Preferences of Higher Education Faculty for Building Positive Relationships With Undergraduate Students Through Different Methods of Communication

Communication between faculty and students in higher education is a near daily occurrence. Within the context of those interactions, faculty-student relationships develop, and these relationships are an important part of teaching and learning. With so many options available to faculty for communicating with students, there are many ways in which these relationships can develop. However, students' preferences for communication may not align with faculty's preferences, which can make these relationships harder to build. This study attempted to determine faculty preferences of different methods of communication for various academic purposes. The methods of communication examined in this study included face-to-face communication, emails, lecture, text messages, discussion boards, and social media. The academic purposes of interest were delivering content, clarifying course content and materials, providing feedback to students, advising or mentoring, and building positive relationships. In addition, this study sought to determine the benefits of building positive relationships with undergraduate students through different methods of communication and how faculty accomplish this. Results indicate that faculty still prefer face-to-face communication for academic interactions, despite the prevalence of technology and the potential use of social media in higher education. The study also determined that there are multiple benefits for both faculty and students in building positive faculty-student relationships with undergraduates. Finally, this study found ways in which different methods of communication can be used to build faculty-student relationships.;Keywords: faculty-student relationships, higher education, faculty-student communication.