Designing Online Classes That Have High Levels of Community and Collaboration

Led by Sheri Stover, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Program Director for IDOL Programs, Leadership Studeis in the College of Education and Human Services.  Research has shown that early distance education classes had issues with higher attrition rates, higher rates of student dissatisfaction, and students reporting increased feelings of isolation and alienation. The nature of asynchronous online communication has the potential to make participants feel disconnected from each other, which can create challenges to effective collaboration. This workshop will show how instructors can design their distance education classes using web conferencing to build higher levels of community and collaboration.