Communication Strategies

Key things to remember when communicating with students are:

• Communicate early and often (but don’t overload students).
• Set expectations on how you will communicate and how often. Indicate to your students when they can expect a response to their questions (e.g. within 24 hours or 48 hours).
• Manage your own communications load – answering questions in a way that all students receive the answer will reduce your need to answer the same questions multiple times. You can use a dedicated discussion forum in Moodle or announcements to ensure answers are accessible to everyone.
• Create a checklist to show students what they will need to do to complete the course during this emergency situation.

Ways to communicate

• Email – Faculty and students should use UWI email addresses for communication.
• Moodle Announcements - This feature allows you to send out messages to all students in the course. Tip: Use announcements at least weekly to give students guidance as to what will happen during the week.
• Moodle Discussion Forum – This feature allows you and your students to interact asynchronously.