Instruments for Building Social Online Course Communities -

When you increase your number of customers, it often makes sense to allow learners to interact with each other. This isn't applicable to all courses, but it can be applied to a variety of niches.

The majority of us like social interactions, this is the reason social networks are popular. The internet is a place where people can interact, whether through comments, sharing pictures and tweets, or sharing videos.

With the fact that students are used to online social settings making the introduction of the social element to your classes much simpler. This is a common practice.

Creating social aspects to the online course isn't difficult. These are the tools you could use to create social aspects:

• closed Facebook Group - Everyone knows how to use it, so there is no process. There is also no need for any additional login or username. Be careful though because you do not own the platform so policy changes may result in unwanted effects.
• Forums The original method people communicated online. Forums are easy to set-up and allow you to give people credits/clout for continuous activity.

If you're still waiting to launch your course then you could be concerned the social aspects of your course will be mostly empty. That will definitely be at first. Some people get around this issue by putting off the launch until after. This can be a good option as long as you don't wait too long.

If you already have a course (or multiple courses) but don't provide a means for students to connect, then I'd strongly suggest one of the alternatives below. If you're still waiting ready to publish your course ensure that you map out how you want learners to engage with one another and the course content.