Every student arrives in an online course with their own sense of what "respectful" or "professional" communication looks like, shaped by culture, prior schooling, workplace norms, and plenty of other things for which an instructor often has no insight.

Some students were taught that being direct is a sign of confidence. Others learned that being direct without softening language is considered rude. Neither is wrong, but a course that never names its own expectations for communication or models it, leaves students to guess which version applies here and guessing wrong can carry a social cost.

Left unaddressed, ambiguity won’t resolve itself. It might influence who feels comfortable speaking up and who decides it's safer to stay quiet. This is why communication expectations matter as much as content guidelines. 

Here's how to set the tone you want for students, without leaving it to chance. 

1. State the tone you expect, plainly.

• Be explicit: State clearly that all course communications, including discussion posts, emails, and group chats, must remain respectful, even during intense disagreements (Gilbert & Dabbagh, 2005). 

• Create an anchor: Name your baseline expectations and give students a clear reference point to go back to, should discussions derail later in the semester.

2. Let students help write the norms.

• Use a first-week prompt: Ask a low-stakes question such as, "What would make you feel safe sharing an unpopular opinion in this class?"

• Build a shared agreement: Collect common themes from student responses and condense them into a short, shared community agreement for the semester (Tanner, 2013).

3. Offer light guidance on written style.

• Reduce misread intent: Ask students to avoid heavy shorthand, jargon, or all-caps emphasis, which might unintentionally read as aggressive or unprofessional to different audiences.

• Frame as guidance: Present these suggestions as helpful strategies for effective communication rather than a rigid rulebook (Mintu-Wimsatt, Kernek, & Lozada, 2010).

4. Make room for different communication styles.

• Acknowledge differences: Explicitly note that variations in conversational pacing, directness, and eye contact are expected and valued.

• Normalize variety: Reframe these variations as natural differences rather than behaviors that need correction (Gay, 2010).

5. Give students a clear path if something feels off.

• Set up early reporting: Ensure students know exactly how and where to flag a comment or interaction that felt inappropriate before an incident happens. What do you want them to know, do, or alert you?

• Reduce friction: Provide a clear avenue for feedback to head off minor misunderstandings and avoid escalating into larger classroom issues (Edmondson, 1999).

Why it matters

A syllabus that details learning outcomes but ignores how students communicate and interact is missing a major component of course success.

Co-creating communication guidelines builds genuine accountability and surfaces important perspectives you might not have considered on your own. Pairing a short communication statement with an interactive first-week prompt or two can positively shape classroom climate more intentionally than the standard policy page. 

References

Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.

Gay, G. (2010). Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice (2nd ed.). Teachers College Press.

Gilbert, P. K., & Dabbagh, N. (2005). How to structure online discussions for meaningful discourse: A case study. British Journal of Educational Technology, 36(1), 5–18.

Mintu-Wimsatt, A., Kernek, C., & Lozada, H. R. (2010). Netiquette: Ethic, education, and behavior on internet. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 6(1), 262–270.

Tanner, K. D. (2013). Structure matters: Twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity. CBE - Life Sciences Education, 12(3), 322–331.

Picture a student logging into your course for the first time. They see a homepage with six modules, a syllabus buried two folders deep, and no indication of where to start. So they click around. They open the syllabus, close it, open a module, back out, and eventually give up and email you: "Where do I find the first assignment?"

That email isn't a sign that the student isn't trying. It's a sign the course didn't tell them what to do first.

The good news: fixing this doesn't mean redesigning your course. It means being deliberate about the first five minutes -- the handful of choices a student makes before they've decided whether this course, and this instructor, are going to be manageable. Here's how to make those minutes count.

1. Tell students exactly what to do first. 

Navigating an unfamiliar course shell creates immediate cognitive friction; vague directives like "explore the course" heighten ambiguity and executive function stress. Direct, sequential micro-steps such as "Read the syllabus, watch the two-minute tour, then post your introduction" remove guesswork and streamline onboarding. 

• Put it at the top: Place instructions at the very top of your course landing page, not buried inside a syllabus PDF. Providing explicit start-up instructions supports structured, low-friction onboarding, which is a documented best practice in course design (Quality Matters, 2023) and reduces extraneous cognitive load by structuring task demands early (Sweller, 1988). 

• Number your steps: Use a numbered list so students can visually track and check off tasks as they complete them. Sequenced task design supports self-regulated learning and executive functioning. 

2. Introduce yourself like a person, not a policy. 

Online environments can easily feel transactional. A short video or warm greeting introduces an authentic human connection before diving into administrative rules.

• Clarify communication: Share your preferred name, title, and primary contact methods, such as email, web conferencing, and phone number. 

• Add one human detail: Share your teaching philosophy, passion for the discipline, or a brief personal interest. Establishing early instructor Social Presence within the Community of Inquiry framework increases course satisfaction, instructor approachability, and overall student persistence (Garrison et al., 2000).

3. Give a quick tour of the course itself. 

A 3- to 5-minute screen recording demonstrating where the syllabus, assignments, and grades live saves students from a week of trial-and-error frustration.

• Keep it brief: Focus strictly on essential navigation. Research in Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (2005) demonstrates that concise video overviews prevent cognitive overload while orienting learners spatially. 

• Reinforce with low stakes: Pair the video with a brief "scavenger hunt" assignment. Interactive orientation tasks build early digital self-efficacy, ensuring students master Blackboard mechanics before facing high-stakes academic tasks. 

4. Invite students to introduce themselves, too. 

Once students meet you, offer a simple, low-barrier way for them to share their own voices in the learning space.

• Keep it low-pressure: Use a brief discussion thread, short survey, or light icebreaker. 

• Build early community: Peer interactions in week one establish early social integration without heavy academic strain. Cultivating a psychological sense of belonging early in the term is a primary indicator of online student retention (Rovai, 2002). 

Why It’s Worth the Effort

None of this requires new tools -- just gathering what you likely already have into one obvious, clearly labeled spot. Confident students will move through it quickly, while students who need extra support get the exact scaffolding they require. Either way, you will field significantly fewer "Where do I find..." emails during the first week of class!

UDL & Accessibility in Practice

Providing a predictable, structured onboarding experience directly supports Universal Design for Learning (UDL) -- specifically, reducing unnecessary cognitive load and anxiety while clarifying expectations to support executive functioning. Establishing a clear visual hierarchy also supports digital accessibility navigation standards.

Ready-to-Use Templates & Next Steps

Don't start from scratch! Grab this pre-formatted template to adapt for your course:

• Copy: Course Navigation & Syllabus Scavenger Hunt Activity - This Google Doc can be adapted as an assignment or Blackboard quiz. Clicking this link will copy the template to your Google Drive.

• Blackboard Template: Every UMBC Blackboard course includes a Start Here area that you can customize! It's also prepopulated with essential links and helpful resources. 
  Image: UMBC's default Blackboard template provides a convenient Start Here area for instructors to customize.
  

• Additional Tools You Can Use

  • Blackboard Learning Modules & Folders, Documents, and Web Links
  • Announcements (text or video), Discussions & Quizzes
  • YuJa video recordings

Need help getting started? Visit our FAQs, submit a ticket through RT, or request a one-on-one consultation with our team.

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References

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2–3), 87–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1096-7516(00)00016-6

Mayer, R. E. (2005). Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. In R. E. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning (pp. 31-48). Cambridge University Press.

Quality Matters. (2023). Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric (7th ed.). Download the Rubric from UMBC Box (login required).

Rovai, A. P. (2002). Building sense of community at a distance. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 3(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v3i1.79

Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1202_4