Online courses provide a necessary service for many busy students that juggle work, family, and their education. However, due to the nature of these courses, it can be difficult for faculty to ensure their students are progressing confidently throughout the semester. It can be even more difficult for instructors to build a relationship with their students when you never actually see them face to face. This disconnect also may make it difficult for students to feel comfortable reaching out to their instructor for help in the course when needed. 

To address these issues, instructors could consider implementing a weekly "check-in” form. The form asks students various quantitative and qualitative questions regarding their learning and impressions of course content, and encourages students to reflect on their own learning practices and confidence with course material. The form also provides an efficient mechanism for instructors to track and gauge what’s happening behind those computer screens. As an instructor teaching several courses each semester, I find that asking strategic questions can help easily filter and identify the students that would benefit most from additional intervention.

Weekly Check-in Form Questions to Consider

The template form can be easily altered to the needs of different courses and instructor interests, but some basic questions to consider using may include:

• Have students record their name, the semester, and Week they are responding to for easy filtering of responses. Have the form automatically collect email addresses so you can find that information quickly if needed.
• Ask students to estimate how much time they have devoted to going over course material that week. This can be telling for the instructor AND the student, particularly if they report issues, but also report they are not spending much time with the material. The question could be altered to ask about lecture and or study practices specifically if desired.
• Ask students to rate how comfortable they are with the new material that week, and importantly, have them explain their response. This is again reflective for the student, and helpful for the instructor to know.
• Ask students to rate how prepared they are to complete their assignments for the week, and to explain their response.
• Ask students whether they have contacted anyone (instructor, peers, etc.) with any course-related questions. If students have questions but feel uncomfortable asking them, it is helpful for the instructor to know that they may need more direct contact. It is also reflective for the student.
• Ask students if there is anything else they want their instructor to know this week. This is a great opportunity for students to voice their struggles. Many students do take the time to share issues they face in their personal lives which may impact their performance in the course when they are specifically asked to do so. This helps the instructor gain more insight into any issues faced, and aids in developing a more personalized plan to help the student.

While it is useful to review all student responses to gauge the general level of understanding and confidence in your course, instructors can sort and filter responses to make identification of struggling students quick and easy (see below). 

How to Use the Weekly Check-In Form

• Decide on desired response frequency. Completion of the form weekly allows for early instructor intervention if necessary, but if weekly completion seems too cumbersome, instructors can easily give the form on a bi-weekly, monthly, or as needed basis.
• Have students complete the form. In order to be effective, students need to complete the form! To encourage form completion, it helps to have some incentive assigned (e.g., participation or extra credit points). If instructors do choose to provide an incentive, it is important that points are assigned based on form completion, rather than based on students’ individual responses, and that this is specifically communicated to students. Otherwise, students may not respond honestly, defeating the purpose of the check-in.
• Export responses into Google Sheets for efficient review. The “Link to Sheets” option is available in the “Responses” tab. In Sheets format, responses can be quickly filtered and sorted based on a variety of variables of interest (i.e., specific week/time period, student name/email, responses to a particular question, etc.). Additionally, the Sheet will automatically update with new responses as they come in, so a single form can be used throughout the semester, or even from semester to semester! No need to update links to the form, but make sure there is a question where students indicate the semester they are responding to so it can be filtered later.
• Reach out to struggling students. For students reporting a lack of confidence with course material and/or other issues, instructors can send a follow-up email to arrange further discussion of the student’s needs/circumstances. The Sheet will have a record of the name and email address of students, so following up with students in need is also optimized. Instructors can even save a draft email to copy and paste as needed to speed up the response process.

Save and adapt a Google Doc version of this teaching tip.

About the Author

Sandy Troxell-Smith is a Special Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences, and a graduate of the CETL Inclusive Teaching Academy. She teaches a variety of courses both online and in-person, and received the OU Online Teaching Excellence Award in 2022. Aside from teaching, Sandy loves monitoring the amazing animals (including a pair of beavers!) that live within the OU Biological Preserve. With the help of her students and several motion-activated trail cameras, Sandy documents the entertaining animal antics, and shares the resulting footage on the OUAnimalBehavior Facebook and Instagram pages. 

Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC.

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