There are a number of explicit measures that instructors can take to build a classroom community, by fostering increased student interactions with each other, with the instructor, and with the content. Thinking explicitly about community building is important because when students have a sense of community, they tend to have more motivation and exhibit higher engagement, learn better, and take more enjoyment in the class. Communities can be built regardless of modality, but in remote teaching, instructors must be more explicit about their expectations for student engagement, and create additional means for community building.

More importantly, taking explicit steps to build community in the classroom can contribute to goals of creating an inclusive classroom and fostering student wellness. Regardless of what kind of activities are incorporated, it's important to keep in mind student comfort, and for instructors to model the engagement they wish to see (e.g., participating in ice breaker activities, sharing information about themselves), while recognizing that not all students may be comfortable sharing with their peers.

Try this: Create opportunities for students to get to know each other

Start your course with opportunities for you and your students to get to know each other and you. Here are some ideas that can be implemented at the beginning of the semester:

• Video introductions: For remote learning, try creating a short video introducing yourself to your students, and ask that they also upload a video to a class discussion board.
• Icebreakers: Icebreakers are often done in small classes, but they can be beneficial in large classes too, where it's particularly easy for students to feel anonymous and disengaged. Try breaking up a large class into small groups and have them do an icebreaker activity.
• Community guidelines: Have students collaborate in coming up with guidelines for discussion-based components of the course.

If you can do a bit more, try this too:

Create ways for students to interact with you and each other throughout the semester.

• Use collaborative active learning techniques that encourage students to work together.
• Provide a mid-semester course check, by asking students to submit an anonymous survey regarding how the class is going; follow up with the class regarding their feedback, explaining how you will implement changes that were suggested, or why you won't implement their feedback.
• Create larger scale projects, such as a class wiki or ongoing discussion board.

Additional resources for building community

• Foster Classroom Community from Plymouth State University's ACE Framework. General overview of community building in online courses, with links to further reading.
• Community Building in the Community College Classroom, by Sean Garrity writing for Inside Higher Ed
• Building Community in Large Classes, from the University of Waterloo Centre for Teaching Excellence