Responsiveness

If your learners are Millenials (Generation Y)—those born in the 80s through 2000s—they have grown up in a world with texting. If they themselves text, they tend to respond quickly and expect the same of others. A 2013 survey by Toister Performance reported that 26% of respondents expected co-workers to respond to email messages within an hour of them being sent. Faculty I have worked with over the years have reported a much greater percentage of students who expect a response from them in half that time or less. But, that could be their perception; I haven't actually tracked it.

When a learner in an online classroom sends an inquiry to you, there is usually an urgent (at least to the student) issue. The learner can't see that you receive the message so the reaction is generally to send another message within the hour to ask if you got the first message. Learners expect and deserve faculty responsiveness, however, it's unrealistic to expect immediate responses to every inquiry. It important that you establish clear and reasonable expectations so that learners can count on you—how they can expect you to guide your online classroom.

One of the first expectations that must be discussed is about communications. Communication is such a foundational part of an online course.

An Idea for Your Course

This list of examples is by no means exhaustive but is listed for you to consider and adapt for your course:

How to contact you	All course-related questions should be posted in the Questions forum so that everyone in class can see both the question and my response. Personal matters should be sent to me privately in my course mail. Urgent problems such as a technology failure during an exam or an acute medical situation that necessitates you missing a clinical should be texted to me at (123) 555-1234.
When you will respond	I will respond to all messages within 48 hours of receipt. If I am unable to fully resolve your inquiry within 48 hours, I will at least acknowledge receipt of your message. Major assignments and exams will graded and returned to you within one week unless otherwise announced.
When you are available	Messages received after 10 p.m. or before 7:30 a.m. will be addressed the following business day. While I may be online to read messages and grade assignments during the weekend, messages arriving during the weekend will be addressed on Monday. I have online office hours scheduled on Tuesdays from 7-8pm. I will be available in the course chat room during those hours. Meetings for times other than Tuesday evenings can be arranged by sending me a course mail message.

Learners want to hear from you. You are the expert; you are the educator. Many times learners enroll in a particular course or section simply because of your reputation. Make sure that you give regular feedback. Be sure to include positive as well as constructive feedback—remember, they couldn't see you smile when you handed back their paper with a big red A circled at the top. But, even though you may want to address every concern the moment it pops onto your radar, it is a disservice to both you and the learner to drop everything and make instantaneous replies. You need time to reflect, to live your life, to research, to work, to perfect your teaching and scholarship. Students need to learn that everything occurs in its time and that life will not always give them instant responses.

Activity

You are the staff educator at a large healthcare system. Nine months ago, new software was purchased that will be used by every staff nurse on the West Wing. You created a new online module that demonstrates the software, explains the rationale for its use, and includes the "go live" date. The module has been available for three months and the go live date is in two weeks. Thus far very few of the nurses have logged in, but you noticed a few evenings ago that the login pace has picked up. Last night you were online reviewing the end-of-module quiz results and a nurse working the night shift contacted you. The nurse wanted more information about the system, why it was required, and had a great curiosity about the technical details. Most of the information is available in the module, but you could provide some additional background that is a bit more technical. Do you respond when you read the message? Do you go to your office and look up the technical information and write it up and send to the nurse? What do you think the nurse's expectations are of your responsiveness?

The next section briefly addresses another expectation students have of their faculty: technology competence.