Building Trust in an Online Environment

Contributed to the TLCo-op by Alina Holmes, Graduate Research Assistant of the Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment, 2020.

One of the many reasons that people decide to go into teaching is because they like working with learners who are often young people. In the online environment, however, it is more challenging to get to know students.

Here are some ideas for how to start to build trust between you and your students:

Be authentic. Be honest if you are new to teaching online and let them know you will be trying some strategies.
Let them know you will be looking for their input as to what is going well in the class and what is not working or could be improved. This could be done through non-graded quizzes or surveys in Canvas. It could also be done in an informal office hours space.
Give students a chance to get to know you and each other. Consider doing introduction video posts or through a discussion forum. If you are asking students for information about their lives, provide some information about who you are too!
Set up assignments that allow for student choice. Students can write papers or take quizzes but they can also create presentations, create podcasts, create blog posts, edit Wikipedia pages on specific subjects, lead classes on specific topics, among many other things. Allowing for choice also allows students to build from their assets and allows multiple entry points for them to demonstrate their progress in their learning.
Try to avoid language oppression by avoiding grading heavily on things like spelling and grammar. Try to focus assessment mostly on quality of ideas.
Diversify whose research your are reading/watching/listening to center BIPOC researchers/writers/artists.
Consider using the first 5-10 minutes of class to do affective check-ins with students. Allow yourself and students to be off-task or off-topic as a way to engage them and their interests.

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