Establishing and maintaining regular effective contact is an important aspect of delivering an online and hybrid-blended course. It is not only a Middle States and New York State requirement, but is also a practice that encourages and facilitates student-centered instruction and increases student learning outcomes.

Types of Regular Effective Contact

Interaction in the distance education classroom takes place in three ways:

	Course announcements Internal messaging in Moodle Personalized feedback through MSMC email or Moodle gradebook Discussion forums Chat feature in Moodle Zoom (MSMC’s integrated synchronous tool in Moodle) Phone calls, Skype sessions
	Topics, Modules or Units in Moodle Lectures (audio and video) Podcasts/webinars/screencasts Discussion forums PowerPoints Websites, YouTube videos, streaming films eTexts and journal articles from MSMC Library
	Internal messaging in Moodle Discussion boards “Ask the Class a Question” or “Course Q&A Forum” or other informal discussion forum where students can talk about class related and non-class related topics Chat feature in Moodle MSMC email exchanges Collaborative projects through Web 2.0 tools and technologies, and through Moodle

Source: Faculty Reference Manual for Online and Distance Education