During the first class, put every student on camera. If you're uncomfortable with moving the camera around the room, have the students join you at the podium at the sending site. Have the students at the remote site move to a specific chair or to the podium for instructions.

Visit each receiving site if possible early in the semester. This makes you more "real" to the students at the remote site and gives the normal sending site students a chance to see what their classmates at the remote sites normally encounter.

If visiting the remote site is unrealistic due to personal schedules/distance/weather conditions, try to send a personalized note or postcard to the students within the first two weeks of classes and again later in the semester.

Send treats for a breaktime to the remote site students (and, or course, have some for the sending site students) on a special occasion...great exam results, mid-terms, holiday.

Some faculty have had the students write a brief paragraph about themselves on the first night to compile into a handout to share with all classmates at all sites. If a videotape is made of the student introductions, a Snappy converter can be used to capture an image for a group photo at each site or individual photos. A disposable camera could also be sent to each site to have the students capture photos of the students for a similar project.

Depending on your class size and schedule, consider a "Thirty Second Special"... allowing a student to share a photo of someone or something important to them on the document camera. Hold them to the time limit!

Encourage students between sites to interact. Some faculty have held special events...invited the remote site students to a special event at the sending site on a non-class night, hosted a get-together at a point between campuses, held a get-together when the class concluded. Some DL students have even voluntarily traveled to the remote site to meet classmates in person or present group projects together.

Documents provided by the Western Illinois Education Consortium.