Draft a consistent and feasible plan for communicating with your students outside of class

Why

Students who engage in our popular Midsemester Assessment Process (MAP) Program tell us that they appreciate consistent, predictable, and clear communication from their instructional team. This can look different in different classes and for different students, from standard in-class reminders, Canvas announcements, discussion forum engagement, or weekly emails.  

How

1. Decide what, and how often, to communicate. Students generally appreciate:

• Weekly reminders of upcoming due dates and assignments
• Weekly previews or recaps of the learning objectives or themes for the week
• Regular encouragement to visit office hours (or as one UMass faculty member calls them, student hours) with times and locations
• Semi-regular, whole-class feedback on problems or successes you are seeing across students
• Check-in emails to students who have missed an assignment early in the semester
• Just in-time resources to help overcome an obstacle they may be facing in their academic work or academic life

2. Review these resources and ideas for communicating with students:

• Begin and/or end every lecture with a slide of reminders and upcoming due dates. Post these slides or the information in Canvas.
• Send a Canvas announcement or an email at a consistent time; e.g., a few days before assignments are due, on Monday mornings, etc.
• See how a UMass faculty member reaches out to students who miss an assignment early in the semester.
• Post tips, support and responses to student questions or comments or questions on discussion boards (e.g., in Canvas) or other online forums.
• Consider how your TAs can help.