Build Your Course Online - The Blog

The biggest instructor complaint about technology? Too much email from participants! Why does it happen? Because both instructors and learners don’t know how to use email. They use it too much, too unskillfully.

Hot Tip: Yes, there is a skill to email. And we’re going to teach you that skill. In less than a minute, you’ll know how to make email your servant, not your master.

Here’s how:

• Require participants to ask questions of one another (in the discussion forum)–before they ask you. This could cut your emails in half.
• Build (or get your learners to build) a bank of "Frequently Asked Questions" and point your learners to it. This will cut your email even further.
• Create a filter in your email system so that all messages from learners go to a separate folder or folders. Then, you can check this student email all at once, instead of having it spill out all over your life. This might require that you train your participants to add a keyword or code to all the email they send to you. But it will be worth the effort in the end.
• Teach your course participants to use effective subject lines. A good subject line should read like a newspaper headline and make the viewer want to open the email, or, at least, have a good idea of what’s in the email without opening it.
• Pro-actively encourage effective subject lines by modeling them yourself, so your participants will always know which message to re-open to find that particular due date.

These are valuable, proven methods that could make the difference between a bad and a good experience for you and your customers or students as you venture into the new world of e-learning. Learn more about best practices for email in our Faculty Web Book and our Student Web Book.

Next time: “Which Email Program Should You Use for Course Discussions.”