Many of the tools discussed in this section would be very beneficial to students and help build a sense of community in an online learning environment. Wikis, blogs, discussion boards, forums, messaging and social networking/media would all build a more approachable feel to an online program. That being said, you would need to do some baseline assessing when it comes to your students to find out their comfort level when it comes to all of these various tools and develop methods to ensure students are comfortable and up to par with the technology so that is enhancing their course experience and not detrimental to their learning.
