How Can I Connect and Engage with Students?
How Can I Connect and Engage with Students?
(AND meet RSI Requirements)
Engaging students and building a strong presence are key to a successful online course. Since you’re not meeting in person each week, staying connected can be a challenge. By being intentional and planning opportunities for regular communication and interaction, you can help students feel supported and engaged throughout the semester.
Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI)
Being intentional about Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) is also essential for creating an engaging and supportive online course. RSI is a federal requirement designed to foster meaningful instructor-student interactions in distance learning. Failure to meet RSI standards can reclassify a course as correspondence education, affecting federal financial aid eligibility. But more importantly, RSI seeks to ensure a more interactive and supportive learning experience for students.
Key RSI Components
- Regular and Substantive Interaction
- Regular: Occurs on a consistent, scheduled basis.
- Substantive: Instructor-initiated engagement through teaching, learning, and assessment.
- RSI Criteria (Instructors must engage in at least two)
- Providing direct instruction
- Assessing and giving feedback on student work
- Providing information and responding to course-related questions
- Facilitating group discussions
- Monitoring Student Engagement
- Instructors must track student progress and proactively engage when needed or upon student request.
For more details and examples, please review the RSI chart, the federal definition (eCFR 600.4) Links to an external site., and the College Teaching Expectations provided below.
College Teaching Expectations
Below are the basic teaching expectations for online instructors in the Dodge Family College. These guidelines outline the minimum requirements, and assume the course content is fully developed before the semester begins. In addition, instructors should plan to meet at least two of the federal Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) requirements.
[RSI] - Items that help meet RSI are marked below, but please check the RSI chart for specific details.
Welcome Students
TO DO:
- Post a welcome announcement or video at the start of the semester to introduce students to the class and to yourself
- Provide an Introductory Discussion forum to allow students to introduce themselves to you and to one another (click here for an example of an intro discussion)
HELP GUIDES
How do I add an announcement?
Links to an external site.
How do I create a discussion as an instructor?
Links to an external site.
How do I record a video using the Rich Content Editor as an instructor?
Links to an external site.
Post Announcements
TO DO:
- Post announcements regularly with substantive content (not simply housekeeping items) and allow students to reply [RSI]
- Post at least one announcement each week (Intersession or Summer post every 1-3 days) [RSI]
- Post additional informational announcements about the course (test coming up, assignment graded, etc.)
HELP GUIDES
How do I add an announcement?
Links to an external site.
How do I delay announcements?
Links to an external site.
How do I enable replies to announcements?
Links to an external site.
How do I post announcements on my mobile device: iOS
Links to an external site. | Android
Links to an external site.
TIP
+ For helpful ideas on what to post (including a video on how to get your announcements read) click here: Ideas for Announcements
Engage in Discussions
TO DO:
- Facilitate discussions during the time frame it is open (not once it's ended) [RSI]
- Reply to enough posts to ensure a sense of instructor presence (you don't have to respond to every post) [RSI]
- Interact with students about course matter (not simply conversational) [RSI]
- Encourage discussions through probing, clarifying, and guiding questions
- Provide individualized substantive feedback in SpeedGrader in addition to posting on the discussion board [RSI]
HELP GUIDES
How do I create a discussion as an instructor?
How do I create a group discussion in a course?
How do I grade a discussion in SpeedGrader?
TIP
+ Use SpeedGrader to see all of a student’s posts for a discussion in one place (this allows you to determine how many times they have posted in the discussion)
Provide Frequent Communication and Feedback
TO DO:
- Respond to student inquiries within 24-48 hours (this includes emails, Canvas messages, responses to assignment feedback, etc.)
- Grade assignments quickly and provide prompt, frequent, and substantive feedback (feedback that is clear, positive, specific, and focused on observable behavior that can be changed) -- see Grading and Feedback for more specifics on timing [RSI]
- Provide individualized feedback in SpeedGrader, including annotations when appropriate [RSI]
HELP GUIDES
How do I use SpeedGrader to annotate submission assignments
Links to an external site.
How do I use SpeedGrader on my mobile device: iOS
Links to an external site. | Android
Links to an external site.
How do I let students know how to find their annotated feedback?
Reach Out to Students
TO DO:
- Contact inactive students or students who are struggling and offer support [RSI]
- Use Message Students Who from the Gradebook to message a specific segment of students (those who have scored poorly or scored well, those who haven’t submitted an assignment, etc.)
HELP GUIDES
How do I view analytics for an individual student in New Analytics?
Links to an external site.
How do I use Message Students Who?
Links to an external site.
Offer Online Meetings and Office Hours
TO DO:
- Offer synchronous online meetings with students at least once a week (or the equivalent in shorter semesters) to answer questions, provide clarity, etc.[RSI]
>> The next section will take a more extensive look at best methods for grading and ways to make it easier for you!
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