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Module 1
 

  

Building an Online Course Community
Part 1: Tools, Strategies, Accessibility

[Part 2 will be presented in Module 3]
Note: This page includes several embedded videos. Playing more than one video at a time may cause your browser to freeze.

A. Preface

In traditional, face-to-face courses, you and your students take advantage of social cues and conventions that cannot be assumed in the online environment. It is essential to encourage community-building within your online courses, through ice-breaking discussions (e.g. sharing introductions, bios, interests, etc.), image, audio, video, and other file exchange, and more, all ideally combined with activities that also familiarize the students with the course environment. During Module 1, you will be participating in a simple community-building activity that utilizes the Discussion Board. Note that the activity instructions place your personal introductions within the context of the course's topic.
Consider how you would like to present yourself to your online class and what opportunities you can create for your students to help them get to know each other. The video, below, discusses some community-building strategies presented by Dr. Donald Opitz from DePaul's School for New Learning.
 

 

B. Video Class Introductions: Examples

We strongly recommend that all online courses include at least one video clip, introducing you and your course to your online students. IDD's video services will be your resource for the creation of such video clips. Two examples of video introductions are included below. The first is "homemade." The second was produced by IDD.
 

 

C. Benefits of Using Video Clips to Communicate with Your Students

• They give a "face" to a course environment that may otherwise appear cold or even alienating.
• They help students get some sense of who you are as an instructor, allowing your voice, body language, and commitment to and excitement about the subject matter to come across, re-introducing some of the advantages usually associated with face-to-face instruction.
• They provide opportunities to summarize and highlight the course materials in a modality different than text.
• They help retain student interest.

Using Web-based video services such as YouTube or Viddler, your students can also easily post short videos on Blackboard (embedded in or as links from a Discussion Board message), introducing themselves to you and their colleagues or responding to an assignment question. You will have the opportunity to use Viddler to post your "student" video during a future module.
 

D. How to...

You can create short video clips using:

• the professional video services at IDD (as is the case with the video introductions to the DOTS modules) or
• any digital camera, including a webcam, connected to your computer.

You may then upload your clips on one of numerous locations, such as:

• Blackboard (recommended only for very short clips; < 30 seconds),
• DePaul's streaming media server (account sign-up required; upload requires familiarity with FTP applications),
• Viddler, the Web-based video service discussed in the "Start Here" page, or
• Ooyala, the Web-based video service used for all video introductions in DOTS (service currently accessible to DePaul faculty only through IDD's video services).

We will be dedicating face-to-face workshops to the technology tools and skills associated with the video tasks and services described above.
 

E. Accessibility Issues for Students with Disabilities

Accessibility of audio and video content for people with learning and/or physical disabilities is frequently overlooked when designing online courses and materials. Blind and visually impaired students need audio to discern important visual details, while deaf and hard of hearing students, as well as ESL learners and students with auditory processing difficulties need access to captions and transcripts.
Although DOTS will not be formally addressing issues of accessibility, such issues have guided the design of this course. We strongly encourage you to

• seek the counsel and services of the following relevant centers at DePaul:
  i)  Office of Students with Disabilities
  ii) "Plus": Office for LD and/or ADD diagnosed students
   
• familiarize yourselves with the "Quality Matters" accessibility standards (.pdf - file removed at QM's request) and consider them when designing and developing your online courses.