Navigating Communication Landscapes in Online Higher Education

In educational settings, there is perhaps no relationship more important than the instructor-student relationship. As in most relationships, communication is essential to the successful development of instructor-student relationships. In fact, looking closely at the relational teaching approach confirms that “teaching involves a process of relational development and requires effective interpersonal communication skills to achieve satisfying outcomes” [1].

Student perceptions of support and teacher immediacy are important topics to consider as the landscape of higher education changes. Research shows myriad interpersonal variables, such as immediacy, correlate to students’ learning [2] and their motivation for learning [3]. Unlike K-12 education, in higher education, instructors and students have significantly fewer communication interactions [4]. Higher education marks a transition for students as they move into more independent, autonomous forms of learning [4]. This transition can be difficult as students’ information needs change when they take greater control of their learning process.

Instructors and students primarily communicate dyadically or in small and large groups. Communication to students is primarily aimed at providing referential and ego support [2]. Referential support is focused on explaining and understanding and is aimed at clarifying information and instruction, providing feedback and assessment, and helping students integrate new knowledge and concepts for future learning [5]. Ego support is communication meant to improve a student’s confidence or efficacy [6]. Leveraging referential and ego support communication can help increase immediacy in the instructor-student relationship.

While higher-education institutions have long used nontraditional learning models like email correspondence [7], the literature has primarily focused on teacher immediacy and the communication behaviors that help create immediacy in traditional face-to-face classrooms [8]. However, there are scholars exploring immediacy in the online context, explaining it as the ways in which instructors seek to increase student perceptions of instructor interactions, instructor presence, and instructor caring and connectedness [9]. 

Communication Opportunities and Challenges in Online Higher Education

Though online learning environments present various communication challenges, technology creates opportunities for communicating in ways that may encourage interaction and improve student perceptions of support and immediacy. Online education affords instructors and students greater communication flexibility, an ability to communicate across geographic boundaries, and myriad tools for increased communication.

A primary benefit of online education is consistent and convenient access to course materials [10, 11]. This convenience may be especially helpful for students who are employed or who live in different time zones from their instructor. Online education also enables classrooms to transcend geographical boundaries. This allows students and faculty to communicate in a “borderless learning environment” [12] that democratizes education, making it more inclusive for individuals who may otherwise be excluded [13] while also creating opportunities for cultural engagement between instructors and peers that may be less likely in traditional classrooms [14]. Another benefit of online education is that it can create different opportunities for engagement than exist in a traditional classroom. This helps reduce barriers to engagement for shy students [10, 15] and disabled students [16, 17] for whom the online environment serves as a normalizing space where students can engage without fear of judgment [18].

While online learning offers several advantages for students and instructors, this style of teaching and learning is different than traditional classroom teaching environments, leading to several communication challenges. For instance, in traditional face-to-face classrooms, instructors and students communicate both verbally and nonverbally, each taking cues on how to respond from the other. However, in online learning environments, nonverbal communication is mostly absent [10], and there is increased reliance on text-based communication rather than verbal communication [19].

As a result of reduced communication interactions, students may feel isolated and lonely [11, 20, 21]. Online learning makes it possible for students to complete courses without ever interacting with others. Feelings of isolation and loneliness can be harmful for learning, as these feelings can create barriers to participation [22], such as academic burnout [23]. While some students may prefer fewer interactions, others will not thrive in online learning environments [24]. Collaborative learning is a cornerstone of student-centered pedagogy, and research on traditional face-to-face learning highlights the importance of peer engagement in learning [25]. Communication between and amongst students fosters collaboration and mentoring both inside and outside the classroom [26], and frequent communication between students improves well-being, as students feel a greater sense of community and belonging [27]. Communication can also reduce feelings of loneliness and increase student engagement [28] by helping students feel cared for, less invisible, and less inadequate [22], thus improving student learning.

Communication is also important for providing clarity in online environments. Students who are new to online learning, rely on directions, or who are not technologically savvy may struggle with finding course materials, using course tools, meeting course expectations, or even knowing how to schedule meetings. Thus, instructor communication should be aimed at helping students improve their self-efficacy in the online environment. A student’s perceived efficacy determines their coping behaviors, expended effort on a task, and their ability to persevere through adversity [29]. Students experience better learning outcomes when their self-efficacy and motivation are higher [30, 31]. Providing cognitive and systematic support can help improve student efficacy. Cognitive support involves providing clear course materials and making resources available to students, while systemic support, or technical support, includes creating easily accessible and usable systems [32].

Another way of providing students with clarity is to give adequate feedback. In online classrooms, feedback can feel impersonal [33], and the lack of face-to-face communication can lead to students incorrectly interpreting or implementing feedback [34]. The opportunity for formative feedback may also be reduced in online environments [35]. Online learning requires students to be more self-directed in interpreting feedback, asking for clarification, and learning to effectively use technology for receiving feedback. Students find online learning environments most productive when course and learning goals are clearly communicated, learning activities are organized, and the relevance of learning activities is clear [36, 37].

Strategies for Addressing Communication Challenges

There are many strategies for addressing the communication challenges in online learning environments. These strategies include using technology that can help instructors build community, generate engagement, provide clarity, and give feedback. Tables 1–3 provide snapshots of some technology tools and their potential uses.

Build community and generate engagement. A key attribute of traditional lecture-based classrooms is that instructors can more readily engage students with the course material [38]. Instructors can ask students questions, engage in large group discussions, create small groups for think-pair-share activities, and adapt content based on both verbal and nonverbal cues from students. When used effectively, technology can create similar opportunities for communication and engagement in online education. 

There exists a variety of technological tools that can be used to help build community and encourage collaboration. A number of platforms offer hosting synchronous class sessions and breakout groups to encourage community-building, such as Zoom, Webex, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Big Blue Button.  Instructors can also create social media communities. Social media communities might focus on a specific class topic or be more generally used for sharing interesting or relevant content. Instructors may need to model community-building by asking questions before, during, or after synchronous sessions, asking students questions on social media, sharing introductory videos, and creating a student lounge where students can share non-course-related information. Discussion boards, virtual whiteboards, and bulletin boards like Padlet can be used by instructors to create shareable content for students to react to and discuss. Ted Circles enables students to watch videos on course topics together and engage in synchronous or asynchronous discussion.

Several tools can help generate engagement and active learning [39, 40]. Kahoot, Mentimeter, Sli.do, and Poll Everywhere encourage active learning through live quizzes and polling. Using Sli.do, students can also ask and upvote questions to the instructor, which can also enable students to highlight topics that require additional review. Factile is similar to “Jeopardy!” and gamifies learning, which may increase engagement and learning [41].

Table 1. Tools useful for building a course community and generating student engagement. 

Ensure clarity. Providing clarity on assignments, grading, necessary course materials, and course expectations is important to students [42]. How well this information is communicated has a direct impact on students’ ability to access and use information, and how much time instructors must spend redirecting and restating information. Thus, it is important to provide students with ample information in multiple ways. Synchronous sessions, recorded videos, and narrated slide decks can be used to explain the syllabus, demonstrate how to locate information, review assignment details and deadlines, show examples of well-done assignments, and address frequently asked questions. 

Additional tools for providing clear information include Explain Everything and Miro, which offer live collaborative whiteboards for explaining ideas visually, recording lectures with visual content, creating maps and models, and providing space for groupwork and brainstorming sessions. Tools, such as Notion and Diigo, provide instructors and students the opportunity to bookmark and annotate documents together, organize notes, create to-do lists, and help with organizing course materials like syllabi, assignment details, and worked examples. LMS platforms and external course sites, like Google Drive and Microsoft Teams, provide document storage that makes it easy for students to locate and use course materials.

Despite an instructor’s best efforts to provide clear and useful information, students will sometimes need to meet to discuss upcoming assignments, ask questions, or touch base on their progress. Given potential time and geographic challenges, it can be helpful to use tools for scheduling meetings, hosting regular office hours online, and making it easy for students to ask questions. Tools like Google Appointment Schedule and Calendly provide shareable appointment calendars that can be included in syllabi or even an email signature line.

Calendars also help students stay abreast of due dates and upcoming work and make it easy to schedule time with an instructor. While calendars are often integrated in LMS platforms, Remind is an app used for reminding students of important information like upcoming due dates and to-do items, but it is also an easy way to broadcast short communication to the entire class. For instance, Remind can be used to quickly address misunderstandings on an assignment or bring attention to a change in the course schedule.

Instant messaging tools like Google Chat, Teams Chat, and backchannel apps such as Slack and Discord make it easy to reach out in real-time to ask questions of both instructors and peers. Slack, Discord, and Padlet allow instructors to create channels for relevant class needs. For instance, there may be a channel for course information, one for virtual office hours, and yet another for asking questions or engaging in backchannel discussions during synchronous classes.

Table 2. Tools useful for enhancing clarity. 

Give feedback. Feedback is an important form of communication for learners [43]. Unlike in traditional classrooms, online learning students cannot immediately speak with instructors about feedback. Fortunately, there are numerous options for providing feedback in online environments. Instructors can use integrated LMS technologies to type feedback directly into assignments or even provide recorded verbal feedback with tools like Mote. LMS platforms also allow instructors to create comment menus for common points of feedback. These preloaded comments can be easily accessed when providing feedback on large numbers of assignments. Instructors may also consider hosting synchronous work sessions, where students can gather online to exchange ideas and get feedback prior to completing a final product.

Instructors can also increase engagement while improving opportunities for feedback by requiring peer feedback on assignments. LMS platforms often include peer review assignment options, which can be anonymized. Peer review can also take place through tools like Turnitin’s PeerMark and even Google or Microsoft Forms. These tools allow peers to provide feedback, which can be anonymized, through instructor-designed rubrics, ratings and scales, or open commenting.

Table 3. Tools for providing student feedback.

Conclusion

Online education presents unique communication challenges for instructors and students. Fortunately, strategies exist for integrating technologies that can help mediate these challenges and improve communication between instructors and students and among peers [44]. Instructors need appropriate training to ensure they utilize these technologies to provide adequate support for students and educators alike [45].

References

About the Author

Dr. LaKesha N. Anderson is an associate professor in the Departments of Health Professions Education and Medicine at the Uniformed Services University. Her research explores the intersections of communication and medicine with specific interests in family medicine and OBGYN. She also explores physician and patient education, medical knowledge acquisition, and professional development. Dr. Anderson is an associate editor for Family Medicine, serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Communication Pedagogy, and reviews for a number of public health, medicine, communication, and education journals. Prior to USU, she served as Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical College of Georgia and Educational Researcher in MCG’s Educational Innovation Institute. Prior roles include Director of Academic and Professional Affairs at the National Communication Association and Assistant Professor of Communication at Indiana State University. Dr. Anderson earned her Ph.D. in communication, with a specialization in health and strategic communication, from George Mason University.

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