how to create a community with online course

by Georgette Mosciski 6 min read

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. In a...
  2. Get Students Involved. An online community can’t just be a one-way thing where you’re the only person posting. You’ll...
  3. Showcase Successful Students. It doesn’t matter what kind of course...

6 Strategies for Building Community in Online Courses
  1. Create a Plan for Communication.
  2. Establish Social Presence.
  3. Meet in Real-Time.
  4. Create Opportunities for Information and Expertise Sharing.
  5. Use Collaborative Learning Techniques.
  6. Develop Sub-Communities.

Full Answer

How can I promote community in an online course?

How to Create Community in an Online Course and Why It’s Important. Provide Communication Training. Online interactions require different skills than attending or facilitating a face-to-face class. Instructors who have ... Provide the Right Tools. Provide Tech Support. Ask for Feedback. Download Our ...

Can you build an online learning community for free?

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. In a... 2) Get Students Involved. An online community can’t just be a one-way thing where you’re the only person posting. You’ll... ...

Do you need a community for online classes?

Jul 26, 2017 · Instructors who aim to create a sense of community in their online courses advise others to: Let students get to know you. Humanizing a course, Pacansky-Brock said in an interview with Inside Digital Learning, begins with humanizing the instructor.

How can I create a sense of community in my course?

Sep 15, 2016 · Summary: They say that it "takes a village to raise a child." Along those lines, it takes a thriving online learning community to enlighten an online learner. In this article, I'll share 8 top tips for building a successful online learning community for your eLearning course.

How do you create a virtually community?

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.Apr 14, 2021

How do you build a community in the remote classroom?

10 Tips for Building Community in the Remote ClassroomCreate Opportunities for Scholars to Talk to Each Other. ... Have One-On-One Conversations. ... Be Enthusiastic, Even When It Feels Silly. ... Celebrate Your Scholars' Wins — and Incentivize Them! ... Don't be Afraid to Get Personal. ... Utilize Social Media. ... Incorporate Daily Shoutouts.More items...•Aug 21, 2020

How do you build relationships with students online?

7 Student Relationship Building Ideas and Activities for the Virtual Classroom While Teaching RemotelyGreet each student by name every single day. ... Show students your world. ... Have students write about themselves. ... Start a virtual book club for your class. ... Provide high-quality feedback on assignments.More items...•Mar 1, 2022

What makes a strong online community?

Successful online communities encourage, honor, and showcase their superusers. When you empower your most passionate community members, they will develop into brand advocates, who often contribute the majority of content while also actively assisting other customers.Aug 19, 2020

Provide Communication Training

Online interactions require different skills than attending or facilitating a face-to-face class. Instructors who have most of their experience teaching face-to-face courses may feel lost when it comes to building a rapport with online learners.

Provide the Right Tools

Learning management systems offer a variety of ways for instructors to communicate with learners, and for learners to communicate with each other. In addition, video conferencing applications come with different features.

Provide Tech Support

An e-course cannot take place if an instructor runs into a technology issue. Live tech support for live classes is imperative. Not only will the course be uninterrupted, but so will the building of the online community.

Ask for Feedback

Give instructors or department heads a chance to reflect on what has gone well and what needs to be improved. Building a sense of community relies on many moving parts. Feedback may uncover a deficiency in one area that can easily be improved.

Who is A Pass?

A Pass Educational Group, LLC is an organization dedicated to the development of quality educational resources. We partner with publishers, K-12 schools, higher ed institutions, corporations, and other educational stakeholders to create custom quality content. Have questions?

Why are online learning communities important?

Online learning communities are essential to achieve a productive online learning environment. This is why they are so popular, especially in higher education. In online learning, community participants create an interactive canvas of diverse reactions and feedback. They find ways to explore, to think, to innovate, to develop skills, ...

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 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 sharing in learning?

Sharing is thinking together, negotiating, collaborating, and co-creating. These are the main elements of productive communities of learning. The cycles of sharing, commenting, responding, synthesizing among learners promote community-building emotions since learners no longer focus solely on their understanding.

What is real time chat?

Real-time chat is probably the most exhausting and intensive activity you will ever encounter in online teaching. Your attention must be attuned to rapid-fire comments and questions from several learners. It is best to plan a live collaboration chat with your learners early on.

Is e-learning a good thing?

Since the early days of e-learning, its benefits have significantly outweighed those of face-to-face training. The rapid growth of the internet and mobile devices has made e-learning flexible, time-saving, and cost-effective in training. This has highlighted e-learning as an essential part of education market growth.

Is learning a social act?

Learning is a social act by itself. We learn through contact and discourse with another person more competent in the field. Speech and conversation with one another generate knowledge negotiated and subjected to endless talk. However, building an online learning community is neither automatic nor simple to achieve.

How to spice things up in a course?

A great way to spice things up a bit in your course is to bring in special guest speakers. You might just get someone different to record some of your course videos, just so that it isn’t always the same face and voice that your students are listening to. Highly Recommended.

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.

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.

What should an instructor do?

In a traditional classroom, an instructor can interact with students and build a sense of community with all members at once. They can openly talk about the course and answer questions, as well as just chat casually to create a bond with their students.

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.

Can you give online classes in person?

There’s no reason you can’t give online students the same sort of community experience they’d get from attending a class in person. An important part of making your online community is to set clear expectations at the beginning. Let students know which hours you’ll be online to chat if your course has a chatroom.

How to promote community in online courses?

There are several strategies we can use to promote community in an online course. 1. Create a Plan for Communication. Communication is essential to community, and it is a good idea to model effective communication from the very start of the course. Create a calendar of when you will contact students, individually or as a group.

Why is community important in online courses?

Community is particularly important in online courses given the potential for students to feel isolated and alone.

What is social presence?

Social presence, or the sense that individuals have that they are interacting with real people, is an important concept for developing community. Several related factors influence social presence.

Why does community form differently when teaching online?

When we teach online, community forms and happens differently than when we teach onsite because the connection is mediated by technology. For example, interactions happen predominantly by text rather than physical presence and there are different markers of who has more or less influence in the group.

How to reduce isolation?

Use Collaborative Learning Techniques. Collaborative learning requires students to work with each other, which can help reduce feelings of isolation. In addition to simply being glad to know that others are in the same boat, many online students appear to value interacting and forming relationships with peers.

What draws us to communities?

One thing that draws us to communities is the rich resources that individuals provide. Providing opportunities for students to share information is a useful strategy for helping to develop community. A few options include:

Is online community better than onsite?

Online, community is not worse than onsite – indeed, some educators argue that connections can be deeper online than onsite – but it is different. The manner in which online community develops, however, has implications for our roles and responsibilities as teachers. It can be challenging to achieve community in an online course ...

Who promoted the concept of social presence?

As online courses become routine offerings at institutions across the world, more professors who teach them are embracing the notion that “social presence,” a concept promoted by the researchers D. Randy Garrison, Terry Anderson and Walter Archer in the early 2000s, is critical to the success of the online learner.

Who is Jody Donovan?

So does Jody Donovan, an assistant professor in Colorado State University’s School of Education and co-coordinator of its graduate program in student affairs in higher education.

Does Randall have synchronous meetings?

Meet in real time. It’s not always possible, especially if students have jobs or live abroad, but Randall schedules synchronous meetings with students so they can talk to each other in real time.

How to grow online learning communities?

One of the most effective ways to grow online learning communities is sharing valuable information, such as tips and online resources. For example, post a 3-minute task tutorial video and encourage online learners to share it with their personal learning network. Most video sharing sites feature social media sharing buttons that make the process quick and convenient. Include links to your online learning community page in all of your eLearning articles and blog posts. Another option is offering a free eBook or report that directs readers to your online forum and blog.

How to build a personal connection in online learning?

They are taking the time out of their busy day to participate in the online learning community. As such, you should take the time to get to know them, and encourage their peers to do the same. Set up an introduction board where everyone can break the ice and share their personal interests and ideas. Invite online learners to reply to comments and interact with their peers in a meaningful way.

What is an eLearning blog?

An eLearning blog, forum, or website serves as a central hub for your online learning community. Rather than being dispersed all over the internet, they can gather in one centralized location and share their thoughts. This is also the place to post your support contacts, as well as links to all of your online platforms.

Discover the Best Way to Create and Launch your Online Courses

Most Course Creators spend 6-12 months creating their online courses, they spend a lot of time and energy researching the best platform, creating the PowerPoint slides, recording the videos, editing the videos, uploading the videos, and making the course look good!

Looking to create and launch your online course? Check out these options

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Why Work with The Course Creator Community

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What Is An Online Community?

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An online community can be defined as a group of individuals unified by common interests, opinions, and goals who meet in a virtual space. Depending on your business goals, this may look like a private group to share learnings and transformation stories from your fitness program. Or, it may look like an open for…
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Why Build An Online Community?

  • Online communities can be a great way to bring your studentstogether in one place where they can discuss course content, apply their learnings, and ask questions. This also helps you get a pulse check on what your audience wants to learn from you. For brands like Thinkific, our online community is a way to bring our customers(and potential customers) together in one place to s…
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What Is A Learning Community?

  • A learning community is a group of people with similar learning goals who meet to discuss course topics and assignments. They allow students with common educational goals to collaborate on coursework, engage in peer-to-peer learning, and engage with their instructor. They complement online courses because they enable social learning, peer-to-peer support, and student-to-instruct…
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What Is A Brand Community?

  • A brand community is a group of customers, partners, and employees – brought together in one place to support each other, provide input, and ultimately develop deeper emotional connections to a brand. It can be hosted by a company on their website, or in a group on Facebook, but isn’t limited to one or the other, since community strategies can be implemented across many chann…
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7 Steps to Building An Online Community

  • Now that we understand the difference between learning communities and brand communities and their benefits, let’s walk through the 7 essential steps to building a successful online community:
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Conclusion

  • Building an online community is hard work, but it’s not an impossible feat. There are many free options available to start your community, like Facebook. But if you want ownership and control, or the ability to add a paywall to your community, Thinkific is here to help! If you’re passionate about what you know, or you want to create a social ecosystem for your most engaged follower…
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