[BLANK AUDIO]. Another question from an anonymous participant this week, and it's a tricky one. It's about how to generate an online community in a course where the people can start at any time. So basically there's no one fixed duration for that course where everyone is necessarily together. >> Yep. >> What do you think about that? >> Good question, and it is a challenge, because if you have a cohort of students you are tracking through a course together then you can actually engage them around talking about the same topics week by week. Which can foster a community quite nicely. But if you're having them come in and out as they please, you just have to design a little bit differently, I think. I think first you have to think about what you want them to get out of the community, so is it a place where they go and they ask some questions, and they wait for someone to respond. How many people are going to be in there at one time, is something to think about. If there is going to be a general, say, you know, 15 or 20 people in at the same time, then maybe there could be a bit of a community. But if there's less than that it might be hard. Or if it's optional they might be less willing to engage. >> Hm. And I think also ask the question, do you need that community there? So again, it comes down to what the learning outcomes are for the course. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> And what the learning style you're trying to design is, as you're saying. But if you don't need it, maybe trying to force it might be difficult. For example, in this current learning to teach online MOOC, the forums are completely optional. >> Yes. >> We have many participants coming in, learning at their own pace, and I've seen Facebook posts saying, you know, I've finished the whole course in two days. And that works really well for them, but we haven't made it an integral part of the design. >> It's not a required part. >> Yes, it's a very valuable part, but because we can't depend on everyone's motivations, we've made it an option. So you might need to think about that and actually have, is it a support system that's on the side for those who want a richer experience? And if it is part of an activity, how critical to failure is having that interwoven in there? And you can also start thinking about how you might develop your cohort, your student's personal learning networks as well outside of your course. So if they're coming into your course to learn something over whatever set period of time that they happen to choose to be in there, are there networks that they can then access later when they're in the work force or doing something else? Regardless of what discipline they are. There's lots of different personal learning networks out there where people can share ideas and communicate outside of a course. So maybe it's more about opening up their view to other networks that they could potentially get involved in rather than forcing a community in your particular course. If it's so fluid. >> Other things might be about making sure that there is real value to be had by engaging in that community. So the issues of constructive alignment that we talk about in Planning Your Online Course in Module Two or Three, it really is about making sure that Going and making the effort of joining that gives them something they couldn't get otherwise that they can bring back in. So I think looking through some of the modules will give you an idea about the constructive alignment of those different elements. Making sure that it's valuable for people to go there. But also take into consideration the risk of not having one person in there talking to themselves. So it's a difficult question, but just go back to that, goals of the course, and be practical about it from there, I think. But sorry, just before we cut, just reflecting on our MOOC again. We're not making it mandatory, but there are some wonderful things happening in there. But discussion forums are fabulous and people are learning from each other, sharing great ideas. Not only in the Q&A forum, but all the forums across. And in different module-related forums as well we've got engagement going on. In the eighth module around evaluation and the first one and people coming and going as they like. >> And that's just it. People are starting and stopping this MOOC as they like so it can work. It just make it something worthwhile. >> Yeah.