COMMUNICATION IN YOUR ONLINE COURSE

Research on ‘best practice’ in online instruction shows that students want three things from their instructors: 
•	teacher presence
•	knowledge of the subject matter
•	timely feedback on academic work

The training that we provide will show you how to accomplish this using the SLN Web Client. 
General practice at Empire State College is for communication to take place within the online course. Communication is asynchronous, meaning that there is no “real time” chat feature.  This explanation for students can be found in the Course Information section of your online course:

Newsflash Area is for short announcements or reminders about what is currently happening or is coming up in the course. It appears in the middle of the Course Map page and is often the first thing the student sees when they login to the course. This is a major area where teacher presence is shown. It is highly recommended you update the Newsflash text at least once or twice a week and make sure you date each announcement.

Meet Your Classmates is the area of the Class Community where you and each student will enter brief biographical information about yourselves. It allows the class to get to know you and each other and allows you to communicate your professional and personal interests to the class. Model your profile on the kind of information you would like to elicit from your students.

Bulletin Board is for questions about the course in general, or topics related to the subject matter that are not the topic of the online discussions. It is basically the same as asking a question before or after class. 

Discussion Areas are designed to help students apply course concepts, and to learn from one another. Student contributions to discussions are an important part of the course, and part of the learning activities that students are evaluated on. Located within the Learning Modules.

Question Areas are located at the bottom of each module. Students who want clarification, further information, or an explanation of something in that module click on the "question mark" icon and type a question at the prompt. This feature provides students with the opportunity to "raise their hand" from anywhere in the course, and to let other students benefit from the question as well as the instructor’s response. 

Your Evaluations is the area on the Course Map where students go to see any evaluation material you have released to them. Students will see only their own evaluations.

Private Folder is a private one-on-one way for a student to communicate with the instructor. Student messages are saved in one folder that no one else can open. Located in the Class Community area of the course map.

6/14/04