Walden’s video this week entitle “Online Learning Communities” presented Dr. Rena Palloff and Dr. Keith Pratt indicated that the creation of an online learning community can help facilitate course results and is the vehicle in which online learning is best delivered. In this video, Dr. Pallof and Dr. Pratt described the basis of creating a learning community for online facilitators.
How do online learning communities significantly impact both student learning and satisfaction within online courses?
The online learning communities significantly impact both student learning and satisfaction within online courses in a variety of ways. First, learning community is defined as an effective group of learners who supports one another in the learning process in order to explore the content in the course as well as to construct knowledge and meaning about the subject. It is stressed in this video that in order to create dynamic learning communities the facilitators and learners must be equal participants. Consequently, in the online learning community, the focus of intent is on the learner instead of the instructor. The online learning communities emphasize the learning process by assisting collaborative learning by interactively sharing experiences and knowledge. As Bruner (Conrad & Donaldson, 2004) points out, “development is intrinsically bound up with interaction” (pg. 4). The online learning community should by supported by the facilitator by means of a learning community approach. The course regulations of engagement should be obviously affirmed in order that the learner and facilitator are conscious of the course anticipation on input and other essential activities.
What are the essential elements of online community building?
As revealed by Dr. Pallof and Dr. Pratt, the essential elements of an online learning community are people, purpose, process, method, and social presence. The people are recognized as the learners and facilitators, yet the purpose is identified as the learning objectives of the course. In a learning community you will find common trust, mutual values, social interaction, and a manner of accommodating one another. A learning community is comprised of learners of geographical locations with diverse cultural values. The social presence is the student’s sense of presence in the midst of the group and the emotion that they fit in and become an engaged learner. The relationship is accomplished when the students covet learner to learner interaction as well as learner to instructor interaction. The learning community should be set up to provide the students with easy navigation and technology that are inviting to the learners. The learning environment must be accessible for millennial learners as well as “digital immigrants” identified as adult learners; nevertheless, a slower pace is recommended for adult learners. The students should be welcomed to class preferably by means of a welcome letter emailed to every student in the class as well as post it in the class. An icebreaker activity can also be utilized to kick off learner interactivity in a common and enjoyable approach.
How can online learning communities be sustained?
Recommendation of a new student orientation is essential so that learners become acquainted with each other and the course learning system. This will also promote the learners to become familiar with the login portal and the fundamental principles of distance learning structure. The online learning community can be sustained if the student has accomplished positive learning and a sense of belonging in the virtual learning environment. Facilitators of online courses are often engaged in a variety of activities planned to uphold the online learning even though it may not always seem clear to the learners. The instructor should be involved in the whole process. At the start of the course, facilitators must be endlessly measuring levels of participation, and detecting when a learner unexpectedly withdraws, perhaps signaling a need for a slower pace plus seal gaps in the individual student’s academic experience. Facilitators can reinforce the learning community as needed by scheduling live chat or conference calls over telephone. As Palloff & Pratt point out, instructional designers can ensure that the construction of a course upholds the wellbeing of the online community (2011).
What is the relationship between community building and effective online instruction?
Effective online instruction is very much encouraged by the online learning community. Although information is offered by books, nevertheless group interaction constructs connection among course content and prior knowledge. Constructing and upholding a online learning is essential in an online course.
References
Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2004). Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Laureate, Inc. (n.d.). Online Learning Communities [Video podcast]. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5364570&Survey=1&47=6469801&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1
Hi Jacqueline!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, the instructor should be involved in the whole process, but on an equal level with the learners and must clarify his role to the learners, measuring levels of participation and detecting when a learner unexpectedly withdraws to follow-up with them, to reduce or avoid attrition (Palloff & Pratt, 2011). You are again right in saying “facilitators can reinforce the learning community as needed by scheduling live chat or conference calls over telephone.”
To promote a successful collaboration, as curriculum designers for online courses and instructors, we must embed in the course management system (CMS), technology tools such as Skype, Google tools including Talk, Chat, Calendar, Docs, and Notebooks that would effectively contribute to the social network. These tools could help create a more collaborative environment because they allow for voice, video, text, simultaneous editing, and immediate feedback (Oliveira, Tinoca, & Pereira, 2011).
The facilitator has to define the role be for each group, particularly in the case of less successful groups, ascertain factors to be considered in order to promote the participants’ trust and engagement in group work, design strategies that could promote a more collaborative setting, and explore other methodological approaches to research group work’s impact on knowledge convergence. The instructor, as social negotiator, structural engineer, facilitator, community/member challenger, wearing many hats, would have to use engaged learning model that equates constructivist principles with problem-based learning (Conrad & Donaldson, 2004).
References
Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2004). Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Oliveira, I., Tinoca, L., & Pereira, A. (2011). Online group work patterns: How to promote a successful collaboration, Computers & Education, 57, 1348-1375
Palloff, R. & Pratt, K. (2011). “Online Learning Communities”. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5364570&Survey=1&47=6623504&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1.
Hi Jacquelne,
ReplyDeleteIndeed, the learners in the learning communities support one another through discussion and collaborative works. I remember in one my former courses, we worked in groups on a course project. Each member was assigned to different responsibility each week. We collaborated in signing up for Skype and wikis. There was meeting each week in helping one another for the progress and achievement of the project's goal. It was then obvious how learners support one another because there were difference and unique experiences among learners that promoted the effectiveness not only of the project but on the course as a whole.
Hi Jacqueline
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comments on how to sustain a distance learning environment. This question can be applied as well in terms of looking at the outcomes of students in a face2face course when compared to completing the same course in an online environment. In so doing, the students’ outcomes for the distance course should be equivalent (or as close as possible) to those outcomes for the face2face course. In elaborating the “equivalency theory”, Dr. Simonson (2010) felt that learners of distance education should not be disadvantage because of the lack of face2face interaction. Simonson (2009) indicated that instructional designers should make sure that these programs do not try to mimic a traditional classroom with face to face instruction, but that online learning should provide an equivalent learning experience for students.
The instructional strategies and/or style of instruction in the face2face classroom will include for instance, lecturing, in-class discussion, homework assignment. On the other hand, when we look at the pedagogy on the online classroom we will see differences where face2face interaction in discussion will become a threaded discussion; where in-class discussion will become video-conferencing, blogging etc and homework being replaced by self-tests.
A suggestion made for ensuring that the “equivalency theory” can be effective, according to Simonson et al (1999) is to ensure that courses are tailored for students considering their particular situation or for example, their location. For instance, Walden has made available to me, living here in Barbados, online access/links to research papers that I would not have been able to find in my local library. Such papers may be easily accessible to a US student, so to ensure that an equal learning experience takes place, Walden has provided me with the resources that have made access to learning materials for me the same as that for a US student.
References
Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2004). Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education