Enhancing Instructor Presence in Your Online Course

One of the reasons that online courses have a high attrition rate is because the lack of community and instructor presence that often occurs in the online setting. In this week's blog post, we will discuss the importance of instructor presence and what you can do to foster a sense of Instructor Presence. In next week's post, we will look at ideas for community building.

Instructor presence can make the difference between a student staying in your online course or dropping it. If you're wondering if it could really be that impactful, consider this: you are an online student and have no idea where to begin in your course. Unintentionally, you miss the first assignment and the next assignment received a grace of D because you misunderstood the instructions. You decide to withdraw and take the class in person instead. In this example, notice the student does not make an attempt to reach out to the instructor, which many struggling students do not. It often falls to the instructor to initiate the communication. However, you can also make yourself very approachable which may also increase the likelihood that students may reach out if they are struggling.

Here are some things you can do to enhance instructor presence in your course:

• Intro Letter with text info - this is a brief email that introduces yourself and the course description along with the course text; this can be sent 3-4 weeks before the first day of classes
• Welcome Letter with course description 
- this is a short but more detailed email that provides more information about the course such as a brief overview of assignments, the amount of time to be dedicated to the course, course expectations, etc; this can be sent out 2 weeks before the start of classes.
• Weekly Announcements 
- these may be more frequent than weekly, but should not be less frequent. This should include a notice of the topic that will be reviewed that week and any due dates for that week. Additionally, I like to post summaries of assignments that have recently been graded or other types of announcements such as events, news or college events that may be related to the course.
• Overview Videos 
- At the beginning of each course module, I include an overview video of what will be covered that week. I also include a walk-through of the assignments due and an explanation of how to complete the assignments
• Assignment Videos 
- I make an overview video of course assignments for the week which typically include an overview of weekly low-stakes assignments such as Discussion Board and VoiceThread assignments, however, I make a separate video for each of the big-stakes assignments such as term papers, group projects, etc.
• Orientation Videos 
- In your orientation video you will take students on a journey exploring the different sections of your course and walk them through all the sections and let them know what they can find and when to use the resources that can be found. Learn more about how to create an orientation video HERE
• Schedule a One-On-One meeting - the One-on-One meeting is a 20 minute synchronous, virtual meeting with each student, individually, during the first 3 weeks of class. You can use this time to get to know the students better and for them to get to know you better. You can also use this time to give feedback on early assignments and to provide guidance on future assignments.