In order to promote intellectual curiosity and advance the collective, individual participants must trust one another so they can take risks, offer ideas, disagree respectfully, and collaborate freely. Starting the year with new students who are not meeting in person as a group will present some unique challenges. Even within a group familiar with one another, this interdependence can be difficult. So, how will you build a collaborative culture in your online classroom? Participants in this workshop will play the role of the students meeting for the first time as a class. You will be led through a number of activities that you can reproduce in your own classes to foster connection, ease, and familiarity. Interwoven in the activities will be skills required for learning in a synchronous and asynchronous classroom so as you build a sense of community, you are simultaneously practicing and testing your ability to perform the skills required for future assignments.