One's tone and expression of emotion through different techniques can significantly help build rapport with online students.  

Technology is of critical importance and is considered by many to be as important as water, food and air.  Using technology that allows for a social presence may help with student engagement.

Finding a way to help students achieve the 7 online competencies may be an important first step to truly transition many online students to full success.  But also considering using these ideas in F2F and hybrid may improving learning all around.

Making sure to connect with students whether in person or online is imperative to student retention.  

Critical thinking can be an incredible useful tool to engage with for active learning but it may take some direction to cultivate it.  Using collaborative and cooperative learning can help engage critical thinking and lead to fruitful discussions.  There are many activities that can be used sychronously and asychronously use active learning and in particular activce learning.

I very much liked the idea of having a group rubric with a yes or no scale, I think this will be very helpful with making sure students know what they should consider before submitting their work.  Along with the assessment rubric the more information that can be provided but allowing space within the rubric for creative, ingenuity and innovation can result in a wonderful learning experience.

It is interesting that in some respect what is addressed as an issue is that students may not have had a significant amount of critical thinking skills before entering higher education.  I wonder how a better bridge can be built.

Making sure there is appropriate access to technology is important and making sure there is knowledge and a plan for if technology fails.

The more collaborative, cooperative and problem solving learning that can take place, the better students will learn and retain. Active learning can help with student retention and can make learning more student led.  With many opportunities to include active learning in an online setting I look forward to all the ways I can engage students even more.

Making sure to consider best practices and Universal Design are helpful not just for students with disabilities but for all students.  Making sure to focus on getting your course accessible before the start of the course will also make it more possible to be welcoming and available to students. 

Learning about several of the Assistive Technology Tools that are available was very informative.  I hope I can learn about many more and start considering their use in my classes.