We investigated the behaviors and contextual factors college instructors rely upon to cultivate rapport with students in asynchronous online courses. Nineteen phenomenological interviews revealed that online instructors view rapport-building as a two-pronged process of initiating and subsequently maintaining rapport with students. Findings also indicated that online instructors rely upon different rapport-related strategies and contextual factors to initiate and maintain rapport. During the first weeks of the semester, these instructors rely upon connecting, information sharing, and common grounding behaviors to initiate a sense of rapport from their students. Going forward throughout the semester, these instructors rely upon attentive and courteous behaviors while providing learners with personalized instruction to maintain rapport. Findings from the present study provide insights into how college instructors approach the rapport-building process with students in online learning environments and can be used as a framework for helping college instructors make rapport-related decisions in their online classes.

我们调查了大学教师在异步在线课程中与学生建立融洽关系所依赖的行为和背景因素。19 项现象学访谈显示，在线教师将建立融洽关系视为与学生建立融洽关系并随后保持融洽关系的双管齐下的过程。调查结果还表明，在线教师依赖于不同的与融洽相关的策略和上下文因素来启动和维持融洽关系。在学期的前几周，这些教师依靠联系、信息共享和共同的基础行为来引发学生的融洽感。在整个学期中，这些教师依靠细心和礼貌的行为，同时为学习者提供个性化的指导以保持融洽的关系。