Many online instructors share how they miss meeting with students in person. 
However, building a learning community is much more than meeting face-to-face. It is about showing the students that the instructor is there when needed, that the instructor cares about the student as a person, and building a sense of "we are all in this together." Some may argue that this can be accomplished better online while others argue the opposite.
Not all courses require student-student interaction, such as discussions. Yet, it is always important to build a community of learners to some extent by providing places for social interaction to take place, to ask questions, and to interact with the instructor and other students.
Participation is essential if we are to learn of and from each other. It isn't simply a matter of arbitrarily choosing to participate or not — this is a collective, or better collaborative, effort REQUIRING conversation and reflection. To be truly collaborative, we must all participate. - Cyd (cited in Palloff & Pratt, 2007, p. 50)
Educational virtual communities, sometimes called learning communities, are an integral part of online courses. By giving the online student the ability to make social connections with others who are in the class, learning is enhanced because the participants know each other better and feel more comfortable accepting the collective knowledge of the group, rather than just relying on the instructor as the only source of course knowledge. In addition to the social aspect of the learning community in an online classroom, new knowledge can be created as the result of collaborative learning between participants.
UW-Madison Instructor Share Ideas on Building Online Learning Communities
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Why is Creating Community Online Important?
Although mastering course content may be important, it is only one of the goals of most well-designed courses. There are social needs and expectations of participants that should also be valued as goals. If the social needs of participants are not addressed and met, students are less likely to give high evaluations of the course and their learning experience may be diminished" (Palloff & Pratt, 2005).
College-age students, sometime called Millennials or Net Geners, gravitate toward group activity and are very social, in general. They seek to interact with others, whether in their personal lives, their online presence, or in class" (Oblinger, 2005). They are already using various online communities as a social outlet, having grown up with the Internet. For Net Geners, online interactions and conversations are very meaningful. According to Oblinger, Net Geners find peers more credible than teachers when it comes to determining what is worth paying attention to. If discussions go too far off course, it is up to the instructor to gently guide the discussion in productive directions related to the learners' needs, goals and objectives. If the sense of community is developed, then students may be more likely to answer each other's questions, relying less on instructor input.
By learning together in a learning community, students have the opportunity to extend and deepen their learning experience, test out new ideas by sharing them with a supportive group, and receive critical and constructive feedback. - Palloff & Pratt, 2005
Many studies have shown that introverted students are more willing to participate openly in an online classroom environment. This creates a more "even playing field" for all students to be equal participants and the class as a whole gains a greater understanding of who their classmates are.
How to Create Virtual Communities?
A virtual community can be created simply by creating a discussion forum devoted to social topics within a course. For a more robust virtual community, set up various methods for group interaction that are both social and educational. There are various tools available within a course management system like Canvas or Desire2Learn (D2L) that can be utilized for community building. The tool most frequently used for online communities is the discussion tool. A forum that encompasses off-topic discussions, sometimes called "The Hallway" or "The Internet Café," encourages student interaction. Webinars can also be used for large or small group synchronous discussion with archives made available after the session.
Tips:
- Give ownership to participants, i.e.: "this is your community."
- Before any content-related activity, have the participants write introductions; then, have other participants look for common interests and comment.
- Set behavioral ground rules and consequences for misbehavior.
- Have a synchronous kick-off event.
- Give feedback to participants and encourage/reward others for giving constructive feedback.
- If participation is lagging, email encouragement, i.e., include discussion summaries.
- Acknowledge time commitment of participants.
- Summarize or archive discussions and synchronous events (if possible) so that "late-comers" can get up to speed quickly.
The keys to the creation of a learning community and successful facilitation online are simple: honesty, responsiveness, relevance, respect, openness, and empowerment. When faculty create a virtual environment for participants in which these elements are present, group members can feel safe in expressing themselves without fear of how they will be perceived, allowing for active, rich discussion. - Palloff & Pratt, 2007, p. 22
Recommended Reading:
In the following two readings, Palloff and Pratt (2007) provide insight into the importance of community in online courses, how to build social presence, and why it is important for student retention and learning.
Chapter 2, Building online learning communities, San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Chapter 3, Building online learning communities, San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Building Online Learning Communities References
Oblinger, D., & Oblinger, J. (2005). Is it age or IT: First steps toward understanding the Net generation. Educating the Net generation, 2(1–2), 20. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/pub7101b.pdf
Palloff, R.M. & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Palloff, R.M. & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.