The One-On-One Meeting
Dec 03, 2019
Having a sense of community and connection in an online course is not easy. One way I accomplish this is by scheduling a synchronous, virtual meeting with each of my students for about 20 minutes during the first 3 weeks of class. I refer to this as the One-On-One meeting. In this blog post I'll share some tips about what to include in a One-On-One meeting and how to set one up.
What to do in a One-on-One meeting
I use this time to get to know the students better and for them to get to know me better. I ask questions like:
- Is this your first online class?
- How many classes are you taking right now?
- Are you working full time/part time?
- How long have you been a nurse (I teach RN's)?
- How have you been finding the course so far?
- Do you have any questions about the course or course assignments so far?
After I ask these general questions, I do a very quick overview on the really big course assignments and let students know that there are also video overviews of each presentation within the course.
What I found was that when I was grading their work later, I could picture the student in my head, which made the student more real to me and not just a name listed in my course.
Additionally, I usually schedule these meetings to occur after students have completed at least one assignment/discussion board, etc. This way I can review their work and let them know if they are starting off on the right track. This is essential in an online course because if students start of poorly, they often feel discouraged and continue downhill if there is no intervention.
How to set-up the One-On-One Meeting
I had students sign up for appointments with me using Doodle. Then I scheduled each meeting in Zoom and sent the students a link to the Zoom meeting. This process was a bit tedious because I had to go to doodle and see which student signed up for which day and then go to Zoom and create the meeting and then go to Blackboard to get the student’s email address and then go to my email application and create the email for the student. I do wish this process could be more streamlined, but I think there might be an easy solution for this, which I will look into in the future.
One really great feature is that Zoom will automatically add the meeting to my calendar so that I don’t forget about it. So when the time came for the meetings I received a reminder from my calendar app and I also received an email from Zoom when someone had joined the meeting. I also send a reminder email to students the day before our scheduled meeting so they remember to show up for it.
I found the actual use of Zoom to be relatively easy and almost all of the students were able to use it with ease. For students who had difficulty, Zoom also provides a phone number and Meeting ID number that students can use instead of the link. It doesn't allow me to see their face or for them to see mine, but it's better than having to share my personal cell phone number with each student.
For those that were able to use the link, I was able to see and talk to the student and they could see and talk to me. I found these sessions to be quite invaluable. They were quick and short but I really liked being able to interact with the students synchronously. I was also able to address any issues they were having thus far with the course. I took notes after each session about highlights of the session and anything I thought might help me remember the student. Zoom also allows me to share my screen with students and students can also share their computer screens with me which is really beneficial if they are struggling so I can see exactly what is giving them trouble and walk them through it.
I had students sign up for appointments with me using Doodle. Then I scheduled each meeting in Zoom and sent the students a link to the Zoom meeting. This process was a bit tedious because I had to go to doodle and see which student signed up for which day and then go to Zoom and create the meeting and then go to Blackboard to get the student’s email address and then go to my email application and create the email for the student. I do wish this process could be more streamlined, but I think there might be an easy solution for this, which I will look into in the future.
One really great feature is that Zoom will automatically add the meeting to my calendar so that I don’t forget about it. So when the time came for the meetings I received a reminder from my calendar app and I also received an email from Zoom when someone had joined the meeting. I also send a reminder email to students the day before our scheduled meeting so they remember to show up for it.
I found the actual use of Zoom to be relatively easy and almost all of the students were able to use it with ease. For students who had difficulty, Zoom also provides a phone number and Meeting ID number that students can use instead of the link. It doesn't allow me to see their face or for them to see mine, but it's better than having to share my personal cell phone number with each student.
For those that were able to use the link, I was able to see and talk to the student and they could see and talk to me. I found these sessions to be quite invaluable. They were quick and short but I really liked being able to interact with the students synchronously. I was also able to address any issues they were having thus far with the course. I took notes after each session about highlights of the session and anything I thought might help me remember the student. Zoom also allows me to share my screen with students and students can also share their computer screens with me which is really beneficial if they are struggling so I can see exactly what is giving them trouble and walk them through it.
I would definitely recommend the tool Zoom for use in online meetings or classes with students. I am currently looking for a way to streamline the process of scheduling and to see how it can be used for online advisement. For more info on zoom visit http://www.zoom.us.
Does anyone do any kind of online advisement with students? Is there a particular tool or software that you find useful?
Head over to The Online Educator Facebook Group and share your thoughts: http://bit.ly/33wMpW2
Stay connected with news and updates!
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.
Don't worry, your information will not be shared.
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.
