how to build community in an online course

Top 13 Ways To Create Community In Online Classes & Courses

• 1) Engage With Your Members Regularly As an instructor, you should be present within the course community. ...
• 2) Get Students Involved An online community can’t just be a one-way thing where you’re the only person posting. ...
• 3) Showcase Successful Students ...
• 4) Create Motivation and Inspiration ...
• 5) Set Challenges ...
• 6) Use Gamification ...
• 7) Bring In Guests ...
• 8) Ask Your Students For Ideas And Feedback ...

Full Answer

How do you create an online community?

What Online Tools I can Use for Building an Online community?

• Research, research and research some more. For this first part, you want to do is lots of research. ...
• Use a Management Tool. The next type of tool you will need is a management tool. ...
• Measure for Success. Next, are your measurement tools. These tools will help you measure the level of your community engagement or the traffic to your website.

How to run a successful online community?

Here are suggestions for keeping it simple and specific:

• Tackle only one topic during your online challenge to keep it digestible and actionable. ...
• Challenge duration is another important element. ...
• The focus of your challenge should be one piece of the puzzle that you typically cover in your one-on-one consultations or in your signature group program. ...

How to start an online community?

Steps

1. Choose a specific community topic. If you plan to manage the community yourself, pick something that you are knowledgeable about and interested in.
2. Select a hosting provider. If you get some webspace and a good bit of experience with web development, you can set up your own message board using a software ...
3. Create your forums (discussion areas). ...

More items...

How to build a vibrant online community?

Transitioning to Teaching Online: How to Build a Vibrant Learning Community

1. Teach students how to use the digital platform. When my school announced that we were moving to teaching online, all teachers were encouraged to use Microsoft Teams.
2. Check up on your students. Normally, I greet my students at the door with a smile and handshake. ...
3. Establish expectations. ...
4. Build small group collaboration spaces. ...

How can you create community in an online course?

There are several strategies we can use to promote community in an online course.Create a Plan for Communication. ... Establish Social Presence. ... Meet in Real-Time. ... Create Opportunities for Information and Expertise Sharing. ... Use Collaborative Learning Techniques.

How do you build community and foster engagement in online courses?

Recommendations to Increase Student Engagement in Online CoursesSet Expectations and Model Engagement. ... Build Engagement and Motivation with Course Content and Activities. ... Initiate Interaction and Create Faculty Presence. ... Foster Interaction between Students and Create a Learning Community. ... Create an Inclusive Environment.

How do you create a community virtually?

Here are five ways to maximize your virtual meeting experience to help you build community:Introductions set the tone. ... Establish roles and the journey. ... Build a safe and brave space. ... Accommodate different learning styles. ... Switch things up & embrace breakout rooms.

What is the importance of building an online learning community?

A learning community makes a huge and memorable impact on a student's experience with your online educational programs. It facilitates a more effective and enjoyable learning experience by helping students apply what they've learned, retain knowledge, and develop relationships.

How do you increase participation in online classes?

4 Ways to Maximize Student Participation in Online LearningFoster Deep Online Discussions. You can use the Forums plugin to install a discussion board in any post or page on your class website: ... Make Video Lectures More Engaging. ... Create a Gallery of Student Work. ... Ensure Class Content is Accessible.

How do online classes attract students?

5 Techniques to Attract More Students in Online Classes.Remain active on social media.Give attractive Discounts to your Online Students for Online Courses.Encouraging Students to bring Referrals and Reward them for it.Post Advertisements on the sites of Social Media.More items...•

How do you develop a community?

Best practices for building communitiesBe purpose-driven. ... Keep your focus on your purpose and your members. ... Be deliberate in your decisions about a community and its culture. ... Find tools and strategies that support communities. ... Involve your members. ... Empower your members.

How do you build a strong community?

Strengthening Your CommunityTrustworthy Leadership. Leadership is key in setting a collaborative tone to build trust between board members and community members. ... Clear Communication. A strong community cannot exist without clear communication. ... Connection. ... Meetings and Necessities. ... Avoid Apathy.

How do you build a better community?

The 10 Steps for Building a Thriving CommunityForm Identity: Find 10 potential members who fit the community identity you envision.Earn Trust: Get buy-in for a community from the members.Fuel Participation: Bring them together, ideally in person.Reward: Validate that members got value.More items...•

What are the examples of online communities of learning?

Categoriessynchronous (such as instant messaging or language exchange websites and mobile applications.asynchronous (such as message boards and Internet forums)blogs.course management.collaborative (such as wikis)social networking.social learning.online universities.More items...

Why it is important to build community and encourage collaboration in an online learning environment?

Collaborative work can provide opportunities for students to get to know one another and increase the connection students feel to the class as a whole. The more students see and hear one another and the teacher, the more they are able to develop the connections that build a sense of community.

What is a virtual community in education?

Virtual communities are “online social networks in which people with common interests, goals, or practices interact to share information and knowledge, and engage in social interactions” (Chunngam, Chanchalor & Murphy, 2013, p.

Why it is important to build community and encourage collaboration in an online learning environment?

Collaborative work can provide opportunities for students to get to know one another and increase the connection students feel to the class as a whole. The more students see and hear one another and the teacher, the more they are able to develop the connections that build a sense of community.

What problems and issues are seen in online learning communities?

Peer Interaction Often, online classrooms can lack a sense of community and lead to a feeling of isolation. They also reduce the opportunity to network with others, which can be a disadvantage as students finish school and begin to look for new work opportunities.

How do you build a community strategy?

Building a Community StrategyDefine the business objective.Articulate the community purpose, from the members' perspective.Assemble research to help build your business case.Complete competitive audit - what competes for members' attention?Build a business case.Calculate and secure investment required.

What does a community of practice look like?

A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic and who come together to fulfill both individual and group goals.

What is an Online Learning Community?

Online learning communities are essential to achieve a productive online learning environment. This is why they are so popular, especially in higher education.

Why is it important to have an online class?

During the early part of an online course, it is critical for class members to get to know one another, and learn to share things from an online class community.

Why are discussion threads important in a classroom?

These discussion threads enable the teacher to identify learners with similar interests and help her to group learners for collaborative work later on in the course.

Why do instructors struggle to make learners participate in the discussion board?

However, most instructors struggle to make learners participate in the discussion board because learners attend the courses in their time-space. However, there are ways that you can use to gradually establish participation and, in the end, a real sense of community.

What is a good idea to create a discussion thread called?

A good idea is to create a discussion thread called “Introduce Yourself.” It’s also fruitful to present yourself too.

What to do when an instructor rarely participates?

Engage yourself actively. When they see that an instructor rarely participates, learners are discouraged from posing questions and comments and may even not buy another course from you.

How long is the LearnWorlds trial?

If you want to create your own learning community, you can get a 30-day free trial of LearnWorlds.

Why is it important to have a sense of community in online courses?

We’ve seen just how important it is to have a sense of community inside online courses to keep students engaged and having a relationship with their peers to increase their learning.

Why Is Community Important For Learning?

When you think of someone taking an online course, you probably imagine someone sitting at home on their couch or in a coffee shop with their laptop.

Why do instructors neglect community?

Some instructors may neglect the community aspect of their courses since they aren’t seeing and interacting with their students on a regular basis. But a community can be a crucial part of building a successful online learning program. Students need the support and motivation that a community can help provide.

Why is it important to showcase students?

In all of these cases, showcasing successful students will give your brightest students a boost of confidence and it will also motivate all of your other students once they see what is possible. Showcasing students can also double as a promotional tool. You can use it as proof that your course works on your sales page.

Why do conversations arise naturally in a physical classroom?

You’ll need to get students involved as well to create a real community. Conversations arise more naturally in a physical classroom, just because of the nature of it. People love to chat and get to know their fellow classmates while waiting for the course to begin.

What should be on a sales page for a course?

Part of your sales page for your course should outline what kind of community interaction the course entails and how much one on one contact they should expect to have with you as the instructor.

Why is it important to create a relationship with your peers?

Creating a relationship with a student’s peers makes them more comfortable when it comes to asking questions, speaking up, or voicing their opinion. Studies have shown that they’re also just more likely to be successful with the course overall (source), and a community also increases student satisfaction.

Challenge

Creating a course community in an online environment rarely happens on its own (unless you have a class full of extroverted students who love online forums!). Typically, setting the stage for an engaging and effective course community requires focused attention.

Instructor Presence

An instructor's presence throughout the course is critical to building a course community. In many ways, the instructor is playing the roles of host, teacher, coordinator and tech support. From the beginning of the course, instructors will want to model the engagement and interactivity so that students can follow.

Facilitating Collaborative Learning

Not all students are aware of what is expected in online environments. Being explicit, especially regarding collaborative learning, helps students plan for and engage with the content and other students. Setting a framework for collaboration includes clear information on how and when course interactions occur and how they will receive feedback.

What is the Community of Inquiry framework?

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) theoretical framework (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2001) is perhaps the best-known and most researched approach to designing learning experiences for the online environment.

Does technology create interaction?

While there will be a few technologies mentioned, the technology does not create the interaction nor does it build community. It is all about the task that you, the instructor, design to define the interaction and presences (social, teaching, and cognitive) that are supporting the building of community.

Welcome students to class

Students in online classes “come into” the online course through the course homepage, like students in face-to-face classes enter through the classroom door.

Set expectations

Be very clear about your expectations for activities and assignments. A key aspect of online courses is that instructions and expectations need to be exceedingly clear and consistent. Thoroughly explain each step of assignments so there is no confusion about what to do, where to post, etc.

Foster respectful discussions

Use a set of community discussion guidelines designed for online courses to make clear to students what the expectations are for written and verbal discussions in an online classroom. You could have students agree to the standards, discuss them and propose additions, or just have a brief Q&A about them.

Organize and manage online discussion forums

A key tool in asynchronous teaching is the discussion forum, where students can respond to prompts, summarize their understanding, ask and answer peers’ questions, and “think in writing” about any course content. Ideally, online courses use discussion forums frequently to engage students in critical writing and analysis.

Hold office hours, and reach out

Schedule online office hours once or twice a week at different times of day to accommodate students in different time zones. DKU faculty can use Zoom for live office hours; use Zoom’s waiting room feature with your personal Zoom meeting room to control which student enters your meeting room for 1:1 meetings.

Use synchronous class sessions for interaction

Often in online classes, synchronous class meeting times are reduced (or eliminated) compared to traditional face-to-face classes. This means it’s even more important to use the virtual class meeting time for interaction rather than content presentation.

Design online courses for student learning

When faculty first transition traditional classes to online, mostly asynchronous courses, they can find it difficult to conceptualize what the class will be like without in-class time.

Why is online learning important?

What is it and why is it important to online learning? Like many aspects of teaching, helping students develop a sense of belonging and community can impact learning in both face-to-face and online courses, but attending to these dimensions in an online course takes intentional planning. When students feel they belong to a class community, ...

What are the factors that influence students' sense of belonging and community?

Many factors can influence students’ sense of belonging and community, including (but not limited to) student-faculty interactions and student-student interactions, perceptions of stereotyping or tokenism, the tone of how expectations are communicated, and the range of perspectives represented in course materials (Ambrose et al., 2010).

How to help students see you as a real person?

Help students see you as a “real” person: Share aspects of your personality and background in ways that are comfortable for you and professionally appropriate. This can range from sharing information about personal interests to sharing your enthusiasm for your discipline or your own experiences as a student .

What challenges do professors face in building classroom communities?

In addition, depending on the demographic makeup of the class each semester, professors attempting to build classroom communities face the challenge of mediating disputes that rise from cultural and demographic differences among the students.

How does Randall engage her students?

She engages her online students in discussions -- with each other -- about themselves and about the coursework via video and video conferencing in an effort to create an online community in a class whose participants are unlikely ever to meet each other in person.