Depending on time zones and working patterns for distance learners, this can seem challenging and risks alienating those not able to join. Yet it is found to be a big contributor to SoB and student satisfaction with the course. Think about where these are best placed – will they be structured or a drop-in ‘open office’? Will they be within the module or programmatic? What is the focus?  How do they fit into the overall module strategy?  Who will host them – the tutor? The students themselves? Will they be recorded? How will the interactions complement the rest of the module? Whenever the session(s), ensure there is plenty of notice to allow maximum participation. Send out a reminder including information about what will be covered, how to join the session, and any preparation work the students should do. Make sure your reminder gives them sufficient time to do the preparation work. You could also include a question board, e.g. using Padlet[1], to encourage participation of both those able to attend and those not.

Examples: Jessica sets up a virtual classroom for her module. Her students are all working within the UK, so she runs the session every Thursday evening 7 – 8pm for the duration of the module. She let students know that she would be recording the session and that this will be posted up on the module the next day. Each Friday she posts a message outlining the following week’s aims, and inviting students to post any thoughts about work outcomes for the week’s live session. This gave students a good structure to their week’s work, and maximum benefit for both tutor and students from the live session. Students are expected to participate, and email Jessica if (and why) they are unable to attend, thereby emphasising the importance attached to the live session.

Julie’s module is much larger and more diverse. She shares the workload with two other tutors. They opt for weekly sessions, each run three times per week. One tutor is happy to run his session Saturday morning. The students are highly appreciative of this ability to touch base, and even those unable to attend feed back how listening to the recording makes them feel much more part of the group.

Greg’s module has both students studying on and off campus. He records his on-campus lectures, found to be of benefit to both sets of students. If a student asks a question from within the class he repeats it to ensure the question can be heard on the recording. He also sets up a twitter feed for all students to text questions. Following feedback from off-campus students, he ensures any mention of other sessions or resources, e.g. tutorials, are equivalenced for off-campus students and care taken that all resources are available online. He also posts a message to the off-campus students highlighting how he is responding to this feedback, and asking them to let him know about any further problems. The off-campus students feed back favourably, appreciating how he is ensuring they are a valued part of the group.