From Conventional Spaces to Virtual Places: Enhancing Teacher-Student Communication in the Hybrid/Online Course
Abstract: United States’ postsecondary institutions and their organizational environments have changed significantly regarding constituency expectations of student learning, instructional practices, and technological tool usage. Although these changes have occurred, the need for a positive student-teacher relationship and effective communication between these two groups has been consistent. A teacher communication variable that has been examined in relation to student learning is teacher immediacy. Although a wealth of information about teacher immediacy in traditional instructional environments exists, little has been done to examine this communication phenomenon in virtual classrooms. Consequently, this paper contains a literature review of teacher immediacy in traditional classrooms and provides some instructional techniques for transferring these practices into teacher-student communication interactions in hybrid/online courses.
Presider: Jan Tucker, Columbia Southern University