Personalizing Online Classes to Reduce the Students’ Feeling of Isolation

Abstract: Due to the busy lives of many people, online education has grown in popularity. One issue with online courses is the environment. Students tend to feel isolated from their peers and professor. In a traditional in-class course students are able see and hear their instructor and interact with him or her as well as his or her peers. Can an online course offer such interaction in the cyber world environment? This paper will look at online isolation in higher education and methods to reduce such isolation. There are many available technologies that are easy to use to personalize online courses. This paper will also discuss the use of the chat and discussion forum tools, so students feel “in touch” with their classmates and professor.