On the first day of class you want everyone to get to know each other. You can successfully create an online learning environment through a class blog. Post a photo of yourself with a short biography. Include your education, work experience, interests, schedule, contact information, study tips and a list of educational websites that you recommend. Ask everyone in the class to do the same. Invite each student to post a comment on everyone's blog introducing themselves. Tell the students that this assignment will be graded and will count towards a large percentage of their class participation. Extra credit will be given to students who include useful study tips and links to excellent educational websites. Use this information to design future lesson plans that will inspire, motivate, engage and improve the critical thinking of your students.
Ask each student to find an interesting online article, related to the subject of the class, from a professional online magazine, reputable news source or website. Instruct them to analyze the article, write a brief report, include a link to the article and post the assignment to the online class forum. Ask each student to critique and grade everyone's articles and to include at least one positive comment and one negative comment.
Group discussions are an excellent way to get the class to actively participate, collaborate, think, exchange dialogue and learn from one another. Create a list of provocative questions related to the subject that you are teaching and post them to the online class forum. These questions should promote critical thinking, engage your students and make them passionate about your course. Include humor in some of the questions, comments or answers, especially if the subject you are teaching is a challenging one. Encourage the best students in the class to help their fellow classmates, those who are struggling with the course -- this will build team spirit and create a sense of community in the online forum.
Ask the class to write a well researched essay on a specific subject. Instruct the students to include at least four credible online references, at least one resource and at least two quotations. Provide the students with examples of acceptable references and resources, and include those which are blacklisted. Instruct each student to post their assignment onto the class forum with the letter grade that they feel they deserve. Ask all the students to proofread and critique their fellow classmate's essays and to assign a letter grade.