Improving Communication Skills
How do you help students improve their reading, writing, and communication skills?
Quality online instruction involves engaging the student in developing their skills. Additionally, the online environment provides the instructor to work with the student one-on-one rather than the entire classroom at once. There are a variety of methods an instructor may use to help a student to develop reading, writing, and communication skills.
It is important that instructors provide in-depth responses to student work. By providing the rational for the grade, suggesting ways to improve and providing consistent criteria or rubrics for students to follow, students will be able to improve their skills. Written assignments should include references to the reading assignments. This integration helps students to frame their reading around the assignment and helps them to develop analytical reading skills. Group projects, discussion forums and interactive sessions such as Skype, chat or live workshops help students to develop communication skills at different levels.
Although, there is often a misconception that online learning is independent learning, a well-prepared instructor will provide multiple opportunities for students to engage in strengthening their reading, writing and communication skills.
Sharon,
So true. The engagement factor is of utmost importance. If students are simply reading and looking at some PowerPoints and then taking tests, that's a correspondence course anyone could do. This si the "independent learning" you describe. The engagement, feedback from the instructor, feedback from peers and the development of the online community are key components to students' success.
In the first class students in my program take is- LCBC101 College Success for Online Programs. In this class students are instructed in the core principles of effective communication, especially online communication. In addition, we make an effort that the General Education classes the students take are delivered in such a way that they are not seen as a “standalone class “ or a “necessary evil†but rather we encourage students to use the skills learned in those class to help them perform better in other classes. In our Communications Methods class student record two speechs in YouTube videos.
Many students do not realize it is not a major fellony to use multi-syllable words and names.
Complete words, initials, texting shortcuts, no capitalizing and lack of punctuation is now
socially acceptable for written communicatuions.
Most adult education programs involve traning to enter very decsent paying careers. Most of the careers have licsencing or certification. With
the papers come liabilities involving loss of certification (Then comes loss of job), civil
liabilities (lawsuits) and criminal prosecution.
The receipts and reports might be our present students only defence. Writing accurate, clear,
concise and truthful paperwork may keep a technician out of trouble.
By requiring our on-line students to submit written material done properly may be the best non-technical help for students during the entire program
Jim,
Providing examples and guidelines for professional communiation helps students in the online environment. Serving as a role model in your communication is important as well. You bring up good real-world examples of poor communication. Nice job.
David,
Nice job. I really like these introduction courses to help the students become more prepared for the online classroom. I really help those new to online education. The YouTube videos can be engaging as well and helps students let you know what they have learned. Thanks for your remarks.
I think the best way is to give them guidelines for what constitutes good reading/writing, and then allow them to practice; giving comprehensive feedback on writing will help.
Our adult learner / learning disability specialist recommends the Click or Clunk reading method: At the end of each sentence, the reader asks herself, "Did that make sense?" If yes, they click their fingers. If not, it clunked and they can try re-reading it, reading around it, looking up words, and asking someone for help. I like this method a lot!
Gayle,
I like the idea of a Click or Clunk method. All students need more practice reading and comprehending. When you can develop a method that works and is simple, this enhances the chances that students will continue to read and comprehed. Nice job.
Not only is it appropriate to have challenging reading assignments but the feedback is just as important. This ensures comprehension of the subject. A technique that I use online and in the classroom.
James,
You are right. Frequent, timely communication that helps students improve, is the best kind. Nice job.
Reading, Writing and communicating efficiently are essentials in an online learning environment. Everything that is done in an online class involves these three key elements. Unfortunately, there are learners who find this to be challenging. Students who are involved in online learning must understand the importance of reading writing and communicating at least at the basic level and work with their instructor to help them improve.
There are several ways an instructor could help students improve in these areas. For example, in addition to the tradition textbook reading and writing assignments, students could develop their reading and writing skills through discussion board postings and blogs. Here students could express themselves in a more comfortable setting and receive individual feedback from their instructor. Feedback from peers is also usually available here to help each other improve their writing. Another strategy to assist students with reading and writing is to provide them a summary of their reading assignment so that they could better understand the content rather than having to understand an entire chapter. When students understand their coursework, they will more likely start communicating better with their instructor and show improvement.
To help students become better communicators, instructors must provide clear and concise instructions to them. Policies and procedures for communicating in any given class must be provided clearly to students at the very beginning with periodic follow-up or reminders throughout the course of the class. The expectations must be set early of how an instructor wants his or her students to communicate throughout the class and an instructor must remain consistent to those expectations.
Providing students with the tools to improve their reading, writing and communications skills is a privilege that lies with instructors and we must do what every possible to ensure that learning takes place.
Edna,
Excellent information you've provided through this forum. Thanks so much for your thoughtful response. It seems as though you use a variety of tools to assist students in developing their communication skills. This is an excellent way to address various learning styles and allow students to express themselves in different ways. Thanks again.
I try to foster an open and direct communication style with the students which means when I see a lack of critical thinking, errors or poor quality posts I challenge them to better. I keep the challenge light, nothing too stern, but I encourage them to do better if they are going to compete for a job in the future. Those skills are important to long term success.
Direct students to appropriate resources. There are a lot of amazing resources for them to learn from but the instructor has to encourage this.
Nathan,
Yes, continue the challenge. You may also want to use a quick rubric and provide them with the rubric so they can see how they will be assessed. OR Provide them with a "good" and "bad" post so they have something to model their own post after.
Dahlia,
You are right. The hardest thing is making sure what you send them to is what they need. Sometimes people post resources just to be posting resources and they really are not beneficial to the student. But, with some investigating and matching of resources, they are excellent tools. Thanks!
Because I teach English and literature classes for three colleges/universities, I have many opportunities to do this both with material provided by the schools and through my own efforts and tasks. For online students, when I give chats, I ask them if they would like me to review their papers during the sessions for grammar, APA, and rhetorical issues. That way, not only does the student benefit (much as do my in-seat students when we meet one-on-one), but others who have similar issues and questions can also learn. In addition, I make very detailed comments about the students' writing in order to help them improve with each task. I provide many files and discussions on the elements of good writing as well as samples from strong writers. I also refer students often to writing labs for help.
June,
Providing such great feedback to your students is awesome. The more meaningful and frequent the feedback, the more likel student wil improve. Thank you.
Jim, I agree, and I also expect student emails to be carefully written. I will often tell a student that he/she needs to rewrite an email so I can understand it if it is in abbreviated and unintelligible format. I also expect students to apply the communication skills learned in our English classes to their correspondence as part of their professional training.
