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.
To create and strengthen online community, build mechanisms into your course that encourage students to connect with you and each other. These can be technology features, collaborative teaching practices, or both.
Ideas for Building Online Community
Getting to Know Students
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:
- Surveys and polls
- An introduction discussion forum
Sharing Media
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:
Seeking 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.
Supporting Choice
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.
Setting Routine
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
You Might Also Like
EngagementAssessmentAll Teaching Guides
Generative AI: A Teaching and Learning Primer
In this curated teaching guide, you will find a variety of sources to support your exploration of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, build…
Place-Based Engagement: Featuring KSMOCA
Place-Based Engagement: Featuring KSMoCAAt PSU, we “let knowledge serve the city”, but how? To what end? Who benefits? What does it mean…
Flexible TeachingEngagementQuick Guides
Teaching Online at PSU: An Instructor Guide
If you’re new to teaching online at PSU or just want to refresh your skills, this guide can help. It’s specifically for the “Online – No…
Staying Present in Your Online Course
Being present in your remote course is key to keeping students engaged, leading to overall student success. Here are a few ways to stay connected to…
Refresh Your Course for a New Term
This article outlines a few things you can do to make sure you’re ready for the new term. Reflect on Past Terms Before opening your course…
Supporting Students Online
Online students can find it challenging to stay motivated and engaged in learning. Here are steps you can take when building online activities to…
Cultivating Student Motivation
Fostering Student Choice and Decision MakingThose who do the work do the learning. If this maxim is true, how can we structure our classrooms so…
Active Lecture and Discussion Techniques
Research has long found that students often don’t retain most lecture material. For example, Donald Bligh reported that when students were not…
Engaging Students in Large Classes
Large classes pose unique challenges for instructors and students alike. Active, personalized learning is often best — but difficult in a large…
Digital Activities to Support Student Engagement
When educators think of the Internet as an extension of the classroom, the possibilities are endless. Strategic approaches to activity design can…
Create Thriving Online Discussions
Online discussion is a mainstay of online courses, and for good reason. Compared to face-to-face communication, online discussion has many benefits…
Did you find what you were looking for?
If you couldn't find what you were looking for, tell us about it!