Building Community in the Online Classroom

1. Create a welcoming environment: Give learners a warm welcoming message, emphasizing the purpose of the class and indicating how they can become involved. Keep it welcoming by enforcing standards and ground rules.
2. Accessible contact information: Learners build confidence when they know they have access to answers to administratiive, content or technical questions.
3. Encourage and guide the discussion: Give prompt feedback, model active listening, answer questions. Tie together the threads of the discussion and summarize it
4. Share information and resources and encourage others to do the same.Create a discussion thread titled "resource exchange."
5. Ask! Use quick polls and surveys to collect ongoing input.
6. Assign Reviews and Presentations: Ask learners to contribute reviews (books, software) or give presentations on themes or topics related to course content.
7. Host Online Events: Create optional or required synchronous discussions or guest presentations in response to areas of special interest in the class.

elearn2lead: Building Community in the Online Classroom

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