you can keep everyone up to date and build an equitable learning community both online and face-to-face.

Tip #1: Set up a way for students to inform you if they need to transition to remote learning

Collect student feedback about where they are or have them notify you of need to study remotely using a Feedback Activity in your course Wattle site. You can set the questions yourself so that students have to respond to specific questions relevant for your course. Hosting this information in Wattle is useful as all the teaching staff for your course will be able to see it.

Tip #2: Familiarise yourself with ways to communicate with your students urgently

When something changes, it helps to be able to quickly and easily contact students, such as if tutorials are cancelled or shifted online at the last minute.

Announcements Forum

Posting to the Announcements Forum in your Wattle site is important but when students receive that message depends on their notification preferences. Most people only receive their notifications at 5pm in their once-daily Wattle Digest email (which is likely too late for urgent messages!)

Check your notification preferences in Wattle and encourage students to do the same so they receive email notifications as new messages are posted.

Email students directly

The Direct Message function in Wattle sends an immediate notification and email to all the students enrolled in your course, or in specific groups. It’s a great way to get all the emails for your students and message them together.

Tip #3: Maximise your use of forums in Wattle

Forums in Wattle often play a minimal role in teaching when most students are face-to-face. Taking advantage of the forums and using them more regularly to improve the communication between disparate cohorts of students can help students feel more included and give them space to get to know each other.

For example:

Add a small participation mark to forum posts to incentivize students to post.
Post and reply regularly at the beginning of the semester so students know you are reading their posts.
Consider writing a weekly summary post in the forums, highlighting the topics, discussion, or questions that occurred regularly. You could even film a summary video on your phone or webcam.

Tip #4: Create spaces for informal learning and relationship building

With students having to transition between online and face-to-face, it can be difficult to build relationships , which can impact engagement in a course. Students who study remotely can often feel disadvantaged compared to on-campus peers. Read more about experiences of ANU’s remote students.

The informal or social aspects of learning need to be encouraged a bit more in an online setting. Some strategies include:

Host icebreaker activities in your Wattle forums so all students can contribute
Create a forum for informal discussion, such as a “Coffee lounge” forum where students can share things not directly related to the course content
Hosting an informal learning space in Gather.Town or another virtual environment
Consider using social media tools like Twitter to create an online community

Tip #5: Take care of each other

Lots of people are struggling right now, and it’s important to take care of each other and prioritise our collective and individual wellbeing. There are unavoidable anxieties about returning to face-to-face teaching that affect everyone differently – both staff and students. Here are a few resources to help you if you need it:

Our team is here if you need any help with your teaching this semester, so please feel free to contact us.