Best Practices of Online Communication

Option 2

You have a student in your online English class who has a 504 Plan in place for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).  The plan indicates she has significant difficulties with staying focused and executive functioning skills, making organization a constant challenge for her.  The 504 committee that developed her plan decided to try an online placement for your one class to see if the online environment is an appropriate fit for future classes.  So far, it seems she is enjoying and thriving in your class; she has been active in the class for the first couple of weeks, crafting thoughtful and meaningful posts and responses to classmates, she is asking questions when she needs clarification on a direction or a concept, and is turning in assignments and taking tests and quizzes on a regular basis.  However, you notice she is turning in her work at various times, not necessarily in order as per the pacing schedule with due dates you have provided.

One of the advantages of online learning is that allows students to work at their own pace.  However, this often times is a downfall for students that struggle with ADHD, as it can become a challenge to be in a less structured learning environment.  According to the description above, this is a student that has difficulties with executive functioning skills.  In a more traditional academic setting, the student would probably have a more immediate sense of accountability since a teacher’s physical presence itself provides a clear reminder of expectations.

Effective communication is an essential part of online instruction, and it becomes even a more critical component when students have special needs such as ADHD.  Since all student-teacher interaction takes place virtually, it becomes imperative that teachers use best practices of communication to properly support the student.  The three best practices that I would choose to support the student in scenario 2 are the following:

1. Using a variety of tools to communicate effectively.  Unlike the learning environment in a brick-and-mortal school, virtual learning requires from the instructor a high level of responsiveness when communicating with both students and parents.  In this case, since the student seems to have difficulties following the pacing schedule, it will be beneficial to send brief reminders via text message redirecting her to work on assignments that need to be completed first and suggesting resubmitting the assignments that are not following the suggested order in the schedule.  The feedback for assignments submitted too early can be utilized also to explain why assignments must followed a certain order and to remind the student to follow the course schedule so that all assignments are turned in by their respective due dates.

2. Being proactive rather than reactive.  Once that it becomes clear that the student is submitting assignments with no particular order, the goal should be to implement communication practices that can prevent this from happening.  Perhaps the way the course schedule is structured is too distracting or has too much information.  Creating a special pacing schedule with a clear outline in the form of a time line could help the student see more clearly the sequence of learning objectives that need to be mastered before attempting to complete an assignment or take a test.  Also, posting and emailing weekly announcements listing the assignments due each Wednesday could make it easier for the student to focus on the right assignments.

3. Documenting all communication.  According to the scenario provided, the 504 committee is trying to decide if the online learning environment is an appropriate fit for this student.  Since this online course is the first one the student is taking, it would be highly important to have detailed documentation of all differentiated communication practices employed to support the student as well as the effect that these practices has had on student achievement.  This information documented along the course would be extremely helpful to the 504 committee when evaluating the appropriateness of the online placement for future classes for this student.