I interviewed an experienced English professor who has been teaching distance education courses for approximately 40 years.

One of the questions that I asked was how he promotes community and connection in a continuous entry online course. He encourages his students to send him questions. He has also set up an online forum where students can talk among themselves. For the assignments, it is compulsory that the students review another student’s assignment on the forum; if there is no assignment available under continuous enrollment, the requirement is waived. In his experience, students are very willing to review others’ work and he hasn’t had issues with students having trouble finding someone to peer review their assignments. The course that I am currently teaching does not have a peer review forum. However, this is a strategy that could be easily implemented in my course in the future.

I also asked about strategies for facilitating the process of critical inquiry. He encourages his students to look up secondary sources; this ensures that the students are involved with the subject matter and look up articles and books on the topic beyond what is provided in the course material.

My next question was about what digital tools he uses in his course. The only digital tool that is used is the peer review forum.

Next, I inquired about what issues he struggles with in teaching a continuous entry online course. Interestingly, he said that historically students have felt isolated in these courses. However, this feeling of isolation has been reduced significantly over the years as most students now are used to being taught online and they are familiar and comfortable with communicating online.

Lastly, I asked if he had any advice for me. He suggested that it’s important to promptly answer any student question. The students really appreciate it when their teacher is quick to respond. He also suggested that it is important to know where to direct the students when they come to you with non-course content related technical questions.