One of the challenges that many educations experience in an online course is the ability to engage students effectively. One effective method that has been used by our own faculty is weekly announcements. An announcement is often your first communication to students. It provides them with an essential first point of contact and a place to check each time they log in to their course. Many faculty use announcements to provide weekly updates on assignments, celebrate learning that occurred in the past week, and highlight learning to come.
- How many? – before classes start, think about how often you want to share announcements. Will it be weekly? Daily? Determining this before class begins can help shape the class before it begins.
- What is the purpose? - Why are you including announcements? What do you want your students to gain from them? It’s important to figure out what you want to accomplish with your announcements before proceeding.
- Create a Road Map – Be sure to set expectations with your students early on. Creating a road map for your students can help students understand what’s expected from them from the very beginning. This will help to ensure overall student satisfaction and success in your course.
If you would like to read more about creating effective announcements for your course, you can read the article online
here
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We would love to hear your thoughts and methods of using announcements in your online course. If you have ideas and would love to share please complete our short survey
here
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Thank you for all that you do for our students!
- The Office of Academic Affairs at Granite State College
