Thinking Outside of the (In)Box: Improving Engagement with Distance Students via Email

Although often only viewed as an administrative task, email communications are a hidden gem for online instructors who are looking for an opportunity to foster student connection and engagement in their courses. The ways in which online instructors reply to a student’s email can help or hinder all other efforts – course preparation, planned interactions, the perfectly crafted welcome message, among others – to develop genuine connections with students. By reframing how email is viewed and responses are crafted, exploring different approaches for responding to students’ questions, and practicing human-first viewpoints in the absence of communication markers or visual cues, online instructors will log off from this virtual workshop with a foundational toolkit for handling email communications with distance students.