Center for Online Learning

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).