Learning Science Lab | Faculty presence

A sense of faculty presence helps learners feel engaged and supported. This is easiest to maintain inside the classroom as you lecture, answer questions, and guide group discussions and activities.
But learning continues outside the presentation of new knowledge, during non-teaching times. While this is true in both online and traditional teaching environments, online teaching poses additional challenges to faculty presence. Students may interact with you primarily through Zoom or through asynchronous communication channels. Even when implemented thoughtfully, this can lead to a sense of distance for learners.
However, traditional in-person sessions are no guarantee of maintaining presence. Large lectures offer limited opportunities for faculty members to engage with every student. And if your class meets infrequently—for example, only once a week—that time apart can interrupt a learner’s sense of continuity between lessons.
There are a number of steps you can take to proactively communicate your presence to the class outside of direct instruction. Many are straightforward, but combining several techniques has a major impact on the student experience.

Share regular announcements and communications

As with many things in life, consistency can make a big difference. Regular announcements and communications let students know that learning does not begin and end during scheduled sessions; it is an ongoing process everyone should remain consistently engaged in. Communications can take many forms beyond course logistics or formal assignments. You can prompt discussion around current events, provide an advanced organizer of upcoming deliverables, reflect on student progress as a whole, or share pitfalls, for example.

The Brightspace Announcements tool provides a means to easily share per-course communications without juggling many difficult-to-maintain email lists. Beyond text-based messages, video can be a valuable tool for communicating with students. Depending on the context, it allows you to convey a more nuanced tone and review visual materials in a more intuitive way.
When you think about using video, remember that “video” is a medium, like “text”—not a format. It can meet a variety of needs. Instructional teaching videos may require careful planning and visual development, especially if you plan to re-use them for future classes. But you can also record quick, less formal videos as a means of, for example, providing timely feedback for a specific assignment with your class. These videos can be more casual, more quickly produced, and more responsive to specific student work in your current cohort or section.

Post office hours and availability

Office hours are a well established—but very useful—means of extending faculty presence. At a minimum, schedule times to be available for students and make those times as welcoming as possible. Whether in-person or online, they’re the perfect chance to provide individual feedback and dive deeper into course subjects.
One downside of office hours, however, is that the onus is on students to show up. This is a great opportunity for those who take it, but it may leave behind students who are shy or busy during scheduled times. To mitigate this, you will probably want to pair office hours with other strategies from this section that further incentivize student participation.

Facilitate online conversation

Online tools provide a great opportunity to keep conversation going beyond synchronous meetups. The Brightspace Discussion tool allows you to create a space for students to continue to interact with each other, but students may not heavily participate in these conversations without some work to facilitate them.
You can incentivize participation by structuring formal discussion questions and grading for participation. It’s a good idea to participate in discussion forums yourself, as well. This signals to students that these discussions are a serious extension of in-class time, rather than an afterthought or optional component of the class.

Meet with student groups and teams

If your teaching includes group projects, then that provides an additional opportunity to build a connection with your students. Group projects don’t only involve work that relates specifically to the subject matter. By their nature, they provide valuable exercises in project management, collaboration, and navigating interpersonal challenges. Here, you can serve as a coach and mentor by meeting with groups and teams to help guide them through these elements of their work.

Provide regular and timely feedback

The more distance between submitting work and receiving feedback on it, the more difficult it will be for learners to tie that feedback back to the original submission. Responding to students in a timely manner both shows your engagement and allows them to maintain their momentum in completing work.
Though you cannot always be on call, with planning, you can help ensure students receive the help they need. Think ahead about how your schedule aligns with milestones and deadlines. Let students know the times you’ll be responding to questions. And when you do provide feedback on student questions and assignments, remember the value of both quantitative and qualitative feedback. It’s in the latter that students will frequently receive the nuanced guidance that helps them refine and improve their thinking.