Communication

Below are a few guidelines that you as a tutor can consider, implement and adapt when communicating with students. Please note that these are all suggestions and should not be taken as prescriptions. 

Tips:

• Set up a regular pattern of communications. This will provide much-needed structure to students. Discuss with your group or class the best way to communicate, and agree to the protocols. Regular communication through the Vula Chat Room, Email and WhatsApp can be set up. Once a week, it is good to ask how students are coping with the workload so that interventions or adjustments can be made where necessary. Use tools such as the Chat Room, WhatsApp, Emails, Polls. Keep a record of common issues reported by students so that the lecturer or the course convener is aware of the issues across all tutorial groups.

• Regular engagement. As a tutor, it is important that you encourage your students to engage in the course and with you. This may require adjusting schedules to find common ground so that more students can join in or creating opportunities for engagement such as using polls, forum discussion topics as well as phrasing of instructions so that students know they need to respond. Example: “Please read and comment by the end of the week on at least 3 peers’ posts, stating whether you agree or disagree and why.”

• Modeling. You may need to model responses (in forums, blogs, WhatsApp) in the beginning as well as probe students as a means for them to interact, especially for first-year students who may find it particularly challenging. Relevant discussion topics and instructions can be created so that a wide range of students can engage. 

• Acknowledging responses. It is important to acknowledge contributions made by students so that they can feel heard. This can be through liking a post or replying. Where it is affirming or constructive to do so, refer to students by name, as it signals individual acknowledgment. Depending on the size of the cohort and time constraints, you may not always have time to acknowledge the contributions of every student. In this instance, it is advisable to write a reply in which you respond to common concerns, note excellent insights and continue to encourage interaction.

• Acknowledging queries. At times, students may email or Whatsapp you queries - if you are pressed for time, acknowledge their message and let them know you will respond in due time.  

• Kindness and compassion. We all need to exercise kindness and compassion with others, and ourselves, because any response will have consequences. Keep your posts and comments constructive and respectful. Ask for clarification if you feel offended and always look for solutions first to avoid misunderstanding and disagreements. 

• Knowing student concerns. In order to best support students, it is important that you know what their concerns are. Tools such as the Poll tool can be used to post a multiple choice question and get responses from students anonymously. For example, you can ask them which topics they are struggling with and need assistance with. This will allow you to know their concerns as well as how you can prepare to better assist them in the next meeting.  

• Informing. Keep students informed about changes in the course. For example, when a tutorial topic or assignment due date has been changed. In such instances, remind and ensure that students are informed about the changes through sending messages on the agreed-upon communication channels. 

• Informal chats. Setup or suggest that the students create WhatsApp groups where students can chat informally about the course. Let them know that this is a space for them to connect with each other and that you will not be checking on these chats regularly.

• Posting important questions asked by students in the Q&A Tool. When a student asks you important questions privately, you can post the questions and answers in the Q&A Tool so that all students can benefit. Encourage students to post general questions in the Q&A Tool. This will also save you time by not having to respond to the same question many times.

List of tools and how they can be used for communication:

It is important to remind students of how you would like them to communicate with you, and specify through which tools. There are many tools that can be used for communication.  Choose one or two that you think will work best for you and your students. Please note that some of the tools listed below link to external sites that will incur data charges. 

Broadcast tools - for information sharing

Announcements Tool

• The Announcements tool allows for the delivery of messages to the entire class, to groups, or to specific sections within the class.
• If the students are allocated into groups via the Section Info tool, Group Manager or Adhoc Groups tools in Vula,  announcements can be sent to specific groups. 
• There are options that can be used to notify the students of any announcement that is made via email

Emails (External Tool)

• Groups on UCT Outlook can be created to send the same email to multiple recipients.
• It is advisable to set aside some time to respond to emails every day. 
• Make it clear to students that you will not be available 24/7 to respond to emails.  
• Let them know that there will be a delay in your responses for after-hours queries.

WhatsApp (External Tool)

• You can create a Whatsapp Group to send the same message to all your students. 
• You can set the Whatsapp group to be on broadcast mode which will only allow you to send messages to the group.

Interactive tools - for engaging with students

Forums Tool

• This tool allows for the creation of an unlimited number of discussion forums.
• To add topics in the Forum tool, you will first need to check with the course convener that this is part of your role.  If so, the course convener will need to edit the permissions for tutors in the forum settings on the course site to enable you to add topics. Refer queries to help@vula.uct.ac.za.
• Manage your emails from Forums. Under Settings, you have the option to Allow email notifications for new messages. This will allow you to receive all the messages that students post on the forum via email. This can be very helpful in alerting you when there is a post made in the forum (even when you are not logged into the Vula site). 

• You can moderate topics in forums, meaning that you can put the conversations in the topics in that forum in a ‘pending’ state. You can then read it and decide to either allow it or deny it, in which case it won’t be posted for the class to read. You can moderate topics by clicking on Forums > Topic Settings > Moderate Topic. The course convener may need to enable this.
• Make it clear to students that you will not be available 24/7 to respond to forum conversations - but do specify when they can expect a response and keep to that promise. Example: Please post in the forum by Wednesday at 4pm or I will be responding to posts on Thursday morning.  
• Inform students of your consultation hours, such as which days and times you will be available online to respond to their ‘live’ queries.
• Let students know that there will be a delay in your responses for after-hours queries.

Chat Room Tool

• This tool can be used for real-time communication (text-only) with your students. 
• The Chat Room tool supports multiple rooms and the default room can be set by the site owner. You can ask your course convener to give you the necessary permissions to add and manage multiple Chat Rooms. 
• If you are using it for discussions regularly, clearly labeling each engagement makes it easier to access after the chat. Example: 25 August; Tut discussion on the portrayal of women in contemporary South African novels. 
• You can create an "Online Office Hours" Chat Room for answering ‘live’ questions.
• Inform students of your consultation hours: which days and times you will be available online to respond to their ‘live’ queries.
• Make it clear to students that you will not be available 24/7 to respond to Chat Room messages. 
• Let them know that there will be a delay in your responses for after-hours queries. 

Emails (External Tool)

• You can set aside some time to respond to emails every day or days that you are available. For example, you can inform your students that you will be responding to emails from 2pm - 4pm every day. 
• Make it clear to students that you will not be available 24/7 to respond to emails.  
• Let students know that there will be a delay in your responses for after-hours queries.

WhatsApp (External Tool)

• Specify when and how students should use Whatsapp for questions/ queries. 
• Make it clear to students that you will not be available 24/7 for academic support.  
• Inform students that you may refer them to other Faculty members or Services at UCT for urgent matters or issues related to mental health.

Group settings:

Several Vula Tools can be integrated for group-specific use that your course convener may have set up in Vula. Specifically, the Announcement tool can be used to send an Announcement only to members of a specific group, or you may have a separate Forum or Forum Topic dedicated to your tutorial or project group. Check with the course convener if they are using Vula Groups on the course site and what permissions you have as a tutor to send messages to your or specific students.