Many organizations spend a great deal of time, money and effort getting courses online but neglect to properly train their online instructors.

Although online courses are often derived from the same courses that are taught face-to-face, this is where the similarity ends. Most important, facilitating an online course requires an entirely different skill set than teaching a traditional course.

It is all too easy to place Mary as the lead instructor for an online course because Mary gets top marks from her face-to-face students each year. All too often, however, when Mary shows up to facilitate her online course, she finds herself with a different set of learners and an empty toolbox of skill sets to ensure success in the course.

Successfully facilitating online classes begins with the basic premise of an instructor adapting his or her "Sage-On-The-Stage" role to an online learning-oriented "Guide On the Side" role. Online learning is all about sharing with one another and having the entire class participate. This interaction typically takes place through strategically placed assignments and significant and meaningful threaded discussions, both of which can build a successful online learning community environment.

Following are five tips that can help instructors facilitate the building of effective online learning communities.

I. Create the Framework for Lively Threaded Discussions

Threaded Discussions are the heart and soul of any online course. The opportunity to discuss with one’s peers a particular subject and share experiences is what brings the course alive. One very simple tenet for building effective threaded discussions is to avoid posting questions that allow students to give short yes/no-like answers and strategically place questions that are open-ended and encourage interaction. A good rule of thumb is to post such questions before or immediately after a reading assignment. Look for open-ended questions that will bring out different opinions with the participants. For example, controversy, when moderated properly, can be a good thing and may be just the "spice" you need to liven up your course.

Use the online technology to its fullest advantage by designing activities that have groups of learners working together, in a team environment, to complete a specific assignment. The first benefit is that a typical class of 20 to 25 students can have four to five groups of five members each. This means the instructor is grading four to five assignments instead of 20 to 25. The second benefit is that the group activity promotes interaction and learning among the class itself in a manner that is interactive and fun. This is one strategy to ensure you truly are the Guide On the Side.

While many educators are initially opposed to online group activities and feel that it is often only one or two people that do all the work, this does not have to be the case. Design group activities in which each group member is responsible for answering a particular question and have the group members rate each other in terms of participation. As an example, a group assignment can be "Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of online learning and support your findings." Another example could be "Research three deviant behaviors and the impact of each on society." With some creativity and imagination, the sky is the limit to successful online group activities.

An online chat can be a fantastic tool to promote learning and networking among the participants of the course. However, be aware that online chats can also be extremely slow given that many people are "two finger bandits" on the keyboard. Moreover, online chats can pose the problem of schedule difficulties for participants in different time zones, and chats can become out of control with too many people chatting simultaneously. So, use online chat sparingly and wisely and take into consideration people’s time, schedules and the value the chat really adds.

Facilitating an online course takes as much or more time than a traditional course. The main benefit is that you can facilitate the course at any time from any location. That said, it is imperative that the instructor log in at least six times per week to provide feedback and direction. Questions from students MUST be answered within 24 hours to ensure learning, interaction and community-building takes place. This is the "price" of success in an online course.

Keep in mind that by properly setting up the right expectations, you can avoid situations where you are expected to answer an e-mail within 2 milliseconds of receiving it, and by promoting threaded discussions, you can avoid having your in-box being over stuffed with messages from students.

V. Take A Course On How to Teach Online

What makes this course unique is that pressure points are built into the course so that you experience exactly the same thing as an online learner.

The course is grueling. However, instructors come out as certified experts that can teach their online course with success. From the theoretical to the practical, this course, and others like it, can be viewed as a worthwhile investment because they can lead to higher retention rates and extremely satisfied learners who will typically come back for more courses.