Strong communication with your teachers and professors right now is vital for keeping up to date on assignments, managing your schedule, and ensuring you understand and meet course expectations. Read on for our strategies for effective communication, which will allow you to smoothly transition to at-home learning and finish the term strong.
For high school students:
- Watch for emails and check your spam folder to ensure you haven’t missed any important communications. Delete (or unsubscribe from) unnecessary emails clogging your inbox.
- Spend some time familiarizing yourself with your new online programs or apps. Log on in advance, check your microphone and webcam, and ensure you have a safe, centralized location for all your passwords.
- Communicate early and often. Check in with your teachers, outline your goals for the term, and ask how you can work towards these.
- Ask if you can set up a schedule for regular check-ins. Keep a running list of questions or topics that you want to discuss, so you can use your time productively.
- Create an at-home school schedule and try to stick to it (and check out our blog post about how to get a schedule started). Prioritize daily tasks and respect assignment deadlines. If you need an extension or additional clarification, ask in advance whenever possible.
For post-secondary students:
- Get to know your school or faculty’s online platform, which may include Canvas, eClass, Blackboard or Moodle. Professors and TAs tend to check these most often, and they will often post announcements, assignments, or updates on there. Make a point to check your course sites daily.
- Make use of virtual office hours! Office hours can often be found on your course syllabus and can be a good way to receive academic support, demonstrate your interest in the course, and form stronger bonds with your teachers. Just set up an appointment, and you’ll quickly find that office hours are a great resource for your university studies.
- Follow program social media accounts for up-to-date and accurate information about your program.
- Join discussion forums online and engage with other students.
- Be mindful of time zones. Students are completing their studies from all over the world. You are responsible for being on time.
- Be mindful of email etiquette (and of your professor’s time). Before you send an email, make sure you have included a greeting, written your message in a formal and concise manner, checked it for spelling and grammar errors, and finished with a polite closing. If you want an answer to a question, make sure that the answer can’t first be found on your course syllabus, your program site, or Google.
