As we practice social distancing in the physical world, social interaction must be heightened in the digital world. Social connections are even more important in online learning contexts since students and instructors will not have the opportunity to meet face to face. Time management, self-motivation, along with feelings of isolation are some of the biggest challenges that your students may encounter during this transition.
In this module, we’ll go over the importance of building community and social presence in the digital environment as well as some tips and actionable steps towards building your own virtual community.
Helps students learn.
Makes up for the lack of physical connections.
Encourages diverse perspectives.
Promotes inclusion.
Most importantly, online community needs to be built.
Model empathy.
Your students are adjusting to online education along with you. They are looking to you to set the tone.
Take the time to allow them to feel their way through the experience. Start with a discussion about their worries and fears.
Let them know you are available and explain how and where they can reach you if needed.
Allow for reflection to be built into assignments so students feel comfortable commenting on their experience with the assigned work.
Start and end your class with a pulse check.
Start your class with a quick poll or icebreaker. How are they feeling after the transition? What stood out in their reading? Bring some pop culture references into your classroom for some added fun!
Use icebreaker questions such as:
If you had to change your name, what would you change it to?
What was the first thing you bought with your own money?
What was the last movie/show that made you tear up?
If you could learn any new skill, what would it be?
What is the #1 most played song on your iTunes or Spotify?
Who is your celebrity doppelgänger?
End your class with a follow up activity
“Today I leave feeling…” or “Today I learned…” Use the round robin method and have your students reflect on their learning experience before leaving class.
Be Human.
You and your students will have varying proficiencies in navigating and learning in the digital environment. If this is your first time tinkering with online learning and feel nervous about using the technologies, then say it out loud. Show some vulnerability, no one is perfect. Your students will come to respect and appreciate you for your honesty, and hence strengthen your bond. You’ll also feel less pressured or anxiety-ridden to mess up, and your students will return it with patience and kindness.
Listen.
In any educational environment, an individual's need to be heard is essential to learning. Allowing students to speak in class, using inclusive language and practices, and equalizing student responses are all important. In online learning, strategies for active listening can be more of a challenge. The following recording is of a faculty-led seminar and contains listening techniques and strategies faculty can use to ensure all students aren’t just heard but also listened to: Just Because You’re Hearing Doesn’t Mean You’re Listening
Get social and meet your students where they are.
Are your students avid users of social media? For some students, it may be awkward to share their personal social lives with someone of authority (yes we’re talking about you, the teacher). However, using social media in education enables online students to get to know their classmates personally and allow for interaction among smaller groups of learners, which increases engagement and classroom community. Here are a few ideas:
Facebook: Create a private facebook group to post class updates, share homework assignments, and to engage in discussion. You can also use Facebook to stream live lectures or host discussions.
Twitter: Post a “Question of the Day” on Twitter and use a special hashtag to curate answers from your students.
Instagram: Create a classroom account and show off your student’s amazing projects, capture group selfies in your digital live classroom, have your student take over the classroom account for the day, have students create photo essays or storyboards.
WhatsApp: Use this tool for office hours, create study groups for your students, provide text or audio feedback to your students.
Encourage students to connect with each other.
On the first day, randomly sort students into groups and explain these are now “your people.” Encourage students to share names and numbers with group members to connect.
Incentivize students to meet outside of class by creating group projects or other meet up assignments.
Set up virtual locations for students to meet with or without your presence.
Greet, Meet, Eat… Online!
Collect a list of students who are interested in participating, and once a week or month (you decide the frequency), send out new groupings of students to “go out” to lunch together. In this case, use a video conferencing tool like Google Hangouts, Zoom or Skype and eat your lunch online!
Read and Discuss.
Start a remote book club or gather a study group
Organize a Words with Friends or Scrabble tournament.
Super simple way to have fun and expand your vocabulary. Download the app, pair your students up, and give them a timeline to compete with each other.
Have a remote cookie bake off.
Have students bake a cookie and decorate it. The best cookie decorator gets bragging rights.
Host a movie night
Use a video conferencing tool that allows you to share your screen. Pick a movie from a streaming service (Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, etc.) and watch it together behind the comfort of your computer. Enable a chat function so students can interact and make commentaries throughout the movie.
Scavenge for fun.
Have your students participate in a scavenger hunt where they will have to take pictures or videos of them doing fun activities, or finding obscure objects around the house.
Host a “bring your kid (or pet, or spouse) to class” night.
When you’re remotely taking classes in the comfort of your home, you’ll sometimes find curious kids, spouses, or pets making a surprise appearance. Why not make it official and host a night where students can share their loved ones with the group?
Create a classroom playlist.
Have your students share their favorite songs and put them together as a playlist to share with your class.
Ask for a favor.
In round robin, have your students ask a favor from each other, either professional ask or personal ask. For example, “My professional ask is for someone to help me provide feedback on my resume and my personal ask is any Netflix show recommendation.
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