During the course: signposting
Throughout the course, you are likely to want to signpost a number of course events to students (e.g. tutorials; formative and summative assessments) as well as communicate to your students about other aspects of the course (e.g. activity or assessment feedback). One approach that can support you in this is by having a clear and structured plan for your course communications.
Communicating with your group of learners can occur via various ways, but an efficient way to communicate with your students is via Blackboard course announcement emails.
Course communications plan
Having a plan for your course communications can help you to provide timely and clear communications to your students. This can help ensure that you are effectively communicating with your online learners (Easton, 2003) and help you to clearly communicate key dates and deadlines which can increase student engagement (Thistoll and Yates, 2016).
The structure of your plan will vary depending on your course content and needs. An example of a basic plan is shown below.
| Announcement Email | Content | When sent | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome to unit | An announcement email introducing yourself and welcoming your students to the unit. You may want to include your contact details and any general 'housekeeping' information (e.g. expectation to engage in discussions throughout course; key dates etc). | Start of unit. | If you have multiple academics teaching on the unit, or the unit is split into multiple sections led by different individuals, introductory emails at the start of each section to introduce the section topic and the academic lead can be beneficial to help build a connection with your students. |
| Tutorial reminder | A reminder announcement email to students of the date/time of the tutorial and what they need to do to prepare for it. | A few days before each tutorial. | Sending reminders of upcoming tutorials can be particularly helpful if there are activities that need to be completed by students before the tutorial (e.g. reading, discussions) or if you wish students to submit questions in advance. |
| Formative assessment/Activity reminder | A reminder announcement email to students of key activities that need to be completed (e.g. formative assessment; discussions; peer review etc), what these entail and when they need to be completed for. | In advance of each activity (e.g. few days to a week in advance of activities). | If your course has a lot of activities you are unlikely to want, or need, to send reminders for each one, however signposting key activities that feed into the final assessment or tutorials can be useful. |
| Formative assessment/Activity feedback | An announcement email to feedback to students on key activities (e.g. formative assessment; discussions; peer review etc). This may take the form of generic feedback and 'take home messages' (common mistakes, points to improve etc) or a reminder to revisit activities where you have provided personalised feedback. | After each activity (e.g. week after activity). | Providing feedback on formative activities is not only a good way to support your students but also helps demonstrate to students your engagement in their activities (e.g. reading discussion boards) which can help encourage future engagement and participation. |
| Summative assessment reminder | A reminder announcement email to students of what the summative assessment entails and when this needs to be completed for. | End of unit but before summative assessment (e.g. week or two before summative assessment). | Reinforcing any key points you want students to bear in mind in the summative assessment (e.g. common mistakes; points to consider that may have arisen from formative assessment) can be helpful. |
| Summative assessment feedback | An announcement email to feedback to students on the summative assessment. This may take the form of generic feedback and feedforward which will benefit the group as a whole, in addition to the personalised feedback they have received. It may instead be a reminder to students to review the personalised feedback you have provided. | After marking of summative assessment has been completed. | Highlighting contextualised resources that may help your students improve their practice can be useful here (e.g. if many students could have demonstrated a more critical approach; had referencing errors etc). For example, signposting learners to the library's referencing guidance or to specific resources within My Learning Essentials may be useful. |
Example of course communications plan: PGCert Medical and Health Education
Here is an example of the approach used in the PGCert Medical and Health Education. In this course, each unit is split into four two week elements which have different academic leads. Each element has a weekly tutorial.
Students have the opportunity to submit a formative practice assignment within each element and complete peer review of their fellow students' submission. The submissions and peer reviews are discussed in the second tutorial of each element.
The multiple elements, academic leads and prompt turnaround required for peer review necessitates a clear plan for course communications to ensure a consistent and effective approach. The course does this very well with the following approach being utilised within each element by each academic lead to ensure information and activities are signposted to students, the educator has a clear presence and the course has a cohesive structure.
In week 1 of each element the following communications occur:
| Week 1 | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Content | Send students welcome announcement email (Welcome to unit, introduce self and say you look forward to working with them over the next two weeks. Give your contact details. Remind them to submit questions at least 48 hours in advance of Friday's tutorial). | Check any interactivities e.g. padlet, wikis, mentimeter, blogs, discussion boards. | Check any interactivities e.g. padlet, wikis, mentimeter, blogs, discussion boards and send students announcement email to remind them of the date/time of the week's tutorial (and to please submit questions in advance of this), and to submit formative assignment by the deadline on Wednesday next week and complete peer review activity by the deadline on Thursday next week. | Check any interactivities e.g. padlet, wikis, mentimeter, blogs, discussion boards. | Hold tutorial 1 (to check if any issues, answer any questions, pose some questions based on week 1 learning material). Send announcement email after tutorial to say thank you for engaging with tutorial and you look forward to seeing them next week. |
| Examples | This is an example email for a week 1 introduction for the start of the unit and an example for one of the elements following this. | N/A | This is an example email for a week 1 mid week reminder. | N/A | This is an example email for the end of week 1. |
In week 2 of each element the following communications occur:
| Week 2 | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Content | Send students announcement email to direct them to week 2 study and peer review activity (Enjoy learning about xxxxx over the next few days. Remember to upload peer review assignment by the deadline this week. Remind them to submit questions at least 48 hours in advance of Friday's tutorial. Remind them to submit formative assignment by the deadline). | Check any interactivities e.g. padlet, wikis, mentimeter, blogs, discussion boards. | Check any interactivities e.g. padlet, wikis, mentimeter, blogs, discussion boards and send students announcement email to remind them to submit their formative assignments by the deadline today, complete peer grade activity by the deadline tomorrow, and attend Friday's tutorial (please submit questions by end of today). | Send email to students to remind them to review and comment on each other’s formative assignments by deadline today. | Hold tutorial 2 (to discuss formative assignments (things done well, things that need to improve), discuss any questions they have relating to tutorial). Send announcement email to students after tutorial to say it has been lovely working with them through the duration of the element. Please remember summative assessment deadline is on xxxxx. They shouldn’t hesitate to contact you. Enjoy the next element. |
| Examples | This is an example email for a week 2 introduction. | N/A | This is an example email for a week 2 formative assessment reminder. | As per previous reminder emails. | Content is similar to that of the end of week 1 email. |