Feeling Connected in an Online Environment – Why it’s Important
A frequently raised concern about online education is a lack of community in comparison to traditional, face-to-face classes where connections naturally occur simply by students sitting next to one another in class, staying after class to talk with the instructor or teaching assistant, gathering with classmates during a break, or stopping by the instructor’s office to ask questions.
But there’s no reason you can’t have a strong sense of community in an online course too! In fact, research shows that online courses often have a healthier community than courses in other modalities because everyone has the comfort and availability to participate, speak, and ask questions.
When you actively help create community in an online course, you are not only building a better course for your students but also providing a well-rounded learning experience for them, which in turn increases student retention.
Strategies for Adding Community to your Course
You do have to be intentional though! You can easily build into your course many strategies and activities that will build community, help everyone to get to know one another, and foster course engagement so that students feel connected to the instructor, to their classmates, and to the course content.
Below is a link to a list of 50 strategies and activities that I’ve successfully used in my courses or that I’ve seen used in other courses. They are highly effective for building strong relational connection in your class. I’ve put them into 5 categories: Basics, Introductory, Groups, Content-Related, and Endings. However, the simplicity of many of these activities makes it easy for you to adapt them to any course, regardless of the topic, curriculum, level, or modality
“GOT COMMUNITY? Activities and Strategies for Building Communities” document found here https://osu.box.com/v/communitybuidingprompts
Suggestions for Use
Some suggestions on how to use them:
- Create discussion boards in Canvas, and the set then to open at the beginning of each week (using “available to and from” options in the board).
- Make these complete/incomplete or no grade (or use them for bonus points on an assignment)
- Then send out announcements (or write them all ahead of time and delay their release)
- Play along too!
Here is sample language from PUBHEHS 3320, explaining the assignment:
These discussion boards are a great place to share about your life and get to know your classmates better. These posts are optional, but completing them will earn you some bonus points in the class. Each module contains one “Get To Know Your Classmates” discussion board opportunity. Each of these is worth an extra X of your final grade if completed prior to the end of the module, for up to a total of X for completing all of them.
Quick….Give Me an Already-Created Assignment I Can Copy Over to my Course
As stated in my Canvas Commons post, I will be sharing resources you can easily copy into your course. I just added an item called “Getting to Know Your Classmates – Building Community“ – go grab it!
