Online teaching succeeds when instructors plan for students

online teaching – A practical set of strategies for online higher education—centering on “learner support”—spells out what instructors can do before classes start, how they should run weekly communication and feedback during the course, and how they can maintain rapport after f

For many students. the first days of an online course don’t feel like the start of a class—they feel like waiting in silence for someone to explain what’s coming next. The advice in this piece tackles that fear head-on, insisting that distance learning can’t rely on technology alone. It’s about preparation, structure, and ongoing support that anticipates what learners will struggle with.

The approach begins before a single discussion post is written. As soon as an instructor sees the course “shell” loaded by the institution. the article says they should prepare it for class. Nothing, it warns, is scarier than the unknown. Once the class roster is available. students should receive a pre-course welcome email. including book information (with contact details and a link to the college bookstore). course syllabus information (sent early). a policy letter spelling out expectations such as extensive reading. independent work. academic rigor. and assignment deadlines. and even a protocol for requesting permission to submit a late assignment plus penalties for unauthorized late work. There’s also an assignment matrix: a one-page. Microsoft Excel spreadsheet listing assignments and due dates weeks before the course begins. designed to reduce anxiety by letting students digest the workload early.

That emphasis on learner support isn’t presented as a comfort blanket. The piece explicitly points to Adair and Diaz (2014. 12). saying that because learner support underpins student success. a quality online experience includes processes and resources customized to online learners’ needs. It also cites Garrison et al. (2000. 96) on teacher presence—arguing that instructors shape the learning experience by analyzing. judging. and selecting course content. organizing materials. and delivering content. activities. and assessments.

In practice, the article describes teacher presence as more than content delivery. Facilitation can be shared with another instructor or with students. And after having taught a course before. instructors can identify what tasks and assignments students find difficult. including skill-deficit areas such as APA formatting. then respond proactively with resources. advance warnings. and other supports delivered through the LMS—named as “News” or “Announcements” depending on the platform. Those messages can also be sent individually based on student needs.

The piece then lays out specific tools and routines instructors can add to that weekly cadence: short video tutorials that show students exactly how to complete a task (it names ScreenPal as the user-friendly program used. with examples including writing in-text citations and locating quality primary journal articles); templates and answer documents that guide students as they write and standardize assessment to make scoring more objective; and examples—paired with a reminder that instructors who debate the pros and cons may still find clarity and confidence improve when students can see what quality looks like. It also recommends weekly announcements at the start of each academic week. with attachments such as templates and rubrics and the specific portion of the assignment matrix for that week.

When an assignment is likely to be hard to understand or complete. the article says instructors should post advance notice in the news forum well before the deadline. It includes the example of subject lines starting with “Looking Ahead. ” including an email sent about a week or so before the end of a course reminding students what the last day of the course is and urging them not to wait until the final hours to submit. The warning is practical: if students submit the wrong thing at the end. there is no time for correcting it or re-submitting it. and the piece says this practice helped prevent “several” students from ending with a letter-grade reduction in the final grade.

Communication and feedback are treated as daily lifelines, not administrative chores. The article calls for streamlined resources—short and complete posts that avoid extraneous or lengthy announcements because students often skip anything repetitive. unnecessary. or too long. For feedback, it draws directly on Vygotsky’s (1978) work, saying feedback must be timely and specific. Instead of waiting to grade everything at the end of a week. the piece advises scoring work as it is submitted during the first two weeks of class and sending feedback immediately. The feedback should do more than point out what is incorrect: it should specify the error. show the correction. and provide the exact page(s) in the APA manual (if applicable).

There’s also a clear push for frequent, meaningful communication and high availability. The article says instructors should tell students in the initial email that they are available and can be emailed. and that anything that can be clarified prior to the start of the course benefits everyone. At the first hint of an issue, it says instructors should email students. It adds one specific check-in routine: send all students an email at the end of the second academic week asking about their comfort level and whether they need more clarification or resources.

The writer acknowledges that some instructors see email as impersonal. but it defends email as the preferred mode for two reasons: it is easier. faster. and more reliable than phone calls. and it provides an electronic record. That record matters both for remembering past communication and for disputes, because emails offer evidence of communications with a student. The piece states that emails “aid and protect the student as well as the instructor.”.

To support academic writing. the article recommends providing six to nine peer-reviewed. recent journal articles each week on the course’s academic topics. These are attached as links in weekly announcements, with pre-formatted references pasted into the body of those announcements. The intent is two-fold: examples of scholarly. primary source material and. because references are pre-formatted. allowing students to focus on the assignment. proper paraphrasing and quoting conventions. and correct APA in-text citations. It also notes the workflow used by the instructor—storing everything on a device and retrieving it each time the course is taught.

After the course ends, the piece doesn’t let instructors leave students behind. It describes the experience of students who had instructors “seemingly” disappear the minute the class was over. and treats that absence as incompatible with caring or connection. Alongside a farewell post sent to the entire class in course announcements. instructors are urged to send each student an individual email. personalize it. and point out something complementary—growth or improvement. work ethic. or submitting assignments on time. The article says the final email can include the student’s final course GPA and letter grade (even though it’s visible in the LMS). and can reference something the student shared in the “Coffee House” forum. such as “Good luck with the new teaching position!” It ends by framing that final message as a bridge to keep rapport alive. particularly if the student appears in future classes.

The entire set of steps ties back to a final citation: Adair and Diaz (2014. 13) are used to argue that quality online teaching requires processes to develop and support faculty skills and abilities to manage the online classroom and provide effective online instruction. The conclusion is practical rather than theoretical: through preparation. planning. and preparation procedures and practices. instructors can build and strengthen online relationships and 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 included in the piece are 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.); and Vygotsky. Lev (Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological processes. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1978.).

online teaching distance education learner support teacher presence LMS announcements course syllabus assignment matrix feedback APA formatting peer-reviewed articles Vygotsky Garrison