Learning Technologists are not always involved in purely online, distance, eLearning or mLearning, we are used to help improve and update face-to-face materials to either introduce a new technique or just to update a presentation, make it more 2009 and less 1999. The question "what is a Learning Technologist", I've finally realised, can be answerd differently based on who you ask, where they work, and what day of the week it is. We are also sometimes referred to as an Educational Technologist, but never as a Demonstrator. Does that make it any easier? No, how about this.

One aspect of learning online is that the students will feel distant and isolated from not only you (the Institution and staff facilitator) but also from each other. So, what can you do to make them feel included and valued? Firstly, use the induction period to get them used to not only working and talking in the online environment, but also engaging online (collaboration, tests, discussions, etc). My personal favourite is to get the students doing something that uses a piece of technology they're not familiar with, but in a way that they don't realise their using or doing something new.