This document provides guidance for instructors on communicating effectively in online courses. It recommends communicating basic course structure, timelines, expectations and resources to students in the first week. Instructors should use Moodle tools like quickmail, chat and discussion forums to engage asynchronously. The document also suggests using tools like Zoom, screencasts, and surveys to enhance communication and provide feedback. Instructors are tasked with setting up these communication channels in their online course for the upcoming week.

1. Week 3:
Communicating online

2. The videos from Curt Bonk at IU (posted in
Moodle) cover the basics of instructor
communication and building community online.
This lesson will apply his concepts to your
course, and cover resources available to you to
enhance communication in your online
classroom.

3. What to communicate - Week One:
*Basic course structure (e.g. “each module will
begin Monday at 9am, all assignments will be
due Monday morning at 2am,” etc).
*Any dates where there are gaps (spring break,
holidays, etc).
*How to navigate the course.
*Office hours and how to reach you (and
times/dates you are unavailable).

4. What to communicate - Week One:
*Your timeline for responding to
emails/voicemails.
*Grading scale.
*How grades will be communicated, and how
often grades will be updated.
*Textbooks and readings to purchase or find.

5. *Expectations for online behavior.
*Expectations for written communication &
writing style.
*Who to contact with tech problems.
*Who to contact with disability/accessibility
questions and concerns.
*Tech needs - software requirements,
programs to install, skills.
What to communicate - Week One:

6. Communication & Student Grades:
*Use of Moodle Gradebook is highly
recommended.
*If not using Moodle for grades, tell students
the first day of class how often grades will be
sent to them.
*Contact students via email or phone who do
not submit work the first week of the course.

7. Synchronous vs Asynchronous:
*Students value the flexibility of taking online
classes, so asynchronous communication is
beneficial and should be the primary mode of
communication.
*There might be times you want to do a group
lecture or discussion with the whole course.
*To accommodate varying schedules, offer
multiple timeslots of chats and groups lectures.

8. Moodle tools for Communicating:
*Quickmail - Moodle email.
*Moodle chat - Hold a live chat session (Moodle
chat does not include video).
*Discussion Forums - use for announcements,
questions & answers, and student discussion
involving application, analysis, synthesis, and
reflection.

9. Online discussion protocols:
*Explain the who, what, where, why, and so what
of the discussion.
*Define what role the student plays in discussion.
*Communicate how the discussion will be
evaluated.
*Post expectations for grammar & spelling (is
text speak allowed?).

10. Other tools for Communicating:
*Zoom - a video lecture platform the program
has purchased for you to use.
*Screencasting tools - introduced last week,
use free programs like Screencastomatic to
create video short lectures.
*SurveyMonkey or PollEverywhere are free
sites you can use for creating polls to garner
feedback.

11. Tasks for This Week:
*Set up communication tools in your course:
add the quickmail block, try out a Moodle chat
session, and set up at least one forum.
*Review Moodle gradebook features. If your
syllabus is prepared, work on setting up your
gradebook to match.
*Respond to the forum question.