Shawna, I am newer at this, and I've tried emailing the students reminding them of the chat, as well as posting announcements in the classroom. After the chat I send a 'thank you for participating' email to those that participated, and a 'we missed you' message to those that didn't. While I've tried all these things, my attentence is around 5 out of 30. I'm open to suggestions.

I have had several students complain that my requirement to utilize external sources is unnecessary if they understand and can relate to the material via their previous experiences. I try to explain that the goal in the education is to learn and build upon their experiences and this is a worthwhile effort.

In our classroom live chats, I get the students involved by asking their thoughts on the topic before I go into an explaination. The students that participate in the chat seem to enjoy this. I will specifically ask for any student that has spoken up yet, to please do so. That normally works if we have a quiet student. The larger challenge in the live chats is not participation by those in attendance but getting people to attend since it is not required.

I always create a forum on the discussion board for students to submit questions. This way other students can benefit from the questions and answers also. I learned this when taking a class, and now use it in my classes also.

As a new faculty member who just finished teaching their first online course, I can say that support and responsiveness to me as a faculty member by other faculty was a critical component of my success in being able to respond to students in a timely manner. Responding to students in a timely manner is often discussed and stressed. This aspect of supporting new faculty so that they are successful in doing so is not always mentioned. I truly thank the other faculty that answered a seemingly unending stream of questions, especially the first 2 weeks.