Studying online can be a lonely and isolating experience. When we sit down at our computers, generally speaking, there is nobody there with us. In a face-to-face classroom we can see the people we are learning from and with and feel connected to them even without having to say anything. We can read their body language, or notice their clothes or interests and think that we have things in common.

In an online forum, these things are not seen without effort. Students have to work to make themselves be seen as a person, and not, for example, just an UČO. This way students will feel that they are communicating with other people, not just the machine in front of them. Researchers call this idea "social presence" and say that high social presence makes students feel more connected to the learning environment and so makes them learn more effectively (see for example the first two links below).

So the idea is to increase connections among learners so that they will feel connected to other people and so find connections to the material being studied. If students feel that they are a part of a learning community, they will be more likely to learn.

One way that people recommend to increase social presence is to have an introductions thread, where everyone is required to post some personal information about themselves (as we have). Palloff and Pratt in their book Building Online Learning Communities recommend this, but point out that if there aren't responses to the introductions, students may feel personally rejected (as one student in their class did and then disappeared for a few weeks).

Other ways include having a social forum (sometimes called a "coffee shop") - a forum that is not a task for the course, and not evaluated, but where students can discuss anything that they want. This way they can discuss interests and feel connected to others without worrying about being judged.

Your task for this week (in addition to continuing to give points to previous messages) is to lead a discussion that focuses on increasing the connections between students - where they can feel that they are working together with other people. This is worth 2 points.

Continuing to evaluate and give feedback is worth 2 points.

There is also the forum for reflections. (You can gain 2 points for an initial post and further two possible points for responses to others).