Before we get to far down the rabbit hole about designing and teaching online classes, I want to share something I’ve had great success with in my face-to-face classes (and I imagine a version could be useful in an online class). It’s the discussion charter.

Recently, I explained that starting in the fall I would be teaching fully online for the 2017–2018 academic year. My first thought was about how I would foster community. However, once I got past that I realized that I needed to back up and think about the content first. Community is…