Building Community in the (Online) Language Classroom presented by Prof. Heather R. Rice, The University of Texas at Austin

The Language Teaching Committee presents te Webinar:

Building Community in the (Online) Language Classroom 

February 24, 2022  10:00-11:30am

 Guest Speaker: 
Prof. Heather R. Rice 
(University Of Texas at Austin)

Student engagement and a strong sense of community are the cornerstone of any successful language class. Online language learning often presents a challenge to the notion of classroom community. When teaching online, instructors must be intentional in their efforts, to ensure meaningful student engagement. This workshop will demonstrate how the curriculum for online Russian language courses at the University of Texas at Austin has been designed in such a way to meet the particular demands of distance learning with regard to the notion of classroom community. We will look at creative ways to mine the internet and the standard tools supplied by a learning management system to create an engaging learning environment for various class sizes online. We will discuss how the traditional face-to-face model informed the design of our online classes and how, in turn, we may adapt strategies gleaned from our online teaching to the face-to-face model when returning to the classroom.