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In online courses, opportunities for student engagement need to be deliberately designed (Martin & Bolliger, 2018). One common way to promote student engagement online is through discussion forums, for which there are widespread established best practices. However, the Q&A discussion forum, which is typically not graded or required, is often thrown into a course without clear intentions or structure. When purposefully designed, a Q&A forum can facilitate the crucial engagement types that are essential to building a community of inquiry in an online classroom, ultimately improving student satisfaction and learning outcomes. These engagement types are student-content, student-student, and student-instructor (Bernard et al., 2009 as cited in Martin & Bolliger, 2018). A Q&A forum should incorporate best practices around all three engagement types.

So, you are building a course for the online environment. What an exciting adventure! When building an online course, you may use a similar method to what you used when developing a course previously, or you may use an entirely new technique. Either option is a good option. But, you may have a few questions when you first begin such as: How do I organize my materials? How do I display my materials? How do I make sure my students work together?

The majority of online learners seek formal education for a multitude of reasons but can be frustrated by the lack of transferrable skills. Online education can bridge this gap by utilizing authentic activities, allowing learners to gain skills that directly connect to their professional lives.