8 Small Ways to Make an Asynchronous Course Feel More Human

An asynchronous course can feel human without imitating a live classroom. Students need signs that other people are present.

The most useful changes are often small: a short welcome, a recognizable face or voice, a project with a real purpose, or feedback that confirms a submission did not disappear into a black hole.

This guide grew out of a conversation our founder started with professors after experiencing online asynchronous courses as both a graduate student and an undergraduate instructor. Professors in the replies warned that any community-building tactic becomes busywork when it happens too often or has no connection to the learning objective.

Table of Contents

Give students signs of life

Students can complete every module, post, and reply while still feeling alone. Adding more required posts can leave them with more work and the same feeling.

Students should be able to tell that:

1. Someone is here. The instructor is visible, responsive, and recognizable.
2. My work reached someone. Submissions receive acknowledgment, feedback, or a useful response.
3. Other students are real people. Classmates have voices, perspectives, and work worth returning to.

Use whichever of the eight changes below addresses a real gap in your course.

Eight small changes that help

1. Open the week with a short welcome

Record a brief starter video that explains what matters this week, connects the materials, or shares one question you hope students will keep in mind. It can also be a carefully chosen clip from someone else.

Keep administrative details such as dates and section numbers in the LMS. That makes the video easier to reuse and leaves more time to talk about the subject. Aim for a few minutes, provide captions or a transcript (Vivipod Plus can generate them per Topic), and do not hide essential instructions inside the recording.

2. Create a beginning and an ending

A course feels more like a community when it has a recognizable opening and closing. If policy and schedules permit, offer an optional start-of-semester meetup and a closing reflection.

For a strictly asynchronous course, try:

• an introduction that asks students to share something relevant and comfortable
• a midway check-in about what is helping or getting in the way
• a closing reflection that lets the class notice how its thinking changed

Always provide an asynchronous alternative when a scheduled meeting is not part of the course design.

3. Use student video occasionally and for a reason

Video can put a face and voice behind text, but frequency matters. One or two video activities with a clear purpose may do more to help students get to know each other than a weekly recording requirement.

Use video when students need to explain a decision, demonstrate a process, practice speaking, present their work, or reflect in their own voice. Keep the recording limit short. Do not require students to show their face when audio, screen sharing, or another accessible format meets the objective.

Before asking for video, decide what you need students to show or explain. A generic discussion question can feel like more busywork when students also have to record it.

4. Make one part of the course feel like a lounge

An LMS is excellent at organizing assignments, grades, and files. Those same strengths can make every interaction feel transactional.

Give students a place to share a relevant image, bring an example from outside class, show work in progress, or ask a low-stakes question. Think of it as a small “comfy lounge” beside the course’s lecture hall.

Set expectations for privacy and conduct. Never make personal disclosure the price of participation.

5. Prefer projects to forced conversation

“Post once and reply twice” is easy to administer, but students quickly learn to produce the minimum visible response.

A small project gives students something to discuss. They might create a short podcast, annotate an example, demonstrate a method, compare two designs, or publish a draft for critique. Peers can then respond to a concrete choice without having to invent agreement with a generic post.

If discussion is required, ask students to change something on the second turn: revise a claim, answer a question, improve their work, or bring together what the group noticed.

6. Close the submission black hole

Personalized feedback tells students that their work reached another person. It does not need to be long.

Try one specific observation and one suggestion for what to do next. A short voice or video comment can communicate warmth and nuance, while text is often easier to scan and reference. Choose the format that serves the feedback.

Even if students do not reply, the acknowledgment still matters.

7. Make time for individual conversations

Some students will never speak candidly in a group call. A short individual office-hour conversation can create more trust and two-way communication than a larger optional session.

Offer more than one path when possible: scheduled appointments, drop-in hours, or an asynchronous question channel. State what office hours are for; students may not realize they can bring an early idea, a confusing reading, or a half-formed question.

8. Let students get to know you, too

Use your natural voice. Share small, appropriate glimpses of how you approach the subject, what surprised you this week, or why an example matters to you.

Keep personal disclosure optional for you and your students. Speak as you would while helping someone after class.

How this could fit into a term

You can combine the ideas without creating eight new assignments:

A large general-education course, a small graduate seminar, and a self-paced course need different rhythms.

Where Vivipod fits

In Vivipod, you can create a Space and a Topic for a video activity. Students record short Posts, then discuss them in comments. They can point to a moment in a recording with a timestamp or use an @mention to bring someone into the conversation.

Keep assignments and grades in your LMS. Use Vivipod when you want students to hear an explanation, watch a demonstration, or discuss each other's work.

Create a free Space for one activity, or compare formats for higher-education discussion before choosing a tool.

For ways to adapt assignments and discussions to generative AI, see The Best Response to AI Is a More Human Course, Not Detection.

Start with one change

Choose one moment where students hear little from you or each other:

• the beginning of a module
• the first time they encounter one another
• the handoff after submitting work
• the gap between an initial post and a real response
• the end of the course

Try a welcome, a check-in, or a reply at that point, then ask students whether it helped.