CPD Webinar: Developing a Sense of Belonging: Building Communities in Online Teaching

This session will cover key pedagogical and technical approaches to building a sense of belonging and fostering communities in online classrooms. Over the course of 2020 many organisations have had to switch rapidly to online teaching. This shift has provided many opportunities for increasing inclusive and flexible practices which benefit retention and engagement; however, many are also reporting an increase in feeling isolated and disconnected from their peers. Using the background of the ‘community of enquiry’ framework from Garrison, this session focuses on how to build on four key areas: Safe spaces Creating a sense of belonging requires a space to belong to! This part of the session will focus on discussions around the types of online ‘spaces’ we could use to encourage collaboration and community with our learners. Sense of self Creating inclusive learning has never been more important. Research shows that having a sense of ‘self and identity’ in relation to your peers can help to create a sense of belonging and understanding when working online. This section will focus on techniques we can use in online teaching to help students develop their emotional understanding. Language and culture This section will focus on the way in which we use language to convey a sense of culture online. Building on given examples, participants will work together and share ideas. Building community habits This section will involve discussion and practical tasks to share best practice in building habits of community and belonging when teaching online.

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