Community in the Online Science Classroom

As online course offerings rise, it is important to design and facilitate courses to promote community so students feel connected to each other and the instructor and feel a sense of belonging as a scientist. Online discussions are a common feature for building and nurturing community and combating isolation. Discussions stimulate active learning, a strategy to promote participation in knowledge construction. This sense of community and science identity is important for both persistence and performance. I will share efforts to promote community while reducing extraneous cognitive load through discussion design and targeted instructor professional development. I will share data on connections between community, identity, and cognitive load in asynchronous discussions. Ultimately, we want to ask questions like how much of an influence the instructor has, looking beyond teaching presence to explore faculty mindset (both about their own teaching and about their students).