Lynne N. Kennette (Durham College)
Phoebe S. Lin (Framingham State University)

The What and Why of Rapport

Positive classroom rapport entails developing mutual trust, respecting others and their boundaries, pleasant interactions over time, and fostering a sense of connection with others; high-rapport instructors can be thought of as providing ongoing support, being tolerant and open-minded, eliciting high engagement when they speak, and being approachable such that students are not afraid to express themselves and/or seek assistance (Benson et al., 2005; Faranda & Clarke, 2004; Frisby, 2018). Successful rapport building has been shown to increase a sense of belonging, participation, motivation to learn the course content, and promote deeper learning in both online and face-to-face courses (Frisby & Martin, 2010; Glazier, 2016; Waples, 2016).

Rapport is important because it helps to create a safe place for students to fully engage in learning, which is known to improve student performance and academic outcomes (CAST, 2024). In particular, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), highlights the importance of welcoming interests and identities (i.e., honouring learners’ whole selves, including their intersecting identities; Checkpoint 7) and of harnessing students’ emotional capacity (i.e., making use of the power of motivation in learning; Checkpoint 9) in supporting all learners (CAST, 2024). UDL also contributes to feelings of belonging, which supports student success (Souther, 2025). Although not a specific rapport-building framework, because its implementation can positively influence student-teacher relationships (e.g., by fostering a more supportive and inclusive environment), improved rapport is often a byproduct, rather than a direct goal of UDL’s use.

Literature about online teaching and learning in particular shows the value of building rapport for learning, particularly in creating social presence, which is an important component of Garrison et al.’s (2000) Community of Inquiry framework. In the Community of Inquiry model, social presence is the ability for both students and instructors to feel like real people in an online environment by projecting their own personal characteristics (e.g., emotions, personality) into the classroom “space.” As a consequence, it fosters trust, builds relationships, and creates a supportive learning community as well as a kind of shared identity among members (Garrison et al., 2000; Rourke et al., 2001). Essentially, creating a sense of social presence online involves stamping your own personality on the course, and showing that you are a real person behind the camera (rather than the depersonalization which often occurs with online courses and online communication in general). Enhancing instructor identity may also help students relate more with their professor, as similarity between student and an academic role model can improve motivation and increase academic success (Allen & Collisson, 2020; Lockwood & Kunda, 1997; Marx & Ko, 2012; Marx et al., 2024). Social presence also includes incorporating collaboration and building group/class cohesion. 

How to Build Rapport

We’ve found that building individual relationships (which both increases social presence and builds rapport) can be achieved with multiple easy-to-incorporate layers of connections, though some may be more appropriate for smaller classes or different delivery modes (e.g., online vs. hybrid vs. in-person), so please adapt them to fit your needs and context. First, decide on how and where you will build in touch points and check-ins with students. This can start from the first week of classes with personalized emails being sent. If your learning management system (LMS) is Brightspace/D2L, then make use of the Intelligent Agent tool to automate this process (e.g., sending the email when a student first accesses the course). You can also use this tool to send personalized feedback to students after an assessment, such as celebrating high achievement or providing resources for students who might be struggling. If your LMS doesn’t have this type of automation, you can still send emails to groups of students—just make sure to BCC the emails to ensure student privacy. In our experience, students are still happy to receive these emails and don’t typically notice that you’ve likely sent it to many students at once if you use a generic greeting like “Good morning,” rather than “Dear [Student].”

Midterm marks are another good opportunity for these types of check-ins, confirming with students that they are doing well or at risk of not earning the credit for the course. If students have been having difficulty in learning the content and/or submitting assignments, instructors can use intervention strategies such as an office meeting or offering personalized encouragement to try to improve course performance. This can be framed as offering support so that students know they are valued and the instructor cares both about them and their academic outcomes in their professional development. Using personalization like their name in announcements and email communications (using replace strings, if your LMS offers that feature) also supports student success. Because students are more likely to read it and/or interact with you, this can also help to support the development of their durable skills like communication (reading, writing), confidence, collaboration, and digital literacy (Get Schooled, 2025; Government of Canada, 2024).

Learning names can also help you to build rapport with your students, including using tent cards in class or student introductions online. Many courses use introduction discussion posts, which typically provide a text-based introduction. But, why not also include a photo? Or encourage a video post for this introduction? Sometimes, I have created a class collage of all of their faces and names on a single page/image (with their permission and not shared outside of the LMS) to support group cohesion and reduce some of the depersonalization which can occur in online settings (Kennette & Redd, 2015). In this way, the members of class (including the professor) are seen as real people with which genuine relationships can develop.

Whatever format you choose, instructors are encouraged to respond to each student’s post and ask a follow-up question which shows their genuine curiosity (e.g., “I like cooking, too. Do you have a favourite recipe to share? Here is one that is always a big hit in my household: [insert link here]”). In this way, the norm of reciprocity encourages a meaningful exchange and connection beyond the CV-style introduction post which students often provide. This can also increase instructor relatability to show that we too have hobbies and interests outside of academia. In larger classrooms where individual responses are prohibitive, this might be done in groups where students form groups based on something they have in common and the teacher asks each group about their commonality and then might ask a probing follow-up question. Alternately, a Padlet or word cloud might be used to a similar end. If students are willing to share a video introduction, rather than being limited to the first week or two of the course, a handful of student introductions can be highlighted in weekly announcements on the LMS every week. Again, the exact nature might vary for in-person vs. online courses and based on enrollment and other resources (e.g., having access to TAs or not), but there are many permutations of this activity that can be created based on your personal context and needs.

Another engaging and relationship-building approach is to have a social start to the class. This can be a fun debate/discussion that asks students to support their position in some way, which is an additional opportunity to build durable skills like critical thinking, communication, and interpersonal skills (Get Schooled, 2025; Government of Canada, 2024; Government of Ontario, 2024; Hutson et al., 2023; Väisänen & Hirsto, 2020). As examples, you can ask students to defend their favourite ice cream flavour; whether pineapple belongs on pizza; or what the most valuable item(s) would be during a zombie apocalypse. If you have a smaller class, you can provide students with 4 options (e.g., favourite ice cream) and designate each corner of the room as one of the options, having them physically move to that space in the room. This is also a good ice-breaker activity where they can find things they have in common with others. As the instructor, you should also participate and can ask follow-up questions (e.g., if one of the ice cream options is “other”, probe students on their favourite flavour). This type of activity can also be used to illustrate certain psychological principles. For example, showing that most data follows a normal distribution (using “How many siblings do you have?” or “How old are you?”, for example), or the variability in how students perceive the boundary between green and blue for the topic of perception (we use the website Is My Blue Your Blue (https://ismy.blue/) to determine the hue boundary for each student and then sort/group the class based on their results).

Another way to increase rapport can be for instructors to share personal stories when appropriate. For instance, if learning about the self-reference effect, the instructor could say “When I was in college studying for exams, I tried to relate the material to myself. I disliked Pepsi at first, but after my friends teased me for drinking it when there was nothing else available at a party, cognitive dissonance set in and now I drink Pepsi all the time.” It is important, however, to avoid oversharing or dominating the discussions, so we recommend that instructors be selective in what, where, and how often they share. Although what you choose to share will depend on your own comfort level and context (e.g., small town/small school vs larger urban commuter university), as a general rule, personal identifying information such as the street you live on or the names of your family members might fall outside of what should be shared with students. However, personal anecdotes, funny stories, campus-related lore/experiences are all generally appropriate to share with students, as long as they are related to the content you’re teaching and help to support students’ understanding of it.

One final suggestion is to solicit student feedback about the course in a more personal way (i.e., outside of the institution-mandated formal surveys). One example is to use a Stop-Start-Continue format, where students can identify something they don’t like (Stop), something they do like (Continue), and provide suggestions for beneficial additions (Start). In this way, students feel they have a voice and ownership of the course because they have the opportunity to see faculty acting on the feedback they provide (Mair et al., 2023). This type of agency is important in building relationships with students as well.

Summary

Student success can be supported by actively building rapport with them. Many of the activities suggested above also contribute to students’ sense of belonging (which includes feeling a connection with teachers and peers) and has been shown to be an important component of student success (Allen et al., 2024; Van Kessel et al., 2025). Some of the suggestions outlined here can be automated or built-in to the class routine. Building rapport is important for maintaining a collaborative learning environment and can facilitate increased class participation, a sense of belonging, increased motivation, and more successful learning related to academic outcomes (Frisby & Martin, 2010; Glazier, 2016; Southern, 2025; Van Kessel et al., 2025; Waples, 2016). To become high-rapport instructors, we recommend creating group cohesion among students (e.g., with collages or fun discussions), conveying your interest by asking students follow-up questions when they share, making ourselves more relatable by including personal details and/or anecdotes, and giving students autonomy in their learning by allowing specific feedback on our teaching methods. Doing so increases academic engagement and may also lead to improved teaching when eliciting personalized feedback from our students.

References

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