Recently, I was sitting in class where the facilitator was lecturing about the importance of building trust with those we lead in our organizations. The teacher pointed out that Stephen M.R. Covey says that Trust is Competence plus Character, and that leaders can expect things only to work well in trust filled environments (Covey, 2008). As I believe that teaching is a direct form of leadership, I started thinking "how can I build trust in my online classes?" I came up with a few obvious and a few not so obvious answers.

Competence

1. Establish clear expectations- Students want to know what is expected. Use your announcements to not only, review objectives and assignments, but to explain in detail what is expected each week. Also, consider having an announcement near the beginning of class that sets forth a couple classroom norms.
2. Be consistent- While students may say they love variety, and they very well may in terms of class content, our brains crave routine. Create classroom routines and procedures that do not vary. One great example is making sure each assignment or discussion post response has a sample version. This allows students to "see" what you are looking for and creates a pattern of what to expect. Also, if you use rubrics in one assignment… use them in all assignments. This consistency makes students feel secure enough to take risks while learning.

Character

1. Be real- In order for your students to trust you from a character stand point they need to know who you are. Use posts and other multimedia to reveal your own story (Click here for more on story and teaching). Also, consider how you can bring your "presence" into the classroom. Perhaps use tools like Animoto to tell your own story or stories (see my Animoto bio here) (see how to use this tool here)
2. Be compassionate- Because we teach may students, it is easy to forget that each of them has their own story. When problems arise try and extend empathy by seeing them as a whole person rather than just a student. If you find ways to help one student by going out of your way, whether you know it or not, others will hear about it and attribute more trust to your character.

In reality, building trust is tough… and even tougher online, but as it can be achieved. I have seen poor results when I fail to build trust and great results when I do. I guess the trick is to keep trying… to keep experimenting… and maybe we will find out that  Covey's model is just as applicable online as it is off.

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