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Communication
As we transition to remote instruction, communicate with your students right away and often. Even if you don’t have a plan in place for your course, communicate with your students as soon as it’s clear that your course will need remote delivery. Be clear with them that changes are coming and what your expectations are for near term engagement with the course. Communication is best done with courses by using the Instructor Systems tool on the Registrar’s website, or by using the Email function of D2L.

Click the image above to access a PDF of the Quick Guide. Remote Communication With Your Students
This quick guide provides an introduction to communicating with your students as you move to remote teaching. It outlines key steps to Plan, Modify, and Implement when making this move to optimize student learning. As with any steps you take in moving to remote teaching, it’s important to anchor your decisions in course learning objectives and to be transparent, flexible, and generous with students.
Plan
Michigan State University has shifted to remote teaching, which means your course will be moving to a digital environment. Remote teaching is a way to continue instruction when face-to-face meetings are disrupted and you are not able to meet in person. When planning for remote teaching, it’s important to develop a communication plan for helping students transition to a remote environment.
Modify
It is important that you develop a communication plan for maintaining ongoing contact with your students about the course. Consider the following:

Clarify your modified expectations and course elements:

When your class will meet. Schedule any virtual sessions during the time your course already meets. This guarantees that students have the availability.
How you will deliver content (e.g. Zoom, recorded lectures, etc.).
How students will engage with one another.
How students will be assessed moving forward.
Changes to assignments.


Tell students how they can contact you and how soon they can expect a reply from you.
Consider using the D2L announcements and discussion board tools to push out course-level communications.

 
Even if you have not yet finalized all the changes to your course, it is important to send a message to your students so they know how to reach you. To get started, here is a sample email you might send:
 
Dear [insert course name here] students,
 
I’m writing to let you know that the University is implementing a remote teaching strategy in response to the novel coronavirus. What this means for you is that we will not be meeting at our normal class location. Instead, we will meet online at the same time our class normally meets. However, I will be hosting the class through Zoom. We will also be using our D2L course site to deliver and collect materials for the class. To access the course, go to https://d2l.msu.edu/. Once you log in with your NetID and password, you should see our course listed under “My Courses”.
 
Over the next few days, I will keep you informed about how our course experience will change. Know for now that we are planning to move forward with the course, and please be patient while we get things shifted for this new mode. I will be back in touch soon with more details.
 
Best,
[Insert your name]
Implement
As your initial form of communication with students, it is important to inform your class often about course changes and expectations. To send emails, you have several options:

D2L email classlist function
The Instructor Systems email tool from the Registrar’s website
Spartan Mail for individual and small group communications

Additional Help
For additional help and support, please check out the other Remote Teaching articles here, or contact the MSU IT Service Desk at local (517) 432-6200 or toll free (844) 678-6200.
 
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Organization:
 
While your syllabus may have all the information necessary for the class, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to find. Reading this guide for example would be more challenging if it was given in paragraphs as opposed to how it is broken into sections. Often students repeatedly return to the syllabus to find key information about the course. This can also be a benefit to instructors because if their syllabus is well-structured, they’ll deal with fewer questions about details about the class and can focus more on details about the content of the class. Here are some things you should be adding to make your syllabus easier to read, and some examples of how one could implement them.  
 

Add headings and subheadings as needed.

Based on this guide you may want to create sections for:

Course Topics
University/Course Policies
Grade Scale
Contact Information
Important Dates
Major Assessments


You could also consider adding a brief introduction. Which could include:

Your teaching style/core values
Contact information 




Include tables/graphics where possible

Examples may include:

Grade Scale Table
A table of important dates
Flow Charts for course structure or learning outcomes
Concept maps
A table containing the class schedule




Adding bullet points or numbered lists:

Examples may include:

List of important dates.
List of Exams/Projects/Major Assessments.
List of Learning outcomes/course topics
Listing contents and where to find them at the beginning.




Reflections/Questions to Consider:

If you were a student, what information would you be looking for?

And how would you find it?


How long is this document?

If it is many pages, are students going to be able to engage with it, or will it feel intimidating?
If it is a single page, does it contain enough information for students?





 
Course Schedule:
 
The course schedule can be an extremely effective tool for helping students navigate the college experience. Depending on the school students may have 4, 5 or even 6 classes they are taking at a single time and knowing ahead of time when one class may require more attention is extremely helpful! However, it’s also important not to hide other key information of a syllabus within the schedule as it runs the risk of making the syllabus harder to navigate. Some recommendations about course schedules:
 
·         If you meet multiple times a week, don’t explain each class.
o   You want the schedule to be flexible to adjust for the needs of a class.
§  Perhaps you have a great plan for a particular topic, but it doesn’t end up panning out as intended.
§  What happens if your institution cancels a day of class? Is the entire schedule irrelevant from that point? Do you need to re-write it?
·         Create a schedule based on each week:
o   This will allow:
§  students to plan out the expectations of the course a week at a time.
§  you flexibility in the time it takes to present material.
o   Highlight Important Dates:
§  Include if there are due dates, exams/quizzes
§  If your institution has course drop deadlines, they should be outlined.
§  The final exam time at institutions is often at a different time than the typical class.
o   Moving forward this document will assume the schedule is broken down per week.
·         Outline Prep materials required each week.
o   Course Readings
o   Journal writings
o   Rough Drafts
o   Artifacts they should bring.
o   Reflective Questions they should consider before class.
o   Etc.
·         Stay Vague!
o   If you feel your schedule is becoming muddled, it most likely is. Attempt to keep descriptions brief and verify it’s easy to read.
                 
Descriptions of Assignments/Assessments:

Briefly outline the information in particular assignments/assessments. 
Reflections/Questions to Consider:

Projects:

Is this a group or individual project?
How much time do students have to complete it?
Is a rubric provided for the project to help guide student work?
What materials will be needed for the project?
What form should the final product take?

Presentation?
Poster?
Paper?
Etc.




Exams: 

What material will be covered?
If not stated elsewhere:

What percentage of the grade is it? 
When is it? 


What is the modality? 

Online? In-person? Take-home?


How will it be graded?


Assignments: 

What is the modality? 

Online? In-person? Take-home?


How many questions is the assignment? 
When is it due? 
What material is covered? 
What are the associated learning outcomes? 


Readings:

What do you want students to take away from the readings?
How will you use the information a student reads during class?





 
Expectations:
Every instructor has some level of expectations on their students. Often, this includes some degree of participation, attendance, completion of material, etc. However, are these expectations clearly outlined in the syllabus? If not, it can be extremely helpful.
 
Student Expectations:

Examples include:

How many hours they should expect to spend on material/reading outside of class.
How many assignments they’ll be asked to complete.
Rubrics: What are the expectations of a particular project/assignment.
Attendance.

How many days can a student miss before it affects their grade?
How should a student inform you that they are unable to attend.


Participation:

What does it mean to participate in your class?

Discussions? Asking Questions? Coming to office hours? Email?




Etc.



 
Teacher Expectations:
Students also want to know that if they follow through on your expectations, that you are also holding yourself accountable to them.

Consider communicating:

How long it will take to respond to emails.
When you’ll be able to grade assessments, projects, assignments.
What type of feedback you intend to offer students.
Any changes to the course schedule.
How students can reach out to you or get additional help.  



 
Outlining all of this information effectively begins the process of integrating the syllabus into the course itself. Making it a living document that grows/changes as the class does. Crafting syllabi to facilitate communication between educators and students helps set clear expectations and provides the instructor the opportunity to reflect on their own pedagogy by referencing their syllabi. 

This presentation was created for individuals that are both actively engaged with students and interested in learning more about technological tools designed to aid in both task management and communication. 
AI and technology offer a range of opportunities and capabilities that can significantly enhance task management and communication, such as streamlined interactions with students and colleagues or prioritizing and managing daily tasks or large projects. In this session, we discuss how AI and tech tools can be appropriately used to support administrative tasks and outreach.
Upon completion of this learning experience participants will learn of new tools and platforms for communicating with students and colleagues, understand how to leverage technology to automate tasks and improve efficiency, and apply different tech tools to their individual spaces.

Locate presentation slides here
Handout - includes all tools shared and plan pricing

Not included in the handout

Mural – Create brainstorming boards for team collaboration and workshops. Free for 3 mural boards, $9.99 for team accounts and unlimited boards.
Miro ) – Similar to Mural, collaborate with teams using brainstorming boards and sticky notes. Free with educator account.

"We want to create a science communication tool to serve the MSU community.  It would provide graduate students with a platform to be able to share their research findings aside from technical manuscripts." -Paige Filice, Sanjana Mukherjee & Anne Scott
 
Presentation: https://iteach.msu.edu/posts/preview_attachments?post_id=1482 

Affirming Ways To Communicate:

Be present
Reflect back to the person what is being said. Use their words, not yours.
Begin where they are, not where you want them to be.
Be curious and open to what they are trying to say.
Notice what they are saying and what they are not.
Emotionally relate to how they are feeling.
Notice how you are feeling. Be honest and authentic.
Try to understand how their past affects who they are and how those experiences affect their relationship with you.
Stay in the room even if you are scared, or feeling angry, or hurt.

Here are some processing questions you can use:

“What angered you about what happened?”
“What hurts you about what happened?”
“What’s familiar about what happened?”
“What makes it unsafe for you here and what would make it safer?


David M. Graham, PhD, LPCS, NCCCounselor/ Coordinator for Inclusion and Diversity Outreach Davidson College

 
 
What is Microsoft Teams? Microsoft Teams is a communication and collaboration tool which is part of the Microsoft Office365 suite of software applications. In one team workspace, the tool allows for real time collaborative work through chat, as well as file sharing. Other Teams features include calling, asynchronous chat and threaded conversations, meetings, and synchronous video conferencing for up to 250 attendees in a private Teams meeting.
  
Who might consider using Teams? Microsoft Teams might be ideal for instructors and students interested in having one workspace that allows sharing work, editing content collaboratively, storing and sharing files, instant chatting, setting up meetings, and video conferencing!  
 
Why use Teams? There are several reasons why you could choose to use Microsoft Teams. It is a useful tool for organizing content in a collaborative and engaging workspace for either a few individuals or large groups. Teams can be used across multiple devices. It is a free mobile application which students can communicate with regardless of location, without giving out personal contact details. Teams is a great alternative to other synchronous video conferencing tools which might not be available in some countries. 
 
How to use Teams? For teaching and learning with Teams, instructors can request a class team in D2L, set up a Team for a class and then create channels within the team. Channels can be around groups or specific topics. The online tutorial on how to use Microsoft Teams for remote and online learning is a great resource for learning more about Teams. 
 
Where to access Teams? With an MSU net ID, Teams can be accessed by going to spartan365.msu.edu and logging in with your MSU credentials. To learn more about all the features and functions of the tool, the Microsoft Team homepage is a great resource. 
 
Stories/Feedback? We would love to hear from you about your experiences with Microsoft Teams. How are you using Teams in your class? What are your students’ perceptions of Teams and experiences so far? If you would like to share some of your Teams stories (frustrations, joys, surprises) or need more information about Teams, contact the MSU IT Service Desk at ithelp@msu.edu.  
 

This document goes over practice tips and strategies for how to discuss your research and work with a variety of audiences. While aimed at STEM, its suggestions are useful for a variety of disciplines.