Gallup shows us that students need two basic things to feel like they belong. They need to know someone on campus has their back, and they need a chance to do something meaningful to them at least once a week. Help create that sense of support by encouraging online and in-person students to create virtual communities within their program.
Learn how students can use a virtual forum – be it Zoom, Teams, Discord, or something else – to connect, collaborate, and share knowledge - in an environment monitored for appropriate interactions.
90-9-1 Rule ... 1% post; 9% respond; 90% lurk
Sense of Belonging: it's the lifeboat rule - students don't want to use a community, but happy to know it's there
Networking Opportunities: sometimes happen behind the scenes of your community; you'll never know
Coursera, Udemy: scale perpetuates success; 1% posting looks bigger with larger population
Harley Davidson, GoPro: branding creates a strong sense of belonging; take the time to brand your community
Edutopia, Google Education Center: need draws participants together; what do your students really need?
Stack Overflow: regular challenges stimulate engagement; tie challenges to fun, needs, competition
Successful online communities provide simple, relatable, and unique content tailored to the interests of the community members. The content should be engaging, informative, and encourage active participation from members.
Thriving communities foster user-generated content (UGC) from members. UGC helps build an emotional connection between members and the brand, provides valuable insights, and promotes brand advocacy through word-of-mouth endorsements.
Successful communities exist within well-designed online platforms, such as dedicated apps, forums, or social media integrations. These platforms facilitate seamless communication, content sharing, and collaboration among members.
Effective moderation and clear guidelines are crucial for maintaining a positive and respectful environment within the community. Moderators ensure that discussions remain on-topic, resolve conflicts, and enforce community rules.
Successful communities cultivate a strong sense of belonging and shared culture among members. This can include inside jokes, special terminology, community traditions, and recognition of individual members, fostering a tight-knit community.
Facilitating collaboration and peer-to-peer support among members is a unique feature of successful communities. Members can share knowledge, crowdsource solutions, and support each other, fostering a sense of community and loyalty.
Define the Purpose: Why? Who? Value Proposition? Identity?
Build the Core: 10-20 founding members to fill the room
Grow Gradually: members invite members, reward active contributors, provide easy ways to join and begin participating, create quality content and facilitate discussions
Protect the Members: establish clear guidelines, enact automated and personal moderation, empower members to start discussions and share content, continuously gather feedback
vs
Established User Base: larger audience = easier to engage
Existing Infrastructure: forums, platforms, moderation, privacy
Existing Content and Knowledge Base: years of searchable content
Brightspace: easy to get into, limited scope; students don’t like to hang where they study, building from scratch
Teams: easy to get into but difficult to navigate, lack of options, student unfamiliarity; building from scratch
Discord: harder to get into, relatively easy to navigate, top single answer for students; existing structure may not match needs
Facebook Groups: easy to get into, easy to navigate, popular with older students which is both positive and negative; not many options for structure