How can I start building a Social Presence in my course(s) to promote student engagement?

Building a Social Presence in Your Course

Reports on Building an Online Community

1. Best practices for building a sense of community in the UIC remote classroom from Provost’s Task Force for Fall 2020 PlanningSubcommittee #3-Student Perspectives:
• Show kindness and compassion
• Stay organized in course structure and delivery
• Communicate clearly and warmly
• Team up!
2. Research paper: Comparing Asynchronous and Synchronous Video vs. Text Based Discussions in an Online Teacher Education Course
3. Communication, communication, communication. Here are some ideas from Professors Share Ideas for Building Community in Online Courses:
• Send weekly emails to the entire class using announcements in Blackboard
• Create a video introduction of the course, introduce the instructor(s), TA’s, etc., and review the syllabus using video tools such as VoiceThread.
• Complete a bio for each instructor in the course along with contact information.
• Host open office hours for 1 hour each week using Web Conferencing Tools and invite students to sign up for an office hour meeting. If teaching a larger class, consider meeting with multiple students at the same time.
• Use Discussions and Reflection prompts
• Assignment 1: Ask students to read and comment on the syllabus. After reading the syllabus, students write a blog post to reflect: After reviewing the syllabus, What do you hope to learn in this course? What are some concerns you have about this course?
• Weekly “pulse check” assignments – how are students feeling?
• Poll students during your live sessions using Blackboard Collaborate or Zoom.
• Create weekly discussion forums that are informal and designed to elicit what is inspiring and challenging the students.