{"id":22587,"date":"2026-02-10T16:36:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/?p=22587"},"modified":"2026-02-10T16:37:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:07:51","slug":"creating-community-in-your-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/creating-community-in-your-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating Community in Your Course"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Relationships are the very bas is of teaching and learning. Students are more engaged when they develop a sense of connection with their instructor and peers. Below are four<br>steps with suggestions, and supporting resources, to help you create a sense of community in your course. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Establishing a Sense of Connection<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Create a sense of your presence by sharing<\/li>\n<li>a personal biography and photo\/video.<\/li>\n<li>Create a Discussion Forum for student introductions and encourage sharing of pictures\/videos, pronouns, personal interests (e.g., music, movies, books).<\/li>\n<li>Invite students to meet with you in small groups or individually at the beginning of the semester.<\/li>\n<li>Hold office hours using Brightspace Online Rooms, WebEx Office, or Navigate tools.<\/li>\n<li>Give students a variety of options to connect to their classmates and to you, to respect differing needs for privacy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Develop a Caring and Inclusive Environment<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Begin classes with a check-in about students&#8217; well-being.<\/li>\n<li>Greet or call students by name whenever possible. You can check with students individually to confirm correct pronunciation.<\/li>\n<li>When you introduce yourself, include your pronouns and invite students to share their pronouns.<\/li>\n<li>Provide a syllabus that clearly lays out a schedule and expectations for the semester.<\/li>\n<li>Provide students with clear guidance on how and when they can contact you, and how long they may expect to wait for a response.<\/li>\n<li>Survey student about their needs and concerns at the beginning of the semester and follow up to see what accommodations or alternatives they may need.<\/li>\n<li>Offer choice to students, such as a variety of options for assessments, whenever possible.<\/li>\n<li>Provide a transcript or closed-captioning for video lectures.<\/li>\n<li>Provide information to students on supports available at Memorial.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Encourage Students to Work Together<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Create a Discussion Forum for students to ask any course-related question.<\/li>\n<li>Engage students to engage in collaborative notetaking or building summary tables or mind maps on course concepts.<\/li>\n<li>Include peer feedback in assignments using peer review tools such as PeerScholar or ePortfolio.<\/li>\n<li>Have students lead group discussions in breakout rooms, assigning roles of moderator, recorder, timekeeper, reporter.<\/li>\n<li>Encourage students to interact using the chat feature in Brightspace.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Foster a Wider Sense of Belonging in the Broader Community<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Encourage students to take part in remote campus events or webinars.<\/li>\n<li>Share relevant campus news stories with the class.<\/li>\n<li>Share links to relevant community events or webinars.<\/li>\n<li>Share links to current media pieces relevant to course materials.<\/li>\n<li>Invite guest speakers from community organizations into your course.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Supporting Resources<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mun.ca\/university-calendar\/university-regulations-undergraduate\/6\/7\/#REGS-0605\">Memorial Course Syllabus Requirements<\/a> (Academic Regulation)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facultyfocus.com\/articles\/online-education\/creating-a-sense-of-instructor-presence-in-the-online-classroom\/\">Creating a Sense of Instructor Presence in the Online Classroom<\/a> (Faculty Focus)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/technologyresources\/brightspace-guides\/communication\/using-the-discussion-tool\/\">Using Discussion Tool in Brightspace<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/technologyresources\/brightspace-guides\/communication\/using-the-groups-tool\/\">Using Groups in Brightspace<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mun.ca\/student\/faculty-and-staff-resources\/accessible-education\/\">Accessible Education<\/a> (Blundon Centre&nbsp; Resources)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mun.ca\/policy\/browse-or-search\/browse-policies\/university-policy\/?policy=534\">Accessibility for Students with Disabilities<\/a> (Memorial Policy)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mun.ca\/student\/student-supports-and-services\/respectful-campus-community\/sexual-and-gender-diversity\/\">Sexual &amp; Gender Diversity<\/a> (Student Life Resources)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mun.ca\/indigenous\/resources\/\">Indigenous Resource Centre<\/a>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/otl.uoguelph.ca\/teaching-learning-resources\/sotl-snapshots\/teaching-and-learning-activities\/using-collaborative-note\">Using Collaborative Notetaking to Promote an Inclusive Learning Environment<\/a><strong> (UGuelph)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/technologyresources\/other-edtech\/peerscholar\/\">Using PeerScholar<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/eportfolio.mun.ca\/\">Memorial\u2019s ePortfolio<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/technologyresources\/brightspace-guides\/communication\/using-the-news-announcements-tool\/\">Using Announcements in Brightspace<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/gazette.mun.ca\/\">Memorial\u2019s Gazette<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/udlguidelines.cast.org\/?utm_medium=web&amp;utm_campaign=none&amp;utm_source=cast-about-udl\">The UDL Guidelines<\/a> (CAST)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/C6ADIp4PMT4\">Do\u2019s and Don\u2019ts for Video and Audio Recording<\/a> (CITL Video Recording)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>Updated by Ruth H. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Relationships are the very bas is of teaching and learning. Students are more engaged when they develop a sense of connection with their instructor and peers. Below are foursteps with suggestions, and supporting resources, to help you create a sense of community in your course. &nbsp; Establishing a Sense of Connection Develop a Caring and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":255,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[353,351],"tags":[97,321,309,249,265,269],"collection":[],"class_list":["post-22587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accessibility","category-teaching","tag-communication","tag-inclusion","tag-interaction","tag-social-presence","tag-teaching","tag-universal-design"],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"simon","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/author\/simon\/"},"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7y0Lp-5Sj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/255"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22587"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22591,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22587\/revisions\/22591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22587"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citl.mun.ca\/instructionalresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=22587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}