Skip to main content
DELTA
Teaching Resources
Top of Page

Communication

Dec 2, 2024

Increasing Student Success Through Effective Task Management

Instructors attempting to address students’ workload and tasks from within a course alone can be challenging. However, we can guide and encourage students to better manage their tasks across multiple courses by introducing them to tools that are readily available to them. Resources such as Google Workspace, Google Tasks, and other free programs offer various…

Oct 24, 2024

Tips and Strategies for Successful Group Work

Planning an assignment or project to be completed by a group of students can raise lots of questions: How should I form the groups? How do I make my expectations and group member expectations clear and understood? How do I support team functioning? How do I assess students? This article provides tips, strategies, and some…

Oct 21, 2024

Course Introductions: Forums, VoiceThread, Padlet

Course introductions are more than just an administrative step; they are a critical part of the learning journey. These initial interactions help to create a welcoming environment, build trust, and foster a sense of belonging among students. Today, a variety of instructional tools are available that promote stronger engagement and connection with students. In this…

Sep 27, 2024

Get Your Students Talking Online

In this article: Student Interaction Interactions between students are a cornerstone of effective online learning. Research consistently shows that student-to-student interaction is one of the strongest predictors of satisfaction in online courses (see Liu et al., 2024; Azizan et al., 2023). When students commence with one another, they gain multiple benefits: building a supportive learning…

Sep 7, 2023

Get Your Students Talking with Yellowdig

Table of Contents Building a Community of Inquiry Yellowdig is an online discussion platform designed to build community. Through it, you invite students to initiate discussion threads based on your guidelines, topics for posts and expectations for participation. Students connect course material to real-world experiences, prior knowledge and their own ways of thinking. Yellowdig awards…

Aug 9, 2023

Developing an AI Syllabus Statement & Driving Class AI Discussion

In this article: Develop Course AI Guidelines Course-level AI guidelines are where policy meets practice. You should design concrete, actionable instructions for students on how and when they can use AI. This could be a good opportunity to discuss AI use and expectations with students and design the procedures together. Whether you design the policy…

Jan 26, 2023

Use an Online Learning Expectations Template

Providing online learning expectations will clearly communicate your expectations for behavior and participation in your online course.  An online learning expectations document describes what is expected of students and provides tips to help students be successful.  In this article: Make a copy of the template Follow these steps to make an editable copy of the…

Jan 26, 2023

Use a Syllabus Template

A clear and complete syllabus for your online course is the most important document you can provide for your students. This syllabus template provides example language and required university policies that help ensure that your syllabus is clear for students and meets the requirements of NC State University. In this article: Make a copy of…

Jan 24, 2023

Use a Welcome Letter Template

Sending a welcome letter that gives students necessary information and resources to get started,  to students before class begins will help build a sense of community. A welcome letter will help students feel comfortable and connected to the course. In this article: Access the template Follow these steps to make an editable copy of the…

Jan 24, 2023

Use a Course Overview Template

Providing a course overview can help your students orient themselves to your course and connect with you as an instructor. A course overview provides details about the objective and purpose of the course, explains the course structure, and provides guidelines and tips for succeeding in the course. In this article: Make a copy of the…

Jan 10, 2023

Perusall: Interactive Reading Assignments

Perusall is a text-based social annotation/commenting/discussion tool. Instructors provide students with a text, and students use commenting to have an asynchronous discussion about the text. Depending on instructor settings, Perusall can auto-grade student work and provide instructors with analytics about how students are engaging with the text. “Texts” in Perusall are defined as articles, chapters,…

Oct 25, 2022

Mid-Semester Check-Ins

Mid-semester is a great time to check in with your students in order to make any adjustments or course corrections based on feedback from them. Mid-semester check-ins are simple information-gathering tools that you use to find out how your course materials and activities are working for your students. This article outlines how to collect and…

Sep 26, 2022

Digital Whiteboards for Teaching and Learning

Table of Contents Accessibility Note Warning! Just like in-class whiteboards, doing an activity on a whiteboard exclusively means it will not be accessible to students using screenreaders. Find out more about accessibility and digital whiteboarding in this article. Getting Started There are many different digital tools available for online whiteboarding. To get started, determine your…

Jul 5, 2022

Perfectly Imperfect: On-The-Fly Videos

Table of Contents What are perfectly imperfect videos? Perfectly imperfect videos (PIV’s) typically have some if not all of these features: Michelle Pacansky-Brock shares some great examples of perfectly imperfect videos on her website. Benefits of perfectly imperfect videos Videos make communication feel more personal, creating a stronger connection than text alone. Through a perfectly…

Jan 19, 2021

Engagement in Synchronous and Asynchronous Environments

Students must engage in their courses in order to learn. But what, exactly, do we mean by “student engagement?” And what teaching practices and strategies help our students engage in an online class? This article will discuss three dimensions of engagement (emotional, behavioral and cognitive) and teaching practices that encourage engagement including humanizing your course,…

Nov 19, 2020

Creating Community Online (Overview)

Sometimes “online learning can be a lonely experience” (Kaufmann & Vallade, 2020). Intentionally building community in an online course can help, and also “has positive effects on the quality of student learning, increases student engagement, and encourages motivation of students in online courses” (Fiock, 2020). This article provides an overview of strategies for building community…

Nov 11, 2020

Using Breakout Rooms in Zoom

When teaching synchronously on Zoom, hosts and co-hosts can use the Breakout Room tool to divide students into smaller meeting spaces for group work. Activities like discussion, collaboration, and problem-solving are often more effective and manageable in small groups, making them a powerful strategy for fostering student engagement through active learning. How to Get Started…

Nov 10, 2020

Helping Students Get Started in an Online Class

First impressions make a big difference in the online classroom. How can you ensure online learners feel welcome in the class and have all the information they need to get started successfully? In this article, we will discuss strategies for introducing students to the components of your online course and creating a welcoming online environment.…

Nov 9, 2020

Leveraging Zoom Tools to Facilitate Engagement

How can you promote active learning and help keep your students engaged during your course meeting in Zoom? What tools are available? How do you use them? In this article we establish a framework for thinking about student engagement and, generally, how to maximize it. Then, we explore Zoom’s interactive tools (chat, non-verbal feedback, polling,…

Jun 24, 2020

Communication

Instructor Presence and Communication Developing an AI Syllabus Statement for Your Course— It’s important to have a conversation with students regarding how you expect them to use (or not use) AI tools in your course. Helping Students Get Started in an Online Class – Check out these strategies for communicating and establishing connections with students at…

Dec 28, 2019

Real-time Assessments and Check-ins

Great teachers understand that learning is a conversation, not a monologue. – Sir Ken Robinson. Real-time assessments and check-ins spark conversation with your students, preventing your class from being a one-way transmission of information and holding student attention. Interactive tools make real-time assessments and check-ins possible in both face-to-face and synchronous online classrooms, as well…

Jul 14, 2016

Providing Effective Feedback

Instructor and peer feedback have a profound effect on the quality of student learning. When teaching online, it is important to foster both learner-instructor interaction and learner-learner interaction (Quality Matters, 2023). NC State offers numerous options to enhance feedback for the online learner. How to Get Started Step 1: Review learning objectives and assignments and…

Mar 26, 2016

Netiquette—Or Best Practices for Interacting Online

Netiquette is the term used to describe the special set of rules for online communication. Because students in the online learning environment are unable to experience the body language, tone of voice, or facial expressions of their peers, it is important to make them aware of netiquette guidelines at the beginning of the course. Instructors…

Feb 26, 2016

Discussion Forum Best Practices

Discussion Forums can play an important role in online learning. When thoughtfully designed and facilitated, they offer powerful learning benefits: fostering critical thinking, encouraging reflective participation, building stronger class community, supporting evidence-based reasoning, and even helping to encourage all students to participate more fully (Worcester, 2008). Yet, crafting prompts and managing discussions in ways that…