3.3 Presence in large online classes
With online classes of greater than 20 to 30 students it is not possible for one educator to respond individually to all students. In this section we will explore ways of encouraging social presence in large online classes.
Establishing presence in large online classes
For student cohorts larger than 30 students the best advice is to have more than one educator to respond to the students online and to help manage the chat and other features during your live online classrooms. Key to success is creating groups within your class. Empower the students to create and maintain social presence within their groups.
Group responses – Randomly allocate each student with two others and ask them to respond to each other’s posts. Give them a deadline. Then, if possible, respond yourself to students who haven’t received a response yet.
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