Building Community

BUILDING COMMUNITY

The online environment opens tremendous possibilities for education with the advantage of a flexible schedule. Despite the convenience, learning remotely can cause feelings of isolation, fear, and frustration in students. In a typical online class, facilitators can apply best practices for course design and construct a similar level of interaction that happens in face-to-face environments. However, the challenge to move courses online during an emergency situation requires rapid planning and strategic use of some online practices that will support student engagement in times of disruption.

What can you do to connect with your students remotely?

In this type of environment, it’s important to be intentional in the ways that you convey your human presence, empathy, and awareness online because these humanized practices lay the foundation for community building. Below are some straight-forward strategies you can use in your classes to start building community with your students:

  1. Be Available to Your Students
  2. Build Your Online Profile in Canvas
  3. Make the Most of the First Day of Class
  4. Use an Opener (Icebreaker Activities)
  5. Experiment with Innovative Uses for Discussion Forums
  6. Check Out These Additional Resources on Building Community

 

Be Available to Your Students

Show your presence online in any way possible. Send out announcements, emails, create Discussions in your Canvas course. Organize synchronous interactions whenever possible by meeting with students on Zoom or using chat and messaging tools.

Stefanie Drew, CSUN faculty in Psychology, uses the Remind App Links to an external site.* to communicate with students via text messages without sharing personal numbers. She utilizes features like pre-scheduled texts, group broadcasts and individual messages: “Of all the apps I use in teaching, if I could only have ONE, it would be Remind. I love that I can communicate with students in a way that they are used to, while also facilitating learning and building community”

*Remind App Links to an external site. is a web-based tool that has a free version for educators (as of this posting)

Canvas is also connected with Pronto, which allows you to activate a class chat within Canvas. For more information about Pronto, visit the CSUN Pronto webpage.

 

Build Your Online Profile in Canvas

You probably have already done this if you use Canvas but you can review and update your user profile in Canvas Links to an external site. in a way that students can get to know you a little more. Tell them to do the same. Teaching classes during an emergency situation is also an opportunity to connect with your students as you would do in the first week of class. Present yourself as a real person, share your identities and encourage your students to follow the same practice.

 

Make the Most of the First Day of Class

How can you ensure that your students leave the first class session motivated and prepared for success? 

Check out these resources:

First Day of Class: by Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching Links to an external site.

Download Preparing for a Positive First Day of Class: Five Terrific Tips

 — by Lori Baker-Schena

Download Making the First Day of Class Really First Class

— by Cynthia Desrochers

 

Use an Opener (Icebreaker Activities)

We appreciate that not everyone likes participating in icebreaker style openers, however they do seem help to get people to interact with one another while paving the way for building a trusting and psychologically safe learning climate. It is difficult to get to know one another in new situations and even more so in online spaces, so taking some time to start building your community on the first day of class can go a long way. Helping students get to know you and get to know each other can help humanize the classroom and create a supportive friendly, and intellectually stimulating learning environment.

There are many different variations of icebreaker strategies using a number of different analog and digital tools. Many of the face-to-face icebreakers can be translated to synchronous Zoom sessions by using the Breakout Room features (which needs be enabled in the settings first) or as prompts in a asynchronous Canvas discussion forums. Popular prompts include (see below for more icebreaker ideas):

  • Two truths and a lie (everyone tries to guess which is the lie)
  • Do a show and tell with a meaningful object on your desk or in your home
  • Have everyone share something they read, saw or listened to recently that they really enjoyed
  • Ask preference questions like: What is your favorite food? What is your favorite animal? Etc.
  • This or that. Give two options and let them pick sides. For example: Cat or Dog.
  • Get them thinking outside the box with a farfetched prompt. For example: If you had to choose between having the power of flight or invisibility, which would you choose and why? 
  • Find out who they admire. For example: Who is someone you look up to that you'd be elated to get an email/twitter mention from?

Casey terHorst, CSUN faculty in Biology, does an icebreaker on the first day of class as a way to remember students’ names and visualize the classroom community using the online bulletin board tool Padlet Padlet Links to an external site.*: “On the first day, I ask everybody to upload their name, picture, pronouns, and an answer to a silly question, so I get a glimpse of who they are, but then I use the as a reference all semester when I can’t remember somebody’s name.”

Kunpeng Li, CSUN faculty in Systems and Operations, uses Google Slides Links to an external site.* to build online community for the first week of class. Every student is required to create a new slide to introduce themselves with names, photos, and several personal things to share with their peers. Students can comment and communicate with each other in the speaker notes section. Students will also be tested on the knowledge of their peers by taking a Canvas quiz, which is a fun way to get students familiarized with class quizzes in Canvas.

Ellen Edeburn, CSUN faculty in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, uses FlipGrid Links to an external site. to increase student engagement and enhance discussion board assignments. During the first two weeks of the semester, she builds community by asking her students to respond to a “getting to know you” prompt using FlipGrid linked within her Canvas course. Students are introduced to each other via a two minute video-short and a fun selfie.

Padlet Links to an external site., Google Slides Links to an external site. and FlipGrid Links to an external site. are web-based tools that have free versions for educators (as of this posting).

For more ideas for prompts and associated technology tools you can use, take a look at these articles:

 

Make Room for Social Moments

Community building often occurs in those moments before and after the instruction. In an online environment, we can't rely as much on spontaneity and have to deliberately create social moments. You can show up to your online session earlier or start your online meetings/lessons with a quick check-in to see how everyone is doing during this pandemic. Listen empathically to what your students want to share. Another strategy is to create a "water cooler" type of Discussion where your students feel compelled to share updates on their lives and the current events. Let this be a space that simulates social media, though you should still remind your students to follow rules of netiquette Links to an external site..

 

Experiment with Innovative Uses for Discussion Forums

Remember that not all students are ready to participate in rapid live conversations. Mixing synchronous and asynchronous activities allow for all students to show engagement in their own time. If you have bandwidth, you can also explore tools for collaboration such as Padlet Links to an external site., FlipGrid Links to an external site., and Google Drive in Canvas Links to an external site. and create space for asynchronous engagement besides Canvas Discussions.

 

Check Out These Additional Resources on Building Community

 

References

Astin, A. (1993). What matters in college?: Four critical years revisited. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Pascarella, E., Whitt, E., Edison, M., & Nora, A. (1997). "Women’s perceptions of a “chilly climate” and their cognitive outcomes during the first year of college." Journal of College Student Development, 38(2), 109–124.

Whitt, E., Nora, A., Edison, M., Terenzini, P., & Pascarella, E. (1999). "Women’s perceptions of a “chilly climate” and cognitive outcomes in college: Additional evidence." Journal of College Student Development, 40(2), 163–177.