Making Connections and Building Relationships - Part 1

Recently I recorded a microcast for my Teacher Think Aloud series that spawned lots of other thoughts on the topic of making connections and building relationships with students online. Since my microcasts are short bursts of thought, I decided to elaborate a bit here in this blog post. Most likely, I will end up recording a full length podcast on the topic and may even include some guests who will share their thoughts and ideas. If you are interested in being a guest on my podcast, please use this form to sign up. 

A discussion board can be a great way to spark connections or it can become a dreaded element of online learning. If you have ever had an assignment in an online course that required you to respond to a prompt and then respond 2-3 sentences to other class participants, you will understand what I mean. With effective design, the discussion board can become a place students want to visit. Rather than requirements for participation on the boards, invite students to comment. Set some ground rules for appropriate behavior, much like you would in your brick and mortar classroom. The discussion board encourages students to pass each other notes unlike the traditional classroom where that practice is frowned upon.Quite often the teacher can enable controls that allow moderation of posts. This is helpful as students first begin posting. Once students prove that they understand how to post while maintaining appropriate community standards, that feature can be modified.

Although I highly recommend developing community standards with your students, here are some examples:

1. Be nice to each other.

2. Try to stay on topic. Hi-jacking someone's post to start your own topic isn't nice. It would be better to start your own discussion post if your response is off topic from the original post.

3. Comments should be helpful, informative, and supportive.

4. Avoid spamming. 

Note: Spamming a discussion post is the act of adding multiple comments in rapid succession that do not add value to the conversation. 

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