Interacting With Your Students

How Do I Contact My Students?

There are a few options here. The first option is to use the Announcements tool in FanshaweOnline and post a message directly to students in your course. Another option is to send a class email from the Classlist tool in FOL. This can be a helpful approach for getting in touch with students before the scheduled start date for your course or to reach first-year or new transfer students who may still be learning to navigate FanshaweOnline. You can, of course, send emails directly to a specific student via the class list and within the submission tool as well. While you can also ask students for an alternative email address and include this as a CC, it is advisable always to use the FOL email tool and a student’s FOL address to communicate because this creates a protected record of your correspondence. FOL also has an Instant Message feature, which may be helpful.

How Might I Demonstrate Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for All Students in My Class?

Many equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) resources and options are available to instructors who want their classes to be inclusive and equitable while demonstrating respect for the diversity of worldviews that students bring to our classes. There are a variety of resources on Inclusive and Culturally Responsive Teaching from Fanshawe’s Center for Research and Innovation, including the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Toolkit. You can also review Fanshawe’s (EDI) strategy or contact the Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Joseph Pazzano. Additional resources include:

• Inclusive and Culturally Responsive Teaching from the University of PEI
• OER – Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Teaching & Learning
• OER – Building Community: Introduction to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion from the University of Guelph
• OER – Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA), a collaboration between 10 Ontario colleges and universities.

How Can I Get My Students to Be Engaged in My Classes?

Student engagement depends very much on your audience, teaching methods, personality, course content, whether you are in a classroom on campus or teaching in an online environment, and even factors like time of day and personal commitments students may have outside of your class. In short, there is no magic formula. For example, students taking a first-year service course, such as WRIT or COMM, may appear more tentative about the course than students taking a course in their field of interest. But this perspective can be shifted with engaging, meaningful learning activities. For most classes, active learning and engagement methods will be necessary to engage students, but these activities need to be designed to work with the course content. Whatever you do, it is important to communicate to students that you care about their learning. Their perception of your engagement sets a baseline for your interactions with them.

Since the answer to this question depends on many factors, you might want to arrange a consultation with the Development and Learning organization. You might also invite a peer to your classroom (or virtual learning space for online courses) to observe and provide feedback. This sort of teaching observation can help identify ways to enhance your students’ engagement.

• OER – 100 Ideas for Active Learning

What Can I Do if Students Stop Attending My Class?

If you notice that a particular student has stopped attending your class, you can try to contact the student to find out what is going on. Experience shows that most students appreciate their instructor’s interest and will ask for your advice once they learn that you noticed their absence. Research has shown that persisting in reaching out to students is particularly important for online courses. You can also make a note of this when you submit your midterm grades for the student and add a comment about the lack of attendance.

If you notice that a large number of your students have stopped attending class, it might be a sign that your teaching strategies are not working for them. This is why asking for feedback directly from students early in the term can be valuable, so you can adjust your teaching and turn things around rather than waiting until students fill out the course evaluations at the end of the semester. It is also a good idea to reach out to fellow colleagues who may be teaching a similar course to gauge their experience and discuss strategies to improve attendance.

What Can I Do if a Student Keeps Interrupting My Class?

The first step is determining why the student is engaging in this behaviour. Is it a need for your attention or to demonstrate knowledge in front of other students? Is there a mental health issue behind this behaviour? Behaviour issues can be delicate. If you are uncertain about the root of the problem and how to handle it, we recommend you ask for help from someone, perhaps from an experienced colleague you consider a mentor. You can also reach out to Accessibility Services for support and suggestions. If the interruptions are more serious, you should report the issue to our Program Manager or Associate Dean. Becoming aware of Fanshawe’s Policy A130: STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT and the Student Code of Conduct FAQ is advisable.

What Can I Do if the Same Student Is Always Answering My Questions to the Class?

Ensure that individual students know that you appreciate their enthusiasm but that other students also need to contribute. Try to figure out why it is always just one student (or a small number) who interacts with you: Are the other students disengaged or just shy? Sometimes, you can tell from your students’ facial expressions that they have something to say but need some encouragement. They may be encouraged to contribute if you address them directly. Make it clear that saying something wrong is acceptable. People learn from mistakes! Sometimes, students need a bit more time to process their answers, so asking a question and then asking students to think for 10 seconds before responding can help. A great way to avoid the barrier of reluctance altogether is to use student response systems such as clickers or polling platforms like menti.com or polleverywhere.com. If your class is online, our LMS (such as Virtual Classroom (Bongo) or Zoom) may have a polling feature. With systems of this kind, students don’t need to reply to your question in front of a large group. Their responses are displayed anonymously. Allowing peer discussion before they submit answers will help students learn through discussion. Seeing the distribution of responses for the whole class also helps students evaluate their level of understanding in relation to that of their peers.

I Have Difficulty Communicating With Some Students in My Class Because of a Language Barrier. What Options Do I Have?

If you notice that your students have problems understanding you because of your particular accent, or if you have problems understanding your students because of their accents or lack of proficiency in English, consider contacting staff in the English English Language Institute for suggestions and advice.

How Might I Support Students With Disabilities?

Accessibility Services has an entire webpage with detailed support for students. You can add information to your syllabus for students who require accommodations. Instructors should advise students to contact Accessibility Services directly and make an appointment to meet with a counsellor to discuss potential academic accommodations. Also, your FOL for accommodation letters from Accessibility Services provide specific information about the approved accommodations for individual students in your course. When you log into FOL, you can access both student and professor accessibility resources, including a list of accommodation letters for your students.

What Does It Mean When a Student Asks Me to Provide Academic Accommodations?

Fanshawe’s Accessibility Services provides, among other things, disability-related information, support, and counselling to the Fanshawe College community. Students with a documented disability can register with Accessibility Services to request academic accommodations to offset the effects of their disability on academic life. You are welcome to contact Accessibility Services for more information about their work, for example, how they determine a student’s eligibility for accommodations, what these accommodations might be, or how to refer a student to this office. See the resources described above within FOL for more details.

What can I do when I see a student struggling academically?

You can suggest that your student contact Academic Advising, with the option of booking an appointment or going to a drop-in advising session.

If your student has declared a major, they should contact their program or departmental advisor rather than Student Services. Students can also find many helpful resources through the Pathways to Academic Success (PAS) program, including learning strategies, materials on writing, time management advice, academic coaching, and much more. There is also an Accessibility Referral Form on myUPEI for faculty and staff to refer someone to Accessibility Services if they suspect or come to learn someone has a diagnosis (e.g., learning disability, mental health disability, ADHD, brain injury, temporary accommodation, etc.)

Free services are available through the Writing Centre, the Engineering Success Centre, the Help Centres in Math and Computational Sciences, and Chemistry. Students can also reach out to Student Affairs to arrange for tutoring assistance.

What Can I Do to Support and Recognize an Excellent Student?

Various grants, scholarships, and awards are available for Fanshawe Students, depending on their field. Contact your Program Coordinator or Associate Dean to find information relevant to your discipline or program within LLS.

For general information about financial aid, bursaries, student loans, and grants, you may wish to refer your students to the Financial Aid and Student Awards Office of the Fanshawe website.

What Can I Do When I See a Student Struggling Personally?

Sometimes, you can make your students feel better simply by being available for them and talking to them. Encourage students to come to your office hours or make an appointment. When teaching online, you can hold virtual office hours using Virtual Classroom (Bongo) or Zoom. Several studies have shown that students today feel stressed out more easily or more often than previous generations. Sometimes, simply talking with your students may lift their spirits because it shows them that you are interested in their well-being.

In other cases, your students might need professional help. Options to consider:

You can refer them to counselling services located in F2010, London Campus.
Email: counselling@fanshawec.ca; phone: 519-452-4282

You might also want to inform students about the mental health resources available from the Fanshawe Student Union.

The Institute of Indigenous Learning (formerly known as the First Nations Centre) assists current and incoming Indigenous students with admission and course selection, provides tutoring and access to other student services, and offers support and cultural growth.

Pay attention to your Fanshawe email for current semester information on supporting students in distress and any new updates to mental health supports available for the current term.

What Should I Do if I Suspect That a Student Has Cheated on an Assignment or Exam?

To avoid this situation, take a proactive approach and ensure your students clearly understand your expectations and the institution’s expectations regarding academic integrity. You can review the Academic Integrity Portal to get an overview of Fanshawe’s related Academic Regulations and how to encourage academic integrity and deal with academic integrity violations.

In general terms, if you suspect a student has engaged in academic misconduct, they are entitled to information about the alleged wrongdoing and the opportunity to respond. Academic dishonesty may be resolved by informal means, depending on the extent of the misconduct, the impact of that misconduct, whether the act was deliberate, whether the act is isolated, and any other pertinent factors.

Informal measures may include issuing a warning, requiring the work to be redone, assigning a low grade, or assigning a grade of zero for the assignment. Formal measures may result in a note in the student’s file in the Registrar’s Office, failure in a course, denial of admission or readmission to the College, and suspension or expulsion.

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References

The following has been adapted from “10. Interacting with students” in  Teaching and Learning Guide for UPEI Instructors Copyright © 2022 by Teaching and Learning Centre – UPEI and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Change log: This version contains stylistic, organizational and branding changes that differ from the above source. In addition, changes in wording and references to other institutions and external resources have been either updated or removed. Fanshawe College-specific information has been added to reflect our teaching and technology ecosystem.