Sometimes things are easier said than done! How do you make a connection with students and build a community – when you never see them?! Unlike face-to-face courses, you don’t usually get to meet (in person) your students in an online course. How can you help make your online students feel comfortable and confident when interacting with the course, fellow students, and the instructor?
Luckily, we have a few ideas on how to help instructors to build class community in their online courses.
Why?
A lot of research is out there that concludes that when students feel connected and apart of a community they are more likely to be successful in the course. Courses that have community and promote a constructivist and/or social context approach to teaching and learning lead to increased student success rates.
What
Activities that help build a sense of class community (early the course) fall into three general categories:
- Social Activities which focus on self-expression
- Cognitive activities which focus on academic and professional goals.
- “Getting Started” activities that allow students to become familiar with the course and technology.
Each of these types of activities develops social presence, promote learner engagement, and opens communication (oscqr.org, 2019).
How
- Use an icebreaker to start off your course!
- Post a question in a forum – first student answers the question and asks the next – this continues until all students have answered and asked a question. Instructor answers the final question.
- Create an informal open [Zoom, Google Hangouts, Moodle Chat] space where students can meet and discuss course-related topics.
- Update your profile page and ask/assign your students to do the same!
- Participate in all the introductory and getting started activities! Instructors should model what they would expect students to share.
- Use a positive tone!
- Use Digital Posters for Online Community Introductions
Explore further
Jones, P., Naugle, K., & Kolloff, M. (2008). Teacher presence: Using introductory videos in hybrid and online courses. Learning Solutions.
McIntyre, C. (2004). Shared Online and Face-to-Face Pedagogies: Crossing the Brick-and-Click Divide. Educational Technology, 44(1), 61-63.
Russo, T. C., & Campbell, S. W. (2004). Perceptions of mediated presence in an asynchronous online course: Interplay of communication behaviors and medium. Distance Education, 25(2), 215 – 232.
