After the course ends

After the course has ended it is useful to reflect on the online communication. Thinking about what went well, what went not so well and how to address any concerns will help improve your future practice.

As part of this, it is valuable to get feedback on your students' experience. Feedback on how students perceived the approaches you have used for your online communications can support your critical reflection and your consideration of what changes may be beneficial.

The following provide some example questions that may be helpful to explore after the end of your course via your student representatives, staff-student liaison committee or a focus group:

• Did learners find any barriers to engaging with the tutorials (e.g. timing etc)?

• Did the structure of tutorials work for your learners (e.g. tutorial content; use of breakout rooms etc)?

• Did learners find academic engagement with online activities (e.g. comments on online discussion boards; wikis etc) helpful?

• Did learners feel the course announcements were informative or helpful?

• Did learners feel part of an online learning community?

• Did learners feel there was a strong educator presence?

• What would learners like to stop/start/continue in terms of online communications?

It is important to note that whilst student feedback can highlight when an approach is not working and may need to be changed (e.g. if academic engagement in discussion boards was discouraging student discussions; timing of tutorials was not suitable for your learners), sometimes it may instead highlight that students need support in understanding why approaches are used (e.g. why tutorials are structured as they are). Explaining why these approaches are used in future runs of the unit (e.g. to encourage active learning and knowledge exchange) may help support your students more than changing your approach in some cases.