Three Reasons Why Responding to Students is Important?

Answer 1

How often do you respond to your online learners? This is a question that most online professors are trying to answer to ensure that they are working with learners at least once per week. Depending on the number of learners that are enrolled in the online course, this can definitely be a challenge. There are three reasons why responding to students is important, which are the following:

Getting to Know the Online Learners

The first reason is to make a connection with each online learner. On the first day of class, it is very important to make sure that one reaches out to learners by reading their biographies and making a connection. There will be times in which the professor may not have the same type of professional and personal experiences, but there is something that he or she can connect with the learner. For instance, the professor may write that he or she is looking forward to working and learning from the particular learner. A simple statement such as this will provide validation for student that his or her voice has been heard and the professor is concerned about his or her academic needs in this course.

Gaining Exposure

The second reason is to gain exposure so that learners are familiar with how you work within the classroom and for learners to refer your name for taking courses under your instructional leadership. When it comes to gaining exposure, this simply means being an active participant in the course and stimulating learners’ critical and creative thinking skills to add value to the classroom discussions. Another way that professors can gain exposure is by sharing his or her professional and personal experiences that will better help learners apply the knowledge to his or her professional setting.

Increasing Communication Skills

The third reason is to increase communication skills for both the learner and professor. Often times, in an online learning environment, it is important to make sure that frequent communication is sent out so that students are kept in the loop on what is going on in the course. In addition, professors should encourage learners to respond back to them in either the class discussion or in a private email within the courseroom to help increase their skill set. Often times, students will just post their own work and will not take it a step further to ask questions.

The bottom line is that professors should be active in the classroom discussions so that he or she can ask the learners questions. That way, learners are responding back resulting in added value for the entire class.