Building Rapport in Online Courses

May 1, 2025

Rebecca Glazier, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and author of a book on online teaching, shares her fascinating insights into building rapport in virtual classrooms. She discusses her transition from in-person to online teaching and the critical importance of authentic connections with students. Glazier reveals her research on high-rapport teaching strategies, which not only enhance student engagement but also increase instructor satisfaction. She also emphasizes using multimedia, proactive communication, and even AI assignments to foster a thriving online learning community.

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ANECDOTE

Five-Year Teaching Experiment

Rebecca discovered her online students were failing and dropping out at higher rates despite identical course materials.
She ran a five-year experiment alternating high-rapport and low-rapport courses to investigate causes.

INSIGHT

Rapport Drives Student Investment

Rapport signals to students that you care about their success and makes them more invested.
Higher rapport predicts better student work and higher grades in online classes.

ANECDOTE

Teaching Became Enjoyable Again

Rebecca felt disengaged from online classes until she adopted high-rapport teaching strategies.
After increasing connection, she enjoyed teaching online and students responded with greater engagement.

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With Notre Dame’s Summer Online courses set to get underway in June, we turn our attention to teaching online—specifically ways to create a sense of community among instructors and students when meeting through screens, and why that matters in the first place.

Rebecca Glazier is an ideal person with whom to have this conversation. A professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, she is the author of Connecting in the Online Classroom: Building Rapport between Teachers and Students.

Grounded in academic research, original surveys, and experimental studies, the book provides practical strategies for helping everyone, students and instructors alike, get the most out of their online courses and take advantage of the increased access to education that online learning enables.

Key Topics Discussed:

Rebecca’s journey as an online instructor after having only previously taught in person and the longitudinal research she conducted to improve her online teaching
How she found that a high-rapport teaching strategy not only improved the experience for her students, but also for her as an instructor
The importance of connecting with students early in the semester and building rapport in ways that are authentic to your personality
Taking proactive steps to ensure students in online classes don’t feel like second-class citizens
Giving students an AI assignment to help them learn the difference between ethical and unethical applications
Strategies for leveraging class discussion boards
Four concrete things you can do to build rapport in your online class, including sending students personalized emails (and using mail merges to help manage the amount of time that takes)

Guest Bio: Rebecca Glazier is a professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In addition to researching religion and politics, U.S. foreign policy, and political communication, she studies the scholarship of teaching and learning and is passionate about improving the quality of online education. She is the author of two books, including Connecting in the Online Classroom: Building Rapport between Teachers and Students.

Resources Mentioned:

Book: Connecting in the Online Classroom: Building Rapport between Teachers and Students (Johns Hopkins University Press)
Mail Merge Tool for Notre Dame Instructors: Yet Another Mail Merge (YAMM)
Notre Dame’s Summer Online
Barbara Oakley and Terrence Sejnowski Online Course: Learning How to Learn

Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.