How do online learning communities significantly impact both student learning and satisfaction within online courses?
An online learning community is a place where the Internet pulls individuals together as a team. The peer interaction in the community creates a more dynamic way for a learner to learn. The online community is design to provide an active learning environment. The instructor is involve in the classroom room discussions but not the center of attention (Palloff & Pratt, 2011). They are responsible to provide a healthier and fun environment. The learner is eager to learner in warm and open learning environment. An instructor’s role plays a sufficient part as a viewer to make sure the individuals in the course are participating in the course activities. The people in a community work together with a common goal in mind.
There are many benefits of the learning community:
1. Being part of a bigger group
2. Social pressure to succeed
3. Become more knowledgeable
What are the essential elements of online community building?
An instructor must make it known that they are available to provide support throughout the course. It is important for a leaner to be engage without the activities. Each activity is, “used for online engaged learning should be analyzed to determine which level of thinking it requires and to ensure that there is a mix of activities for varying level of thinking (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011). Not all activities can be converted to an online environment. It is up to the instructor to design activities that eagers interaction among individuals.
How can online learning communities be sustained?
To maintain the learning community is by stimulating the learner with more knowledge. The instructor and the student must become a partner in the community. The learning environment is not just up to the student but also the community.
What is the relationship between community building and effective online instruction?
A strong relationship within the community can help learners obtain information and make it meaningful. The learner can build trust and personal connections within the community. When a learner is comfortable in an environment, they are more willing to be part of a team and work towards a common goal.
Resources:
Conrad, R.-M., & Donaldson, J. A. (2011). Learning in an online environment. In Engaging the Online Leaner (pp. 1-14). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (n.d.). Online Learning Communities [video]. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live/ecollege.com
In relation to maintaining an online learning community, I agree that the facilitator plays an important role. I also believe that the student has a significant role to play. The student needs to state their presence by participating on a regular basis and be willing to share their thoughts and questions (Rhode, 2008).
ReplyDeleteReference
Rhode, J. F. (2008). Roles & responsibilities of the online learner. Retrieved from Slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/jrhode/roles-and-responsibilities-of-the-online-learner
Annie Swihart
Welcome, Katie! I look forward to following your blog. ~Beth M
ReplyDeleteKatie
ReplyDeleteHaving worked in an academic environment for years, by default it is very easy for me to read your post and consider the online learning community solely in an academic classroom context. I must consciously think about this in a business, corporate, or other non-academic environment. When I do, I have several questions. The most obvious question for me is to wonder how the motivation levels of the individuals or learners might impact the community.
As you indicated, an effective learning community provides for active learning, is warm and open, offers knowledge to help stimulate the learner, and has an instructor who is there to support the learners throughout. However, when the learning becomes required, rather than learners choosing to participate on their own, I can see where the challenges for sustaining the online learning community might rise. The elements of people, purpose, and process, as described by Pratt and Palloff (2012), might well exist, and designing the community and encouraging learners to interact could be accomplished. However, what will happen to the community when the learners, or a significant portion, do not wish to engage? With constructivism involving: knowledge to be constructed from experience; learning being an active process; and learning being collaborative (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011), when some learners do not fully participate or engage, wouldn’t they negatively impact the learning capabilities of others? If so, isn’t this rather unfair for those who do wish to fully engage in their learning opportunity, whether they entered it by choice or it was a requirement of their job?
If I am to be more dependent upon others in order to make my online learning experience more meaningful and effective, it seems I would want to know more about my future online community classmates, if it were possible. Perhaps it would be more important to know about the facilitator and their experience in online environments. They may be knowledgeable and skilled enough to off-set learners who may be less motivated to engage in the environment and share their experiences for the benefit of all. Just a few thoughts!
Resources
Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2011). Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction (Updated ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Pratt, K., Palloff, R. (2012). Online Learning Communities. Lecture presented for Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6290533&Survey=1&47=7270808&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1.
Katie – I like your connection to a team atmosphere. As I was reading your posting what came to mind was the old business rule that 2 heads or better than one. I often find that by working as a team with a common goal that synergizes are created thereby delivering a better end product or learning more through the safe interaction with other peers.
ReplyDeleteThe essential elements as outlined by Palloff & Pratt include the existence of a group of learners with a common purpose (or goal) and the process in which to accomplish this goal. This coupled with the methods in which they communicate and the establishment of social presence are both needed to establish a learning community. These communities can be sustained through the gentle guidance of the facilitator, the sense of responsibility to the learning community from the learners and the sense of a co-created knowledge.
References
Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (n.d.). Online Learning Communities [video]. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live/ecollege.com