By Julie Koehler, Ph.D. (CISAH)
Making a Cozy Online Space
Learning and teaching online has been described as cold and impersonal, but it doesn’t have to be! The space of the classroom is pushed into the virtual world, but there are ways to make the space feel welcoming and alive.
Here are some tips to keep your online space cozy:
- Tap into Student Creativity: Give students opportunities to create and share media in the classroom. Sketchnotes, Mood Boards, illustrated stories or comic books, and short videos are all great ways to tap into student creativity and, at the same time, make your online space feel a little more vibrant, interactive, and fun.
- Increase Instructor Presence: When students are in the course, they should feel like you’re right there with them. An about me page with your picture and some personal details is a great start. A dedicated discussion board to class questions where they can ask you (and their classmates) for help inside the course also makes it feel like you are there. A FAQ page where you answer the common questions can also be helpful. And, of course, video lectures are also a way to be “present” while you’re offline.
- Video Discussion Boards: Programs like Padlet allow students to post videos of themselves instead of typing up responses for a video discussion board. They can have an asynchronous “conversation” with their classmates that increases the human feel in the virtual space and allows for more natural back-and-forth, reducing the “great comment!” posts along the way. Students don’t have to show their faces, filters are available to block faces with things like cat masks or emojis which increases the opportunity for light-hearted discussion.