Why Student/Teacher Communication Is More Vital Than Ever
Back to school in 2020 is unlike any other school start in recent history, and effective student/teacher communication is vital for both student learning and safety. As school districts and higher education institutions work through reopening plans, they need to prepare for the “what if” scenarios that COVID -19 present.
As we face the “new normal,” educators are concerned with how they can meet both the academic and safety needs of both students and staff. Decisions are changing day by day, causing increased anxiety and uncertainty for staff, students, and parents as school districts and universities across the globe determine how to teach amid the pandemic: remotely, in the classroom, or through a hybrid approach combining the two. According to Education Week, as of August 26, thirty-nine out of the 50 largest school systems in the U.S. decided to start the school year with remote learning. Schools opting to start the year virtually need to ensure educators and students have internet access and are equipped with the proper technology to attend online classes. Effective communication is a necessary component to keep families informed of ongoing pandemic protocols and procedures as well as to create engaging educational experiences, keep students on task, and ensure student success.
Whether online or in-person, maintaining healthy student-teacher connections will be more challenging and more critical than ever. As students, parents, and staff are increasingly overwhelmed with the stress of COVID-19, understanding the individual and emotional needs of students and their families can be as essential as academic concerns. Educational institutions rely on unified communications (UC) to effectively communicate with teachers, staff, and students. One single, easy to manage UC platform has all the communications tools educators need to teach students remotely and keep families informed. Multi-modal communication tools enable teachers, students, and families to communicate through the channel they are most comfortable with via voice calls, instant messaging, video conferencing, or emails. Effective two-way communication ensures everybody is kept up to date and aware of expectations. For virtual classrooms, remote learners and educators can benefit from the following:
- Synchronous (live) and asynchronous (recorded) instruction
- Collaborative and team learning
- Virtual office hours
- Real-time file sharing for teachers and students
- Social interaction
- Establish virtual connections
- Faculty team collaboration, resource sharing, professional development
- Student attendance
- Chat features for student feedback and engagement
- Online tests, quizzes
Additionally, school districts and universities benefit from UC in the following ways:
- Connect on any device, anywhere
- Reduce IT burden, and free up resources with easy to use portal that enables quick changes
- Protect the privacy of remote staff and educators by allowing them to make and receive calls using their office number instead of personal
- Enable real-time campus/ district communication and rapid response times
- Increase efficiency with multilingual auto-attendants, voicemail to email, desktop faxing, paging, conferencing, and more
- Forward calls to classrooms, home-offices, cellphones, other campuses, or district buildings
- Connect your entire district or campus with one single communication solution to promote cross-collaboration amongst schools, departments, and administrative offices
- Free up organizational resources with auto-attendants, call routing and play customized messaging to inform callers who wait on hold
- Scales quickly enabling adjustments as you staff up and down
Whether teaching remote, in-person, or a combination of both – an open dialogue and frequent contact with students and families can benefit students and increase academic success. Teacher check-ins give educators a better grasp on students’ social-emotional wellbeing and more insight into their academic progress. Equipping staff with one seamless communication platform promotes collaboration. Unified communications can also free up resources so educators can focus on teaching, and your campus or school district can improve productivity and efficiency of school operations.