How Can I Facilitate Online Discussions? - Torria Davis, Visual Design for Online Learning via Tomorrow's Professor

Providing opportunities for asynchronous and synchronous communication between learners in the course is an important part of creating a sense of presence and building a learning community in an online course. Learning to work with others across time and distance is a new skill for many taking online courses. Although learners may use social media to communicate with family and friends who are not in close proximity, they are not always cognizant of how to do this for academic purposes. Therefore the skill of interacting and collaborating with peers online must be taught and purposefully planned by the instructor. https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1634