What to do before the first day of an intake:
- Fill in dates for assessment deadlines and update details i.e. changes in LOs, Day 5 meeting in the Programme Guide (Master document found in Online Campus MS Team LINK here [you must have access to this Team to be able to use this link]).
- Adjust the intake's assessment due dates in Yoobee Online to reflect the dates in the Programme Guide. You can adjust for extensions for individual students during the programme.
- Fill in the details for course in the Course Guide (Master document found in Online Campus MS Team LINK here [you must have access to this Team to be able to use this link]). You can prepare all guides for the programme and upload at the time needed.
- Fill in relevant information for your intake in the Engagement and Touchpoints Plan.
(Template is filed in the Course folder in the Online Campus Teams group) - Set up the Assessment tracking document for your intake. Names can be finalised later
(Template is filed in the Course folder in the Online Campus Teams group) - Check the Powerpoint used for Day 5. Is it up-to-date?
- Add yourself to Group Messages and switch the default No in Group Messaging to Yes.
- Set up the Day 5 meeting, using Live Sessions for students to click on. Remember to send a calendar link/invite to the CM, TL and OLS
- Write the Day One Welcome message and post to all students via Messages, on the Friday before Day One.
(NOTE: Day One is always a Monday. If Day One is a public holiday, add a note to the Welcome message that explains that Monday is a public holiday and the tutor will return on Day Two, students can, of course, study on a public holiday). - Welcome message must contain:
- Greeting and brief introduction of yourself (the tutor)
- Reminder to students to complete the Orientation activity
- Reminder to students to go to the forum to go through the 3 welcome threads. (You will need to clearly indicate where this is and the naming of the threads)
- The day/time of the Day Five meeting: letting the students know that an invite is in the Welcome forum and if the students are not available for the time scheduled, they can watch the recording later in forum.
- Email the students in the intake to create connection with you and direct them to Yoobee Online, Orientation and the start of their studies. You might like to include the Day 5 meeting link in this email too.
- Prepare all the Welcome forum threads Write the Day One Welcome message
- Review the Intake Overview for any Up Front Learning Support students that could be on your radar.
Before Day One the tutor will get the Up Front Learning Support Intake Overview (what a mouthful, huh?). This is the intake list highlighting the priority areas such as under 18, Māori/Pasifika, International, Offshore and neurodivergent students.
Until a student logs in, Sales will have oversight on Student Engagement. Once a student logs in, the oversight becomes the tutor's responsibility. Therefore, it's important to keep an eye on students logging in or not and creating a space that is exciting for students to engage in. This is done by keeping the communication flowing, having tasks that are short, simple, achievable and relevant.
What to do by Day One:
- Ensure the Welcome message has been sent to the class.
- In the Getting to Know You Forum:
- Introduce yourself and ask students to introduce themselves.
- Upload the Programme Outline pdf.
- Ask questions that encourage students to participate in this forum (what’s your favourite film of all time, what is your favourite drawing style etc. Base the questions on interests that would be relevant to the programme of study).
What to do Day Five:
- Follow the Engagement and Touchpoint Plan for this intake.
- Send a link to a meeting in the morning, making a time for the early afternoon. (If you haven't done this already.)
- Remember to add this note: Do not worry if you cannot make this time, we will record it for you to view later in Forums.
- Know how to and/or practise recording the meeting.
- Use the Day 5 Powerpoint Template
- Day Five meeting should cover:
- Tutor introduces themselves and whomever else is present from the Online Team.
- Remind students of key dates (where to find the Programme Outline).
- Talk about any public holidays relevant to this intake: students can study but all the Yoobee team will be on leave.
- Remind students to check back to Orientation module for key contacts and key information.
- Reminder to complete the Orientation section, if not done so.
- Any IT issues, contact is in Orientation section, on the login page, on the course homepage.
- Engagement: students should log in at least once a week to check forums and messaging.
- Welcome Survey: explain what this is, why it is important and how students get the link to do it. Explain it is a kind of a Pay it Forward situation.
- Encourage students to participate in forums and create a class culture.
- Information about class reps, ask if anyone would like to consider being a class rep.
- Ask if anyone has questions.
Day 5 Important points
This is the first time the students will see you interact with you, so make is as enthusiastic and relatable as possible. Just like for F2F students meeting you on day 1, this is their moment.
Present yourself in the manner that is professional, passionate, welcoming and organised. Nice background, presentation ready, camera's on, greeting students as they enter the room.
Try to keep the tutor talking to less than 10 minutes, so the students will keep engaged. Talk about/to the slides, as we can all read what is there.
Ask questions to connect with students, this is a moment to find out about them. Remember connection equals engagement.
What to do Day Six:
- Follow the Engagement and Touchpoint Plan for this intake.
- Check on student engagement. Create a list of students to review daily. Store in the Intake folder found on the Online Campus Teams group.
- Upload the Day 5 link into messaging
- Watch out for late arrivals. Students will be added to the class list in SELMA as they sign the PT form.
What to do Day Seven:
- Follow the Engagement and Touchpoint Plan for this intake.
- Check on student engagement by reviewing your list of non-engaged students.
- Has any logged in for the first time? Yippee they are in..now to keep them engaged!
- Has any student dropped off in logging in? Ahhhh, how many days? Consider a quick email to see what support you could offer. Maybe they are struggling to navigate around the platform, or actually these are their work days so won't come back until the weekend.
What to do Day Eight:
- Follow the Engagement and Touchpoint Plan for this intake.
- Review previous day’s list of non-engaged students. Rinse/Repeat the 2 questions above.
- Remind students that confirmation day is on Friday and if any are considering this is not for them, they should let you/Sales know.
What to do Day Ten:
- Follow the Engagement and Touchpoint Plan for this intake.
- This is student confirmation day, so all students must be either confirmed as enrolled in this programme or withdrawn (if they have not made contact and are not contactable).
- Review and confirm your list of non-engaged students.
- Discuss with Team Leader. (the Sales Team confirms the student or gives them an Early Withdrawal).
In week 3, the Up Front Learning Support List will be created for the intake. Any student in a priority group will be individually contacted by Online Learning Support. This list may differ to your class list as there may be students on it who have not signed their PT form.
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As you have probably picked up creating and maintaining student engagement is perhaps the most important role an Online tutor has. It is what gets the students through the journey along with their knowledge and skills.
There is no universal definition of engagement, but it is best thought of the degree of attention, involvement, interest, curiosity, passion in the content and the learning journey. It is linked to motivation and success. It is not just about the mental aspect of learning content but includes the emotional social aspects and for face-to-face classes the behaviourial and perhaps physical aspects. What happens when a student is disengaged? They are bored, they feel isolated and become unmotivated, they fall behind in their schedule, don’t submit assessments and drop out. In a face-to-face class there will be non-attendance issues, so for an online class, the students don’t log in.
As a result, an online tutor employs various engagement strategies to keep the students involved, interested, curious and motivated to continue as well as follow the Engagement/Touchpoint plan to have a schedule of points to connect students with content as well as points to check students are still engaged.
Here are some ideas on how engagement strategies:
- Connection is the biggest way to keep students engaged. Connect them to you, to Online Learning Support, to the Yoobee College community, to other students (in the intake and perhaps in other intakes), and to the wider community of practice.
- Bring in QTime conversations to know the aspirations and derailers of the student.
- Being real – students need to feel there is a real person behind the screen, not an automated message or a disinterested tutor. Bring in life stories, connect content to your experiences and share news about you i.e. anything fun that happened in the weekend.
- Gamify things – make a quiz, hold a poll, ask a question that creates competition.
- Be regular and reliable – maintain connections consistently and in the same way so students know you are there “always” and where to find you should they need you.
- Make it visual. The above tip is still true – make regular weekly/fortnightly news posts, place it in the same location, but the delivery method does not have to be the same. You don’t always have to make announcements through the written word. Make a poster, make a video, even create an animation of the weekly news.
- Bring in guest speakers or link to or create cool webinars (linked to content/LOs). Link external Masterclasses and other online meet-ups. These might not be related directly to the content but it might be optional or alternative extensions.
- Ask students for advice, resources, tools and ideas.... You don’t always have to be the one that provides advice, feedback or resources
What do you do when students are disengaged?
- Use the Touchpoint plan as an indicator to moments to check engagement. Follow the actions in the plan.
- However, these are not the only times you might check engagement. PowerBi is a resource to see log ins. If a student hasn’t logged in then this might raise a flag. Or if a comment in a forum thread or message caused you to wonder “huh, what’s that all about” is another flag.
Reach out and connect to the student with causal inquiry and offer of support if required. It might be that they are all fine and going well, so they will wonder why you are asking.
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There are number of actions to do to finish the intake. Follow the Steps to... Finishing an Intake, found in the Step to folder.
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As you have completed the sections Getting started with Yoobee Online and The Yoobee Online Tutor, you would have seen similarities with and differences between the face-to-face and online campus.
Reflect on the differences:
- What are they and why do they occur?
- What does that mean for the students and the tutors?
- How does this affect your actions?
- Is the difference a major one or a minor one?
Reflect on the similarities:
- What are the processes, actions or events that are similar or even the same?
- Why are these similar?
- How does this affect your actions?
These notes will help you consider your future actions and support your Reflect and Connect final project.
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