Community is critical for online courses.
We designed the first forum to not only have you introduce yourself but share your goals. You may have noticed that several participants share similar objectives for this course even though their backgrounds and projects are very different. How can we create a community of inquiry? We are all scholars learning about metagenomics and need to overcome barriers of online distance. There will be numerous opportunities for you to interact with other participants, not only in forums, but synchronously, as we discuss and troubleshoot workflows, and as we develop our analyses and share findings. How can you contribute meaningfully? Simple: don’t hide! We want you to feel comfortable sharing questions on the Student Help and Resources forum. We want you to provide rich commentary on the articles we read using Hypothes.is. Our task as instructors is to help build the framework for this community of inquiry and scholarship, but we do need you and hope you can contribute! If there is anything we can do to improve the community, please let us know.
We value your voice and ideas!
Reference:
Costa K. 2020. 99 Tips for Creating Simple and Sustainable Educational Videos: A Guide for Online Teachers and Flipped Classes. Stylus Publishing.