Making sure the student doesn't become overwhelmed or alienated in an online environment will help with minimizing student attrition. 

Asynchronous discussions can be used to go over important subject matters within a course to a larger group of students, and synchronous discussions can used to one student or a small group of students who feel they need a bit more help on the subject matter to help aid in their understanding. 

An instructor's presence in the online learning environment is valuable to the students and makes them feel there is a resource available to them that can assist them through their course. A short biography can help students learn about their instructor, and in turn, instructors should take the time to learn about each of their students by having then post a bio in their first assignment. Creating a place within the CMS for synchronous and asynchronous conversations can help students interact with others in the same learning environment and gives the instructors the ability to help more students at one… >>>

I have learned that although instructors may provide the information in different ways, they need to understand the content they are delivering so that the students are all receiving the same information for the material that is being covered in the course. Instructors need to know how the CRM works and take the orientation course, so they better understand the student's questions when they first start the course. Instructors need to understand the frustrations of their students that are not as computer literate that are now in an online class and provide them both learning and technical support together. Instructors… >>>