CreatingOnlineCommunity

=Creating Online Community=

Resources & Examples
[|“A Framework for Designing Questions for Online Learning”] An excellent research-based article with practical examples

[|General Conferencing Strategies] A practical list of 15 strategies for setting up and managing online discussions.

[|“Specific Activities that Promote Online Discussion”] Just what it says”

[|Using Online Discussion in a Hybrid Class] Some excellent, well-laid-out suggestions for using the discussion board in a hybrid class. Also useful for all online classes as well.

[|Icebreakers for Online Classes] Here is a practical short article from Illinois Online Network with an excellent bibliography. (ION is a great resource!)

I am a big fan of [|Kingdomality][|Kingdomality]Kingdomality which is an 8 question survey to indicate what your job would be in the medieval ages. The results are listed as characters: I am a Discover (call me Mrs. Columbus) and my husband is a merchant ( call him super thrifty!) This survey was designed by a career management company who was in charge of training outsourced Fortune 500 company employees. They needed an icebreaker to say the least. I use this in class as an icebreaker and a point of discussion for all ages. At one point, I used this in a faculty development workshop and the President of the college dropped in. He did his survey on the teacher's station and came out the Benevolent Ruler, which set the house in an uproar!! He was amazed to find out that in the faculty present there was a Prime Minister, a White Knight, a Dreamer Mistrel and more. Over 13 million visitors have taken this survey. Now there is even a small book out called://[|Kingdomality: An Ingenious New Way to Triumph in Management]//This book would be excellent for Learning Center managers and a fun activity for tutors.--Lucy

[|Generational Learning Styles]Generational Learning Styles I'm not trying to promote this book because I actually haven't read it, but this is topic of interest, especially to community college teachers who typically have a mix of ages in their classes. Just last night in my class I had an open conflict in my class between an older and younger generation student regarding appropriate classroom behavior. Neither was right or wrong, but they had entirely different expectations. It's an issue worth exploring - does anyone have any other resources? JHutchin

Tips

 * Offer bonus points for the first 1 or 2 people to post responses. It helps discussions get started more quickly.
 * Give a review quiz at the end of each week, but post the questions on the discussion board at the beginning of the week. Each student has to turn in their own quiz, but they can work out the answers together during the week. If students collaborate on the questions, they'll do a good job!
 * If students miss a couple of assignments, you need to chase them down and find out what's going on. It's part of establishing an atmosphere of students being accountable to their community. Also, they feel like you, the instructor, are concerned about them personally. This can make the difference between them making it to the end, or getting lost and confused and falling through the cracks