Before students can collaborate on projects effectively a learning community needs to be created. Online classes differ greatly from face-to-face classes. Two large differences are the ability to visualize the people in class and the lack of small talk among students and the instructor as they get to know each other. The importance of these items in a face-to-face class probably doesn't even register with students and instructors. When they are taken away though, there is a big difference. You can't see other people to assess their reactions. Did that student really understand that activity? Did the instructor like my project? The small talk helps people get to know each other, laying the foundation for a learning community. Creating a community where students are free to discuss themselves and the material in the class openly is critical for exploring different perspectives that will help broaden everyone's thoughts on a topic, and may also help increase retention rates.
In online classes a learning community takes a lot more work. There are no visual cues as to how people perceive things. There is no first day small talk to establish relationships among students and the instructor. Activities are used to encourage student communication to create a learning community. To help get students talking and relating to one another an ice-breaker, such as "Introduce yourself to the class and tell us how biology impacts your daily life," is commonly used during the first week in a discussion board. Often students are comfortable sharing more information online than you would get from them during the first day of class. People hear about exciting things going on in the lives of their classmates and discover that there are others in the class with similar experiences. In classes I've taken and taught, the ice-breaker discussion often has a lot of discussion. One important point that instructors may overlook is the necessity of participating in these online discussions with the students. It is just as important, if not more so, for the students to get to know the instructor. If they have a problem in the class the instructor should be the first person they contact. That means they have to be comfortable discussing issues with the instructor and feel that the instructor will be receptive to the problem.
Another way to help students get to know the instructor and the instructor get to know them is by creating a pre-course survey. In the survey the instructor can ask students questions that will influence future lesson plans. When writing the questions though the instructor can provide some information about themselves too. This will give the student a better idea of what the instructor is looking for in their response. It will also help personify the instructor, by providing personal information that can help the student get to know more about the instructor.
Below is my pre-course survey for a community college introductory biology course.
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