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Center for Teaching Innovation

Instructor presence and interaction

Faculty & Instructors
Components of instructor presence: approachable, available, empathetic, participating, reassuring, responsive, showing your face, supportive

The following strategies can help foster meaningful interactions between you and your students in both in-person and online environments. They offer ways to humanize the course, sparking curiosity in and engagement with the course material, as well as allowing you to be an approachable, relatable, trusted facilitator of their learning; someone they can seek out for help and support right from the start of the course. 

When students are comfortable with the instructor, they are more comfortable learning, participating, and sharing in the learning environment. Cornelius-White (2007) found a strong link between instructor warmth & empathy and student success.

Infuse your personality into course materials

Rationale

Let your excitement and passion for the subject matter shine through in your syllabus and course materials. This is a way to humanize yourself to students and allow them to relate to you.

Try

  • Use a slightly more informal or conversational tone in your syllabus that represents you and the feel of the course
  • Share a personable bio to tell students about your background and interests
  • Create a lively welcome video and/or welcoming homepage (adding images can help)
  • Share an anecdote about your weekend or a link to something you found interesting
  • Create and participate in an informal icebreaker

Tools / Apps

Make yourself available and approachable

Rationale

Your presence plays an important role in motivating and engaging learners over the duration of the course. When you are visible and actively engaged in the flow of learning, students are less likely to get lost in the mix or become isolated.

Try

  • Be visible and active throughout your Canvas course (use pictures, video, text, etc. - when teaching in a completely online environment, greet students with a video or picture each week)
  • Encourage students to bring any issues to you early on (create a discussion for open questions)
  • Clearly state ways for students to find help and what types of support they can expect (remind them more than once)
  • Display office hours in multiple places (create a sign-up for private office hours)

Tools / Apps

Model empathy & acknowledge difficulties

Rationale

Having an instructor who can relate or understand struggles takes some of the pressure pressure and anxiety off of students' shoulders. This will allow students to develop trust with the instructor, letting them focus more clearly on the course content.

Try

  • Talk about your student experience
  • Acknowledge struggles:
    • empathize with what students are experiencing in the moment and identify ways you will be sensitive to their needs
    • show understanding of the difficulties of learning in an online format for the first time or using new technology
    • recognize when parts of the class are hard or confusing and support students
  • Offer support and provide resources

Tools / Apps

Be vulnerable; imperfect is perfect.

Rationale

Instructors make mistakes too; this is what makes us human. Knowing this can put students at ease when they make mistakes. Vulnerability fuels connection. It can also allow students to open up and give honest feedback early in the semester that can lead you to make improvements and ultimately improve course evaluations.

Try

  • Admit mistakes when they occur (acknowledge, apologize, and discuss ways you can make it up to them or correct the issue)
  • Be sincere when acknowledging that your actions had a negative effect on students (showing your face, such as through video as opposed to a written aknowledgement, can show greater sincerity)
  • Regularly ask students for honest feedback through anonymous surveys periodically during the semester (provide open comment boxes)

Tools / Apps

Check in often

Rationale

Prevent students from falling behind due to frustration or discouragement, a sense that they don't fit in with peers or belong, or competing interests in their personal lives preventing them from being successful.

Try

  • Anonymously survey the class regularly
  • Confirm that students are completing assignments and are active on Canvas
  • Reach out to students who need additional support. Check in privately and not in front of peers
  • For missing work or non-participation, ask the student privately, "Is everything ok?" (this question has shown a good response rate)

Tools / Apps

Reassure students

Rationale

This develops trust in what you are requiring during the semester and puts students at ease. It can encourage students to try new technologies, go the extra mile, or take risks to be innovative and/or creative. It can also reinforce your learning outcomes and provide clarity.

Try

  • Say, "You can do this" or "I am here for you"
  • Most powerful: Students hearing from other students
    • e.g., Wisdom Wall Activity (Pacansky-Brock, 2012): Show student anecdotes collected from previous semesters "How were you feeling at the start of this class? What do you know now that you wish you had known then?"

Tools / Apps

Provide and model meaningful feedback

Rationale

Receiving personal feedback from an instructor or classmate gives students a sense that the reviewer really cares about their perspectives, that their opinions and work matter, and that they deserve to be in the class. It can also motivate students to do even better the next time or go above and beyond because someone is actually reading and appreciating their work. Specific feedback will generally improve student performance over time or spawn ideas.

Try

  • Provide specific feedback through recorded audio or video, live in a private meeting, or in writing
  • Use words that have meaning as opposed to "good job" or "nice work"
  • Give positive feedback first and provide constructive comments
  • Try to be timely and sensitive to individual student needs
  • Model giving the type of feedback you want to see from students in peer evaluations
  • Invite students to respond to your feedback if needed

Tools / Apps

Explicitly state expectations

Rationale

Being as clear as possible from day one can prevent confusion, wasted time, stress, and inappropriate behavior. This will make the semester go much more smoothly.

Try

  • Describe the exact behavior and result you would like to see in detail and give reasons for your expectations
  • Set expectations and accountability mechanisms
  • Be sure that you and your TAs model the behavior/expectations yourselves
  • Provide rubrics with criteria for success wherever possible
  • Show strong/weak examples of work from past semesters

Tools / Apps

References

Cornelius-White, J. (2007). Learner-centered teacher-student relationships are effective: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 113–143.

Pacansky-Brock, M. (2012, August, 21). Wisdom Wall (excerpt).