Consider using technologies that allow students to collaborate and develop their own content. Web 2.0 Technologies such as blogs, wikis and shared resource lists can provide motivation through public engagement, social learning and collaborative investigation.
Use technologies with the idea of supporting a learning community rather than just delivering content and assessments to students. You can support community through online discussion, real-time chat, collaborative assignments, and peer-reviewed activities.
You can also support community by
setting a more relaxed tone in your course: use humor, address students by their first names and occasionally allow discussions to go off-topic.
Introduce yourself to students using educational technologies, and allow students to do the same. You can even post a picture, and encourage students to do so if they are
willing. Putting faces to names helps humanize an online environment and build community.
Collaborative technologies
