Basic Ways to Build Community
The earlier you start, the better the outcome will be
Set the tone:
How formal/informal do you want the conversations to be?
In any discussion or assignment prompts, write the way you’d like your students to write.
Feel free to share your own thoughts on the topic.
Is it ok for students to share other thoughts/insights that are not related directly to a particular course concept? For example, if you teach an introductory statistics course, are you ok with students sharing articles that share statistics in an interesting way?
Set the expectations:
Web conference behavior
How to participate in class
The kind of community you want for your class
Icebreakers
Icebreakers are a great way to engage your students from day 1.
You can do these in class or using a discussion board.
- Some example prompts include: Introduce yourself and tell us something about yourself, introduce yourself and share something related to the course, tell us two truths and a lie, etc.
- Respond to student introductions and encourage TAs to do the same
- Encourage students to respond to each other
Pros:
Great way to learn names quickly, gives you something tangible to remember your students, something to reference later as well
Doing this via discussion board saves time during live class
Discussion Boards
Topic-driven:
Conversation points
Open ended questions about the reading or a video
Example from a course on Sports and the Law: In your opinion, which athlete has the best "brand" and why?
Focus sentences: Ask students to pick one or two sentences from this week’s reading they feel like is significant and one or two sentences describing why.
Social-driven:
Class “water cooler”
If you want to, you can make one discussion board for posts, or create a topic hashtag if you're using Yellowdig
Remind students during class they can post there
Tools:
Yellowdig – social, easy to grade, uses a "feed" to keep new content at the top
Canvas discussion forum – good for when you want to grade based on content
Piazza - great for Q&A forums
Groupwork and Online Collaboration
Breakout rooms, group brainstorming, connect with each other without the teaching staff present
BEWARE: Group work can sometimes go sour when they have to hand something in together. Some ways to combat this:
Ask students to write a “team agreement” or “charter” for group assignments
Assign team member evaluations at the end of a project
Feedback Surveys
Interest surveys are a great way to get to know your students
Feedback surveys are excellent for connectedness with your students
Administering a weekly or semi-weekly anonymous Canvas survey with open ended questions can help you:
- Gauge how your students are feeling about your course as a whole or specific aspects
- Tune into issues or difficulties you were unaware of from your vantage point
- Identify ways to improve your course immediately instead of waiting for final course evaluations
- Give your students an opportunity to safely express their needs
- Let students know that you read these by:
Adjusting the course based on feedback you receive (be sure to let them know what you're adjusting and why)
Giving explanations for policies you don’t want to change
Addressing points of confusion
Resources
- Creating Real Time Connections Online
Enroll in the On-Demand Interaction Options Canvas site to test out interaction tools such as Yellowdig, Piazza, Canvas Discussions, and OpenCast Social