Strategies for building community:

When ever a student works on or study any online course, there are always some reasons like loneliness and a feeling of working in isolation that why some online students eventually choose to drop a course. We can overcome from this problem by building community in our course. Building a  learning community and a sense of social belonging doesn’t happen by accident, you as the designer have to work upon it, developer and instructor of your online courses have to plan and to work to build a learning community with a thinking out of the box. Here are some ways that are useful to accomplish this task:

1. Social forums: just actively encourage learners to introduce themselves and to perform a simple ice-breaker activity that must be different and can help to become notice able. Explain that this forum can be used to socialize and to post about current events during the course time. and if required the TA (Assistant) can participate informally in the social discussions.
2. General Q&A: This forum should be monitored regularly by the Instructor and the TAs. It is a place for the learners to ask questions about course materials and other required information. Thus will bring a kind of connection within the students.
3. Forming Groups: Create a balance between individual and group work activities in the course. If learners will be working in groups, explain when/how the group rosters will be formed. Provide each group with its own private discussion forum. Provide some guidelines on effective virtual team-work. Include a confidential peer assessment (peer-rating) of group work component, for all graded group-based assessment tools. 
4. Balance the timing: Design the course with the appropriate balance of synchronous (occurring on the same time) and asynchronous (non-occurring) learning activities that work for the learning outcomes in your course.
5. Updated profiles: Post a weekly summary or weekly welcome message. Highlight aspects of the course that have just occurred or are about to be developed in the coming week. 
6. Ask for Modifications: Ask learners for feedback early in the course. This early feedback can help inform minor course modifications that may have a high impact on learner satisfaction. It will show the learners that you care about the quality of their experience that you provide to them.

So that's the list ! if u have some more valid points then don't forget to comment. Thank you !