OPTION 1: Identify and select strategies for building community and student engagement in my online course (1-2 hours)

To build community among your online learners, you must be familiar with some of  the many different tools and resources that are available. This option takes a practical approach by introducing you to some of the resources available, organizing them under three phases of community building, and asking you to experiment with some of them. Designed for those who need some quick ideas and  strategies for building lasting community in an online course, this option is grounded in the understanding that community building is an essential factor to ensure student engagement (Liu et al., 2007; Anderson, 2017; Redmond et al., 2018).

Instructions: 

Read through the guiding questions.

• Examine the infographic for community building phases.
• Watch an interactive video and respond to embedded questions.
• Review some quick tips from curated sources
• Activity: Create a collaborative community building resource using Padlet.

Time: 1 – 2 hours depending on your level of engagement.

Introduction

While there are multiple possible ways to categorize community building strategies, this module conceptualizes online community building in three phases and draws inspiration from work done by Beth Cougler Blom (2016). In the graphic below, click on the points to learn more about the different strategies found in each of three phases. As you read through the strategies, consider which ones align best with your own teaching style. Click on the check marks for more information (10 minutes).

Note that this interactive infographic was made using H5P. Learn more about H5P here.

Watch this interview (interactive video — 20 minutes) where scholar and online educator, Dr. Maha Bali, describes her concept of intentionally equitable hospitality and discusses strategies for building community in online classrooms. You will be asked to answer questions at intervals throughout the video. As you watch  keep the guiding questions in mind:

• How can I use or adapt these strategies for my own online course? 
• What kinds of strategies will be most effective for my own course?
• Which strategies most closely align with my own teaching philosophy?

*Note that this YouTube video was made interactive by using H5P. Learn more about H5P here.

Quick tips for community building online

•  For more strategies, read through this document by Beth Cougler Blom (2016) created for Royal Roads University (10 minutes).
• You may also want to check out Western University’s tips for community building.

Extension activity:

• Create a community building activity for your online course and share it in the module discussion forum for peer feedback here.
• Ensure that this activity aligns with one of the phases (Welcoming, Nurturing, or Wrapping up) listed in the three phases model above.
• For example, you may want to create an introductions discussion forum, or a collaborative bulletin board where students can share resources like the one in the activity above. 

Resources

Anderson, T. (2017, September). How communities of inquiry drive teaching and learning in the digital age. Contact North. https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends/insights-online-learning/2018-02-27/how-communities-inquiry-drive-teaching-and-learning-digital-age

Bali, M. (2020, March 30). How Technology Can Bring People Together. Accessed on April 1, 2020 on https://youtu.be/p5vegjqbQtc

Cougler Blom, B. (2016, March 1). Online Facilitation – Skills & Strategies. https://oer.royalroads.ca/moodle/pluginfile.php/1501/mod_page/content/74/Online%20Facilitation%20Skills%20and%20Strategies.pdf

Liu, X., Magjuka, R.J., Bonk, C.J. & Lee, S.h. (2007). Does sense of community matter? An examination of participants’ perceptions of building learning communities in online courses. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 8(1), 9-24.

Redmond, P., Heffernan, A., Abawi, L., Brown, A., & Henderson, R. (2018). An online engagement framework for higher education. Online Learning, 22(1), 183-204. doi:10.24059/olj.v22i1.1175