Social Presence

Student-to-Student Interactions

Educational researchers and faculty development officers have long preached that students can learn a lot when working together. Whether in a simple class discussion, or in group project work, students are exposed to different perspectives that shape their own views. They acquire practical experience in the social dynamics of learning together.

The Message Board

The most common student-student interaction in online courses has been asynchronous discussion, commonly known as "forums" or "message boards." We'll talk about these later, in greater depth, but for now, consider how you might make them a big part of your course.

Asynchronous Discussions are the most common, but by no means the only way to promote student-student interaction in a course.

Collaborative Projects

When properly constructed, group project assignments can compel students to do the kinds of work regularly demanded in the working world beyond college.

Moreover, newer digital tools make collaborative work easier, and more accountable. Consider, for example, Google Docs, that allows teams of students to write a common document, and shows exactly who wrote what.

Additionally, students can meet via any number of free live-remote web meeting or conferencing applications.

Synchronous Discussion?

Many faculty and students value the asynchronous potential of online courses - we don't all need to be somewhere at the same time. Probably most online courses are asynchronous.

But some online courses operate regular classtimes just as F2F courses do. Professor and students meet in a "live remote" web conference meeting, on a weekly basis. At Canisius we can use Zoom or Google Meet for this.

This can be done on a weekly basis, or maybe only a few times a semester. For asynchronous courses, you could have optional meetings, such as study sessions, Q&A, or small-group office hours. This helps build a sense of community in a class.

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