Building Community in Your Online Course

A community is a group of people who share a common purpose. In the context of an online course, a community includes not only students, but also the instructor(s) and, in many cases, experts from outside PSU. Establishing online community helps you and your students to:

• Create meaningful learning experiences.
• Answer larger questions beyond the scope of the class.
• Increase student engagement and autonomy.
• Have dialogues that support learning new skills and applying critical thinking.
• Foster deeper learning connections.

Understanding your students is crucial. An online course needs a meaningful place for students to share a bio and their interests in taking the class. Understanding their needs makes relevant and meaningful interaction easier.

Some ways you can get to know students:

Encourage students to build their digital identity by sharing a piece of media — a photo, video, article, or sound clip. These PSU tools can help:

Encourage students to develop a help-seeking strategy. Consider who your students go to for help and for answers to questions. As the instructor, you don’t have to be the only one. You could:

• Invite a community expert to monitor a discussion forum for a week.
• Have students help each other answer questions.

Allow for student choice in discussion forums or group work. Give students options in activities and/or assignments. Allow them to choose what’s most valuable and meaningful.

• Each week, give students three topics to choose from — along with your guidelines and expectations for participation.

The previous examples promote student autonomy and flexibility, key strategies in designing for adult learners — but routine is essential as well. For more engaging interactions and a feeling of inclusion, students need you to also supply:

• Clear, simple, consistent expectations
• Regular deadlines in a consistent, weekly format
• Detailed instructions that outline involvement and collaboration