I have found it difficult to have students interact with each other when I teach online. When I did the Teaching Solution Boot Camp, one of the assignments was to have a “teaching presence”. I learned that I should have a picture of me outside of the teaching role, so that students would view me as a person, and not “just” the instructor. During the first week of class, I ask the online students to introduce themselves and post a picture. Since students “do not do optional assignments”, I make the assignment worth one point. This increases the likelihood that students will complete the assignment, and, I am able to demonstrate the students are actually participating in the course and not merely opening the course. If students do not post in the first week of class I send the students an email message. If the students don’t respond to the email, I call the students to encourage them to complete the assignment and to be successful in the course.

Students post pictures of their children, their dogs and cats, their travels, and their hobbies. They also post how many hours per week they worked, their concerns about child care, and their worries about the course. One unexpected outcome of this assignment was that the students formed study groups because they felt comfortable with each other. They would use the “water cooler”— an area I designed for students to help each other with assignments and questions. When I bring the group on to campus for a proctor test after the first four weeks of the semester the students talk to each other and are as engaged as if they were doing a face-to-face class. The students felt like they knew each other because of the initial post during the first week of class.