Communication Activities for Online and Hybrid Classes D. Reiss

Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum (ECAC)
Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) ECAC Home

Activities for Online and Mixed Mode Classes

Designed with a Writing/Communication/Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum (WAC-CAC-ECAC) and Active Learning foundation, these electronic communication activities are adaptable for any academic discipline and include both writing to learn and writing to communicate. I developed these and similar activities to engage students in my online and hybrid classes in communication-rich activities where they read and write to and for each other.

Small group exchanges help establish communities of learners and connections with classmates and teachers. The epistolary convention helps personalize online communication and relates it to genres familiar to many students—chat, instant messages, and letters—at the same time it helps distinguish among types of online discourse appropriate to context, purpose, and audience.

I continue to revise these activities and welcome questions or suggestions for the guidelines or the navigational structure (email dreiss at wordsworth2.net). If you would like to link to or adapt any of these guides for your own students, I would appreciate acknowledgment of my Website. Each link here will open a new browser window.

Discussion Groups
I have used variations of this process with several commercial discussion boards and threaded Web forums, with Weblogs, and with email lists (which are more cumbersome). For both online and mixed mode classes, participation in assigned online converations is integral to the class, not an add-on or option. Details are online at Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum.

Writing Workshop
Students not only exchange drafts, they also write each other Invitation Letters and Response Letters, posting everything on a class discussion board so they can read each other's plans and suggestions.

A general description of a Writing Workshop and an example are online.
I compose a letter to the class with general comments and suggestions for revision; whenever possible I cite students within the letter. In addition, I usually email a brief individual response to each student.
After students have participated in several required Writing Workshops, I may omit some of the required elements and instead invite students to exchange informally on their own with classmates who have been helpful in the past.
When I return graded final papers, I post a letter to the class with general comments and suggestions for future projects; whenever possible I cite students within the letter. In addition, I email a brief individual response to each student.

Reflection Letters
Students are encouraged to reflect on their own writing processes and on the Writing Workshop process by posting a Reflection Letter a day or two after they submit their final version but before I return the graded projects. They post their Reflections to the class discussion board. A general description of a Reflection Letter and an example are online.

Prospectus
For some class projects, in particular projects that take several weeks such as a research project, students submit a Prospectus and/or an Annotated Bibliography. They post their Prospectus to the class discussion board, where I respond to each one individually. I also write and post a letter to the class with general comments and suggestions; whenever possible I cite students within the letter. An example with a followup letter is online.

Annotated Bibliography
For some class projects, in particular projects that take several weeks such as a research project, students submit a Prospectus and/or an Annotated Bibliography.

Webfolio (Electronic Portfolio)
Students' final project is a reflective electronic portfolio that allows them to synthesize class activities, demonstrate their learning, reflect on their composing and learning processes, communicate in words and images, and publish their compositions. Webfolio Project Description and Selected Resources includes examples of student digital portfolios for writing and humanities classes.