Social Presence
Posted by admin | Filed under Best Practices, Teaching Online, Tips & Tricks
Faculty Focus had a good post about creating a sense of social presence in an online course. These are the tips I’d like to try:
Introductory letter—Before the course starts, send students a letter explaining what they need to do to prepare for the online course.
Video clip—To supplement the letter, include a brief welcome video clip. This clip contains no course information; it is solely intended to make students feel connected and welcome.
Introductory questions—At the beginning of the course, ask course-related personal questions to introduce students to each other and get them used to interacting in the online forums. For example, she might ask, “At what age did you become an adult, and how did you realize it happened? Is your adult personality the same or different than your adolescent personality?” Despite the personal nature of these questions, students typically answer them thoughtfully.
Bully session— Halfway through the term, ask students to write three things they like about the course and one thing that could be improved. Make it a point to implement any helpful suggestions in the current course if possible so current students benefit.
Share leadership—Each student has the opportunity to facilitate discussions. For each unit, students come up with five or six questions, facilitate the discussion, and summarize it at the end of the week.
Question forum—Whenever a student emails a question that is relevant to the entire class, post it anonymously and answers it in a forum dedicated to non-content-related questions and lets student know that the answer is in the question forum. Students pick up on this quickly and begin to post questions directly to the question forum. And sometimes students answer each other’s questions in this forum.
Related Links:
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/seven-easy-ways-to-personalize-your-online-course
http://www.facultyfocus.com?p=9129
Faculty Focus had a good post about creating a sense of social presence in an online course. These are the tips I’d like to try:
- Introductory letter—Before the course starts, send students a letter explaining what they need to do to prepare for the online course.
- Video clip—To supplement the letter, include a brief welcome video clip. This clip contains no course information; it is solely intended to make students feel connected and welcome.
- Introductory questions—At the beginning of the course, ask course-related personal questions to introduce students to each other and get them used to interacting in the online forums. For example, she might ask, “At what age did you become an adult, and how did you realize it happened? Is your adult personality the same or different than your adolescent personality?” Despite the personal nature of these questions, students typically answer them thoughtfully.
- Bully session— Halfway through the term, ask students to write three things they like about the course and one thing that could be improved. Make it a point to implement any helpful suggestions in the current course if possible so current students benefit.
- Share leadership—Each student has the opportunity to facilitate discussions. For each unit, students come up with five or six questions, facilitate the discussion, and summarize it at the end of the week.
- Question forum—Whenever a student emails a question that is relevant to the entire class, post it anonymously and answers it in a forum dedicated to non-content-related questions and lets student know that the answer is in the question forum. Students pick up on this quickly and begin to post questions directly to the question forum. And sometimes students answer each other’s questions in this forum.
What’s your tip for maintaining a social presence?
Related Links:
- http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/seven-easy-ways-to-personalize-your-online-course
- http://www.facultyfocus.com?p=9129
Tags: faculty focus, social presence, tips