Building an online learning community is an essential part of a successful online course. The online community is where the students, along with their instructor and student peers, construct meaning from the course materials. In addition, the online community builds student satisfaction by reducing the sense of isolation and by providing feedback to the student as they are learning the material.
There are five essential elements of building an online community. The first is people – you need to have a quorum of individuals participating in the discussion. The second is a method of communication. There must be an established forum (e.g. threaded discussion board, wiki, chat room) for communication to take place. The next element is process – guidelines and expectations on how discussion is conducted. The fourth element is purpose. In other words, the community needs a reason to exist and an end goal to succeed. In an online course, the purpose is usually to complete the weekly assignment. The final element is social presence. In other words, the online identity of the student or instructor. This presence is established by participating in the forum often enough that they are recognized as a regular member. But more importantly, the individual thoughts and experience expressed through the forum creates an online personality that other members will recognize and want to engage.
It is really these last two elements, purpose and presence, that sustain an online community. Without a purpose, the online community will quickly disintegrate. Therefore, it is crucial to continually renew the purpose of the community by introducing new assignments or new challenges on a regular basis. In addition, the participants must continually assert their social presence to keep everyone engaged and looking forward to the contributions of the other members.
Once the online community is established, this becomes the delivery vehicle for the course. The community is where learning takes place. This is where the student can safely express their ideas and get constructive feedback from student peers and the instructor. This in turn gives the student a sense that they have learned something. Another benefit of an online community is that is creates social pressure to succeed. The student will feel compelled to contribute something worthwhile, something that will move the discussion forward rather than just tossing in a minimal contribution.
Steve, I especially liked your comment about how involvement in a community provides a safe (trusted) environment that enables the kind of communication that builds confidence and motivates excellence. I agree. For me, I became a "real" student when I felt others needed and benefited from my input.
ReplyDeleteHi Stephen,
ReplyDeleteYou mention...The student will feel compelled to contribute something worthwhile, something that will move the discussion forward rather than just tossing in a minimal contribution.
I completely agree with you on this. Think back to a traditional classroom setting and how low the interaction and engagement could be at times. Even when working in assigned teams there always seemed to be the same 20% of team members doing all the work. Now I am only 3 classes into the OL learning experience, however I already feel the collaboration, the sense of community and am truly enjoying the peer learning.
Do you think perhaps the autonomy plays a part in peoples willingness to be so open and collaborative?
THNX D
Stephen,
ReplyDeleteGreat job on your post and especially giving the five elements for building an online community. You will get as much out of a learning community as you put in. You have to make your presence known and then build those relationships that will deeper your own thoughts and understandings.
If you had to give new students one piece of advice for their first online course what would it be?