The online community is a different paradigm in that we need to be in more attentive in our communication. Instructors need to be clear, professional, and appropriate. Adult learners have an advantage of bringing their past knowledge to the table and apply that to the online community. Facilitating this is takes more time than F2F. In my online classes through CTE, I have clear expectations about having everyone's camera on. F2F interaction as an instructor you feed of facial expressions, body language and tone of voice. but with online you just have the camera and some students do not want to be seen. This pushes contact further from the active learning flow. Once students know that they have to have the camera on then the facial expressions can still help teachers know if they are grasping the meat of the lesson. Feedback from the students can be a quick 1-2 word text blast from all students.
