10 Online Classroom Communication Tips to Enhance Learning

Ever felt like you are talking to a wall of muted mics and blank screens? You are not alone in this. Establishing real and meaningful communication in an online classroom where students feel like participating is a true challenge. Especially when your students seem disconnected. 

To help you with that, I interviewed other online teachers, virtual facilitators, and online trainers, who shared their actionable strategies. In this article, we will discuss ten proven tips online instructors use when it comes to enhancing classroom communication and bringing in engagement. 

Expert recommendations for managing classroom communication 

There are so many reasons why classroom communication may fail. The most common reasons are when you do not meet your student's expectations and do not introduce any policies and methods. 

Whichever the case is, let’s see how experts handle it and how you can implement their tips to make your classroom communication better. 

Share the class agenda

Before we even join the online class, we have our expectations in mind. However, it is clear that every student’s expectations differ. That is why you should share the class agenda every time before starting the class. 

Your agenda includes:

• The topics you will discuss during the session
• The main activities you implement
• The methods and ways you use to run those activities

All this creates a sense of structure. Students know when they should listen, ask questions, and understand how you expect them to interact. And if you are working with adult learners, they understand better how their time will be spent and what value they get. It is one of the factors deciding what input they should have in your online class. 

Encourage reactions

Online class communication is not always about verbal communication. Sometimes, participants mute their mics and turn off their cameras, which does not necessarily suggest they are not invested in your session. 

You cannot really force anyone to speak or have their cameras on. What you can do is encourage non-verbal feedback. Jan Keck, who is a pro learning experience designer, uses the reaction buttons of video conferencing tools to achieve that. 

Here is what he shared:

“I might ask participants to give me an okay sign or give me, like, a finger wiggle or just give me a head nod. If we're on Zoom, they could write something in the chat. Anything that gives me some quick feedback on how things are landing”.

Jan Keck

Learning experience designer 

So, next time you feel like you are the voice of one calling in the desert, ask them for a reaction. It can be something like, “Give me a thumbs up if you agree with the strategy I just shared.” 

Have office hours

As online instructors, we always like to have all our content and activities planned. At times, the session becomes just a rush through the content because we want to share all these valuable insights with the learners. 

Yet, the planned content is only one part of your online class. You still have to manage the learning experience and make sure everyone gets what they joined for. 

That is why you can introduce “office hours,” where you can handle the administrative questions from participants or have high-level discussions on the topics you covered throughout the week. Perhaps you gave them an assignment to work on, and now they have more questions on how to apply the theory you covered. 

Jan Keck usually has his online training for the large group and then office hours for smaller groups. 

“Those office hours I called them sometimes were almost as valuable, if not more valuable, than the planned content that I had because the questions are just super tangible.” 

Jan Keck

Learning experience designer 

Establish communication channels 

Establishing clear communication channels ensures students know exactly how and where to reach you, fostering a sense of accessibility and support. Besides, it helps to build trust with you, and students know when and how they can reach out to you once they have questions. 

So, do you prefer to get emails? Can they reach out to you via a call or write a message on Slack or in your own community? 

Also, clearly communicate your availability and let them know when they can expect a response. 

However, to avoid it, you can just run Ask Me Anything sessions where students can engage with you and strengthen communication and connection. 

Ask for feedback 

At times, even the best engagement tactics and methods will not get you the response you need from participants. Trying to find a balance and keeping everyone satisfied is not an easy task. 

That is why you should also ask for their feedback on whether the online class met their expectations. Or whether they would like any of the activities to be conducted in a different manner. Perhaps they need less of your PowerPoint lectures and want more discussion and video content, or vice versa. 

Linda Haddad, who has been teaching English online classes for years, asks her students for feedback at the beginning and at the end of the session. 

“One of the key things I always use is to ask them for feedback. I always make sure to ask if they are getting the benefit that they were expecting out of the course. Or is there anything I can do differently, and what is their interest? So we always agreed on what the next course was going to be”.

Linda Haddad, 

Online teacher 

Besides the online open communication, you can also send them feedback forms once in a while, where they can leave their anonymous suggestions and honest feedback. 

Do regular check-ins

Feedback forms are not the only way to find out how your classes are going or whether you are meeting the student’s expectations. Another way is running interactive surveys and polls, which not only give you immediate feedback but also introduce fun in your online classroom. 

Let’s discuss this on a fun example that Jan implemented in one of his sessions. Since not everyone will fill out your feedback forms or contribute with their suggestions, you can run it as a game. In his check-in game, Jan described a situation or an activity. And the participants reacted to how it made them feel in real-time with the activity board Jan created.

You can adapt the concept to your online classes and notice how the most quiet and shy people get involved. 

At the end of the day, it is all about listening to your students and not just running online lectures. 

“Be open to feedback, be open to change, and always listen. Maybe a lot more than you speak. Sometimes, in my classes, participants are talking 90% of the time, and I'm listening”. 

Linda Haddad, 

Online teacher 

Use direct address 

To make your online classes smooth, you should also have some communication rules or policies. Why? Because they are always participants who are loyal and will not stop contributing their suggestions. On the other hand, there are those who never get the chance to talk. So, it is your role as their online teacher or instructor to facilitate these interactions. 

A simple way you can do that is by name-calling. Even if you have to say, “I want to hear from people who I still haven’t heard from.”

Linda Haddad uses this for her online classes, and that always got her students talking. 

Encourage peer-to-peer communication 

The strategies we discussed above are mostly concerned with communication between you and your participants. However, online class communication happens between the participants as well. Especially if you run discussions often, you want most of the participants to contribute and share. 

And here comes the challenge again. Some students will stay quiet and shy. To make everybody feel confident and comfortable, Jan Keck uses breakout rooms in a smart way. He fosters communication using small groups since managing communication in large groups is not always fully possible. Here is how he executes this:

“I send them to breakout rooms, and I tell them that you have to find ten things that you have in common with the other person or the other two people. If it's a group of three and the most unique things that you have in common when”.

This way, you encourage your participants to get out of their comfort zone, which makes online class communication a lot easier. The sooner you get them to take a risk, the sooner they realize everyone is in there together. 

Share updates in your community 

Another great way to foster communication outside of your classroom and enhance learning is by using your course communities. This might be your social media groups or communities on your own platform. 

For example, if you are running your online classes on Uteach, you can create communities around each of your courses. You can set them to be free or monetize that experience. 

Here, you can start a discussion highlighting any topics you covered during the session and share updates and assignments. Students, on their turn, can comment, post, and engage with each other in a meaningful way. 

All this creates the collaborative atmosphere that you most need to run your classes and enhance communication between students. 

Be patient 

We often hear the phrase that communication is key. And it takes time until you manage to foster a collaborative relationship with the participants and manage online class communication. 

So, do not feel discouraged by your first encounter with the group. Once the students start to engage more with you each other, you spend less time and effort to communicate your online classroom etiquette. 

“I often talk about building a campfire because to me it's a process. Building trust and connection is not something that happens instantaneously. You need to kind of build up to it and ideally start with something that is really low risk”. 

Jan Keck

Learning experience designer 

FAQ about managing communication in an online class 

Let’s now answer some commonly asked questions when it comes to establishing clear communication in your online classroom. 

How do I deal with students who frequently turn off their cameras? 

First things first, having cameras off is not always a sign of disengagement. You probably noticed that the students who almost never engage do not fall behind in assessments and quizzes. There can be hundreds of reasons why someone would keep their cameras off that you cannot control. 

So instead of showing this police behavior, especially with younger learners, encourage activities where people need to have their cameras on. For example, it can be icebreaker activities that require screen-sharing. 

Also, you can implement the non-verbal feedback we discussed above, like leaving responses in the chat or sending reactions. 

What is a good way to build rapport in online classes? 

Another challenging issue that hinders proper online class communication is the type of relationship you establish with the participants.

And when I asked instructors and facilitators how they build trust at the initial stages, there was one common answer - real-life stories. Stories are what make people connect and feel they can relate. The breakout rooms and surveying activities we discussed above will help you as well. 

Related: 15 Proven Strategies to Win Student Trust

How do you handle students who dominate conversations? 

Some participants like to dominate the discussions, which is not bad unless you have a large group to work with. 

For such cases, you should have an online classroom communication etiquette that you can share before the classes start. For example, if they know they need to use a “Raise hand” feature, you would have more control over the discussions. 

Or you can always politely interrupt them and ask a direct question to someone else. 

How do we include quiet ones in discussions? 

One of the reasons some people will not jump straight into the conversation is that they need more time to reflect on the topic than others. So, even if you do name-calling and invite them to talk, they are still reserved. 

Jan Keck has experimented with many strategies to include the more introverted participants in discussions. One of the strategies he uses for such cases is giving everyone time to think about the questions before he invites them to unmute. 

But first thing first, make sure you know why they are quiet. Most of the time, the reasons are out of your control. 

Leave the administrative burden on Uteach

Effective communication is the key to a successful online class, and Uteach is designed to make that process seamless for you and your students. 

If you are looking to automate your administrative tasks and communication with students and create and sell courses successfully, Uteach is there to help. 

With live session automation tools, you can easily schedule sessions. Students will be able to join directly through your own website with one click. Whether it is session reminders, attendance checking, quizzes, and assignments, Uteach saves a great deal of your time with automation. 

It is your all-in-one platform to create and sell online courses, live lessons, memberships, coaching, digital products, and so much more. 

Learn more about Uteach features and start your free trial today.