3. Engaging with the community (once your course is live)
The first 2 weeks are key
Learners’ experience during this time will shape their attitudes, feelings and behaviours for the remainder of the course.
This is when you should be most visible to facilitate a positive learning environment by building rapport with learners, encouraging discussion and helping to resolve any initial issues or challenges.
Set the tone
The language you use and the way you communicate is extremely important because it sets the atmosphere for the entire learning experience. Using a tone that is relaxed, friendly and positive will help to create an environment where learners feel comfortable to ask questions, share their experiences and discuss freely without judgement.
Time involved: Aim to spend a certain amount of time each day on the platform, observing learner activity and building your community.
Ways to build your community (the tools available on OpenLearning)
Set up your profile
Add an image and a brief description of yourself to help you connect with learners in a more personable way.
Like, comment, reply, chat, issue achievements
Acknowledge the positive contributions of learners by ‘liking’ their comments and posts. Liking someone’s comment increases their Kudos, which reflects the value they have provided to the course community. You can also reply directly to any comments or posts. You can also tag them in a comment.
To like comment and reply you can check page by page, or you can use the Course feed.
If enabled, you can also use Chat to instantly message any learners that are currently online.
You can also set up Achievements to highlight a learner's contribution to the learning community.
Optimising the course notifications
Notifications are used to let users know when activity has taken place in their OpenLearning communities. There are three types: platform notification, immediate email notification and daily email digest.
The notifications a user receives can vary depending on your role in a course, i.e.: whether you are an administrator, facilitator, or learner. Setting up notifications can function as a tool for the course administrator to create the right course dynamics for the learners, or to make the course facilitation experience more efficient.
What's new in class? Check via the Course feed
The course feed contains a stream of all the posts and comments made by learners and staff within that class in the chronological order with newer posts on top. It is a great way to quickly catch up on the latest activity in the class!
Post announcements
You can post announcements to communicate with your learners to engage them in discussions/reflections or to add further prompt, perhaps to make reference to specific literature or resources.
How to
How do I tag someone in a comment?
What is a course feed and how do I use it to facilitate my class?
How do I set up achievements upon page completion?
How do I issue an achievement?
How do I send an announcement?