Recommendations for fostering regular and substantive interaction in online courses

Here are some strategies and district supported tools that can help you foster regular and substantive interaction. Select the hyperlinks for more information about the tools.

Articulate how students can connect with you

Use your syllabus to let students know how and when they can reach you by email or through other communication platforms and how quickly they can expect a response.
Post your office hours or availability for individual appointments in your:
- syllabus
- home page
Create a “Community Forum” online discussion board in Canvas as a place where students can ask questions about the course. The Community Forum allows all students in your course the opportunity to see your responses to others students’ questions about the course. It also allows students to help and interact with each other.
- Or you can use Pronto

Tools

Post regular announcements in Canvas

Use Canvas announcements to preview the coming week, provide general feedback on a recent assignment, or call attention to current events that relate to course material. Consider configuring your announcements to allow students to “Like” or comment on your announcements.

Tools

Canvas Announcements
Enabling Announcement's “Like” or comment

Provide timely, constructive, and in-depth feedback on student assignments

Auto-graded quizzes and self-checks are terrific formative assessments that can help students build knowledge – the RSI requirement should not discourage you from developing and assigning auto-graded quizzes or self-checks. But to meet the threshold for “regular and substantive interaction,” online courses should:

Include additional assignments that you grade. Your grading should include feedback/comments on the students’ ideas and/or performance.
Supplement auto-graded quizzes with class announcements that discuss common mistakes made in the quizzes and/or offer additional instructional support around difficult concepts. In short, use auto-graded assignments as the foundation for additional instruction.

Tools

Canvas feedback/comments
Perusall

Create discussion forums in which students can interact and explore concepts

Allow students to interact with and explore concepts related to content they encounter in video lectures, assigned readings, etc. Without dominating the discussion, consider ways to deepen student engagement by periodically posting follow-up questions, summarizing themes across multiple replies, or strategically responding to students’ ideas.

Tools

Create and distribute assignments and deadlines throughout the term

Short-term deadlines not only help keep students on track, but also increase points of interaction between instructors and students. If your course is designed around a big term project, consider developing smaller assignments that scaffold to the term project.

Schedule a check-in with students who aren’t submitting work or participating in activities

Keep an eye on students who aren’t participating in activities (e.g., discussion board, group work) or who aren’t visiting the course site. Canvas analytics can indicate whether students are engaging with course content. The Canvas gradebook provides instructors with opportunities to reach out to struggling students.

Tools

Canvas analytics
Canvas Gradebook "Message Students who..."

Works Cited

"Regular and Substantive Interaction" by University of Washington