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Community Building in Online Courses

On May 13, 2021, the College of Arts and Sciences Office of Distance Education hosted a teaching forum to discuss community building in online courses in an effort to learn from colleagues excelling in this critical area where students have identified a need. Faculty panelists shared their experiences and experts from ASC’s Educational Technology team, the Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning, and the Office of Distance Education and eLearning were on hand to answer questions and foster discussion.

Anticipated Outcomes - Our goal was that by the end of this session, participants were able to... 

• Spread awareness of ASCC’s new cover sheet for DH/DL course approvals, including details in the category addressing community building

• Appreciate the need for intentional community building practices in online courses

• Consider applications of models for community building described by experienced faculty

• Identify tools within Carmen and elsewhere that can support community building activities in their own classes

Teaching Forum Panelists:

Meri Ellen Lynott (Office of Distance Education and eLearning)
Melinda Rhodes DiSalvo (Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning)
Mike Bierschenk (ASC Technology Services)
James Fowler (Department of Mathematics)
Andrea Sims (Department of Linguistics)
Lisa Cravens-Brown (Department of Psychology)