Email: The most important tool in online education

The most common way to interact with your students is via a forum.  Forums are quick, easy to use and the teacher’s input and ideas can be seen by everyone.  Forums are like a classroom where a student asks a question and everyone gets the answer.

But what about the shy students?  The embarrassing questions?  The personal questions?

At school we could ask to speak with our teacher’s privately in the hall.  But what about online?

The answer is email.

Email is an important communication tool for your students.  Email provides an individual personal connection between a student and teacher that is both convenient and private.  And that is important.  Not everyone wants to air their concerns, frustrations and even successes in public.

The strengths of email communication:

• Increases student involvement and motivation
• Supports anxious or shy students
• Offers privacy
• Easily accessible
• Low tech, high cost
• Easy to monitor
• You can attach files and links to them

But emails are time consuming.

Of course they are time consuming.  But so it teaching. And quite frankly you have a responsibility to connect and respond to each and every student.

But you didn’t come here for a lecture.  Instead you want some strategies on how you can an email system that offers support to your students, but doesn’t suck you into that time hole.

Create a Successful Email Culture from Day 1

1.     Create a System

First you need to decide when and how you will use email.  Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Decide when you will check your emails (only twice a day at the most)
• Answer each email from your student as you read it – process it straight away
• Save common emails and reuse them (we will talk about this in more detail next week)
• Publicise your email system to your students

2.     Use Email to Your Advantage

Now you to need to start using email regularly.  Try these suggestions:

• Write regular emails to all students – start with a welcome message and then write a recap or summary every week.
• Use emails for announcements – it will make sure that all students receive it, including the students that don’t hang out in the forums
• Use emails as part of class assignments
• Email students individually and offer feedback, just don’t do it every week

3.    Change Your Thinking

Email is not going away.   Whether you like it all not your members are going to be emailing you.  So you can either hide your head in the sand or embrace it.

I suggest the latter.

If you create a positive culture of community using email you will find that you get less email, not more.  Your shy students will be encouraged by the supportive culture and email you less. Students will be less stressed and more confident, which means fewer
complaints.

Trust me – embrace email. .

What are your thoughts on emails?  Do you think course creators use them well? 

And on that note, have you heard of the 31 Day Email Course Challenge?  It is my email course that teaches you how to plan, create and manage your own email course.  Just think, you could have your own course to launch for the new year.  Details are here and you can start today