Center for Online Learning

Did you know the Center for Online Learning puts a daily online newspaper called the FPU COL Daily? It is an aggregation of many of the latest articles and videos from all around the internet about higher ed, focusing on technology. You can subscribe or visit any time at the link below.

FPU COL Daily

I have had several teachers bring this scenario to me.  The time frame for posting/responding to a forum is over so the teacher “closes” the forum by closing the eye or putting a date restriction on the forum.  However the students cannot see or read anything in that forum any longer.  So the question is posed “How can I stop students from continuing to add to a forum and still allow them to view the posts and responses that are there?”.

Need a new way to “break the ice” with your online and blended students?  Tired of using the “introduce yourself to the class” discussion forum prompt?

If this is true for you, you might want to spice it up a little and add some creativity to the process of getting to know your students.  One of my favorite icebreaker activities is to have my students take an online medieval personality test.  Below are the instructions that I give to the students in my discussion forum …

One of the key elements of an online course is social presence. What is social presence? According to Patrick Lowenthal’s presentation, there are several definitions. Social presence is the “sense of being with another” (Biocca, Harms, & Burgoon), or the “degree to which a person is perceived as a s ‘real person’” (Gunawardena), or “a student’s sense of being in and belonging in a course the ability to interact” (Picciano).