Four Ps – A retired public-school teacher and online adjunct instructor lays out how planning, preparation, clear procedures, and day-to-day practices—before, during, and after a course—can reduce the uncertainty and isolation that distance learners face. Her approach c
When online classes begin, the first fear often isn’t the workload—it’s the unknown. One adjunct instructor describes how students feel when they don’t know what’s coming, and how quickly comfort can rise once the course “shell” is loaded and students receive real, specific information.
Her method is built around a simple conviction: distance education isn’t just teaching with technology. It’s teaching when the teacher can’t see students in real time, which makes support, structure, and connection non-negotiable. Citing Adair and Diaz (2014. 12). she points to the idea that “Because learner support provides a foundation for student success. a quality educational experience includes processes and resources that are customized to the needs of the online learner.”.
From there, she lays out strategies that fit the reality of online learning: anticipate problems before the course starts, design curriculum and activities to encourage active participation, and establish community and rapport even when everyone is separated by screens.
The emphasis throughout is not vague encouragement. It’s preparation that students can open, read, and use.
Before the Course Beginning
The first move is immediate. As soon as the institution loads the course “shell,” she prepares it for class—because, in her view, nothing is scarier than not knowing what to expect. Once the course roster is available, she sends a pre-course, welcome email.
That email includes several concrete items:
Book information. After introducing herself and providing contact information, she includes details about the books needed for the course and adds a link to the college bookstore. She is clear that it is the student’s responsibility to have a textbook prior to the start of class.
Course syllabus. She sends this as early as possible, because the earlier students receive it, the smoother the course goes—for them and for her.
Policy letter. This letter outlines expectations. including that the course entails extensive reading and independent work. that academic rigor will be applied. and that assignments must be submitted prior to the deadline date. It also lays out the protocol for requesting permission to submit a late assignment. outlines penalties for submitting unauthorized late work. and includes important grading policies.
Assignment matrix. Developed originally to keep her on track, she says she quickly found the Assignment Matrix to be useful for students. She provides basic information about assignments and their due dates in a one-page, Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. She stresses that listing assignments with their due dates weeks before the course starts gives students time to digest the workload. plan ahead. lessen anxiety. and even get a head start.
Tailoring the online experience, she says, comes from applying understandings about student performance and anticipating student needs as she prepares to teach and facilitate student success.
During the Course
Online teaching requires presence and facilitation, not just content delivery. She brings in Garrison et al. (2000. 96) on teacher presence. describing instructor responsibilities that begin with analyzing. judging. and selecting course content—organizing it—and presenting it through content delivery. activities. and assessments. Facilitation, she notes, may be shared with another instructor or with students.
Her day-to-day practice leans on what she learns after teaching similar courses: the tasks and assignments students find difficult. skill-deficit areas (such as APA formatting). and what supporting resources are needed. She uses that information to take a proactive stance. compensating for deficit areas by providing resources. advance warnings. and other assistance. In her approach. these supports are delivered via the learning management system. which she says may be referred to as “News” or “Announcements. ” depending on the LMS used. Supports can also be sent individually based on student needs.
Supplemental resources and practices she recommends include:
Video tutorials. She prepares short video tutorials showing students exactly how to accomplish specific tasks, using ScreenPal. She commonly posts videos on writing in-text citations and locating quality primary journal articles.
Templates and answer documents. She uses templates and answer documents for two reasons. First. they guide students as they write papers and complete assignments. and she has found that providing templates results in higher scores. Second, templates standardize assessment, making scoring more objective. Answer documents, she adds, make it easier for students to record answers and easier for her to score.
Examples. She admits teachers debate whether to provide examples, but she says she personally likes them. She has witnessed the clarity and confidence examples can give students. In her courses, examples include what quality discussion posts look like and what poor quality response posts look like. If students struggled on a prior assignment, she recommends providing an example of how to complete that assignment.
Weekly announcements. At the onset of each academic week, she posts an announcement for that week, including additional help if needed. She attaches templates, rubrics, or other resources as necessary, and she includes the portion of the Assignment Matrix that applies to that week.
Advance notice. When an assignment is hard to understand or complete. she posts something in the news forum well before the due date. Her item subject lines often begin with “Looking Ahead.” She gives the example of sending an email about the last day of the course about a week before it ends and encouraging students not to wait until the final hours to submit their final assignment. She explains that if students submit in the last hours. there is no time to correct or re-submit if they accidentally send the wrong file. She says this practice has prevented several students from going wrong at the end of the course and receiving a letter-grade reduction in their final grade.
Resources that are streamlined. She argues for providing pertinent resources but keeping them short and concise. She warns that extraneous posts and information can be counterproductive because students may skip announcements that are too lengthy, repetitive, or unnecessary.
Fast and detailed feedback. Drawing from Vygotsky’s (1978) work, she emphasizes that feedback must be timely and specific. During the first two weeks of class. instead of waiting for all assignments to be completed at the end of the academic week. she scores student work as it is submitted and sends feedback immediately. She says feedback should not only point out what is incorrect. but specify the error. show the correction. and provide the exact page(s) in the APA manual (if applicable).
Frequent, meaningful communication. She says she communicates frequently and keeps high availability. She tells students in the initial email that she is already available and that they can email her. She recommends emailing at the first hint of an issue or problem. She also describes a specific routine: sending all students an email at the end of the second academic week to ask about comfort level and whether they need more clarification or resources.
She also addresses why she prefers email over phone calls, even though some instructors consider email impersonal. In her view, email is easier, faster, and more reliable than phone calls, and it creates an electronic record. That record matters if she needs to refresh her memory about a past exchange. She adds that if there is a dispute or issue, emails provide evidence of communication with a student. Her conclusion is that email helps and protects both the student and the instructor.
Provide peer-reviewed journal articles and pre-formatted references. She provides six to nine peer-reviewed, recent journal articles for each week’s academic topic(s). She attaches these as links in the weekly announcements and pastes the pre-formatted references for the articles into the announcement body. She says this gives students examples of what scholarly primary source material looks like. Because the references are pre-formatted. she argues students can focus on the assignment itself: proper paraphrasing and quoting conventions and creating correct APA in-text citations. She also notes that she stores everything on her device so she can retrieve and use it each time she teaches.
After the Course
Her approach doesn’t end when grades are final. She remembers being a student with instructors who “seemingly just disappeared” once class was over, and she says that doesn’t convey caring or connection.
In addition to a farewell post sent to the entire class in the course announcements. she sends each student an individual. personalized email. She recommends pointing out something complementary—an area where the student has shown growth or improvement. or. if their skills are already exemplarily. complementing them on work ethic or submitting assignments on time. She says there is always something to acknowledge. and that the LMS already shows the final grade but sharing it directly is a “nice touch.”.
She also urges instructors to comment on something students shared in the “Coffee House” forum, such as “Good luck with the new teaching position!” She says the final email should include positive feelings about teaching the class or a wish to see the student in future classes.
In her view, the final message isn’t a nicety or only professional etiquette. It’s a bridge that keeps rapport going in case she teaches the student again.
Adair and Diaz (2014, 13) is part of the closing argument: “Quality online teaching requires processes to develop and support faculty skills and abilities to manage the online classroom and provide effective online instruction.”
By preparing to teach—and by planning and preparation—she argues that instructors can implement procedures and practices that build stronger online relationships and help facilitate student success.
Dr. Belinda J. Lowman is a retired public-school teacher and online, adjunct instructor for the School of Education at Greenville University.
References
Adair, Deborah, and Diaz, Sebastian. “Stakeholders of Quality Assurance in Online Education: Inputs and Outputs.” In Assuring quality in online education: Practices and processes at the teaching, resource, and program levels, edited by Kay Shattuck, 3-17. New York: Stylus Publishing, 2023.
Garrison, Randy D., Anderson, Terry, and Archer, Walter. 2000. “Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education.” The Internet and Higher Education, 2 (2-3): 87-105.
Vygotsky, Lev. Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological processes. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1978.
online teaching distance education learning management system teacher presence student support course design assignment matrix weekly announcements video tutorials templates feedback APA formatting