10 Effective Practices for Digital Teaching
TIP 2: Build a Supportive Online Course Community
If you have participated in our GVSU Foundations of Online & Hybrid Course Development training, you will have learned about the Community of Inquiry Model and the importance of designing your course so that there are equal opportunities for faculty to student interaction, student to student interaction and student to content interaction.

How do you do this?
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Faculty to student interaction can include things like video announcements, weekly announcements and email reminders, personalized audio/video content, and detailed grading feedback.
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Student to student interaction includes opportunities for personal introductions, discussion board forums for casual dialogue and posting of course questions, as well as small or large group discussion, as well as opportunities for peer review and feedback.
- Actively and continuously monitor students and their performance with the last login date in the Grade Center, Performance Dashboard, Retention Center, or even by using Grade Center cell colors. Use these resources as an early alert and as opportunities to reach out and provide feedback to students around their performance. These tools can be very effective in determining whether any students in your class are falling behind or neglecting to check Blackboard regularly. Intervene early on, so they get back on track quickly.

- Theory into Practice Tip Sheet (Suggestions for Providing Feedback)
- Community of Inquiry: Introduction, Social Presence, Cognitive Presence, Teaching Presence
- Video Interview with Liz Storey on the importance of building community online
- Sample Video Announcement from Lawrence Burns, Psychology
- Theory into Practice tip Sheet (Community of Inquiry Social Presence)
- 5 Ways to Build Student Engagement in Online Teaching using Blackboard (eLearning blog)
- 7 Student Tips for Success in Online Learning (eLearning blog)
- Building a Community of Learners in Online Classes, Faculty Focus, September 2, 2020. Amy Earls Thompson