The Future of Education

Participation in online university education is continuing to grow in Australia to meet the need for more flexible and accessible educational pathways that provide students with access to learning anywhere, anytime. While both traditional and online teachers need to provide a high quality learning experience that is both engaging and meaningful, one of the most important skills for an online teacher is the ability to establish a presence that will foster a community of learning. Central to this is being able to communicate effectively with students to keep them motivated to engage and stay on task with learning materials. The purpose of this experiential study is to reflect on the communication processes implemented in two fully online second year undergraduate human resource management business courses. Synchronous and asynchronous communication methods included announcements, emails, a social networking platform that gave students the opportunity to contribute to topic discussions and ask questions, virtual classroom sessions, and feedback on assessment. A self-directed evaluation of communication methods, teacher and student interactions, and an analysis of course access patterns revealed that teacher communication style, quick response to student queries, and announcements were highly valued and effective in establishing a presence. Eighty percent of students joined the social networking platform yet participation in both this forum and virtual classroom sessions while moderate at the beginning of the study period was low towards the end of the study period with the majority tending to lurk in the background and access downloadable virtual classroom recordings asynchronously. Communication skills and methods are discussed in relation to the type of information communicated via each method, course website access patterns, participation, student feedback, and findings reported in the literature.