I believe creativity is important in a classroom especially online. Because there is no face to face contact, the students have to be engaged in order for participation to occur.
When responding to student's discussion posts, I try to use first hand experiences (personal or professional) that relate to the discussion topic.
When reading the student's post, I can guage by his or her responses if they fully understand the topic. When I respond using facts, examples, or a specific situation, some respond "wow, I didn't see it that way, thank you for clarifying, or I missed that point". By offering a different perspective (personal or professional), can make a confused student suddenly see the light.
Sabrina,
Creativity many times connect with critical thinking skills and those leaders rock! ;-) Thanks for brining creativity into the conversation.
