Establish a Communication Policy

What better time than now to communicate expectations with students regarding turn-around time on phone calls, emails and graded assignments?  Do you have a communication policy in your syllabus and possibly posted in your course shell?  Take a look at this sample “Communication Policy” and see if part or all of it could help with defining expectations and creating boundaries.  Feel free to adapt it to your needs and the needs of your students.

Communicating with Students via REMIND

Remind is a free software that allows you to text messages to your students and keep both yours and their phone numbers private.  Set a link in your course shell for students to sign up and it will be linked to your phone.  You can also set options for whether some might receive an email if they prefer.  The NMC technology survey indicated 97% of NMC students use smartphones; this may be the most effective way of communicating.  Check out this tutorial or see Sarah Wangler’s Sharing Showcase feature on how she and other instructors use Remind.  EMT is always available to help you set it up in your course shell.

Creating Connections with ZOOM

Communication can be made more accessible by offering a ZOOM link for students who are not on campus during your office hours.  ZOOM is an app that provides a live connection with audio and video through your computer and any SMART device such as a cell phone, iPad, Notebook or computer.  Just provide a link and within seconds, you and your student/s (up to 50 at a time) can meet virtually.  This program allows you to pull up documents which are viewed by all at the same time.  You can discuss a paper, view a video and just have a face-to-face virtual meeting.  Submit a Help-Desk ticket for an account and access more information in the Knowledge Base ZOOM section.