Blog Assignment: Online Learning Communities
What are the essential elements of online community building?
The involvement of the learner in the online course, whether one calls it interaction, engagement, or community building, is critical if an online course is to be more than a lecture-oriented course in which interaction is primarily between the learner and the content or the learner and the instructor (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011, p. 5) . Online community should be one which people come together to accomplish some goal. The key aspect of a community is that it maintains some semblance of a social group of any size; the members reside in a specific locality. The essential elements to bring an online community together is people, the guide or instructor, The social presence of each individual, and the method for how the content is delivered to the community.
How do online learning communities significantly impact the learner’s learning and satisfaction with online education?
Students cannot be passive knowledge absorbers which rely on the instructor to feed information to them. In an online course, it is imperative that they be active knowledge generators who assume responsibility for constructing and managing their own learning experience (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011, p. 5) . I can personally attest to this as I have experienced various levels of interaction from 30 to 2 students. A balance of students is also an important factor when being able to have a satisfactory learning experience. I contend that the right number is about 10 to 15; where students are not too many, to get lost, or too few, to offer no learning in return. I am currently attending a course at AMU, where it is myself, the instructor, and another student that missed participating for three weeks. I can say, that I learned nothing in that class because I am talking to myself in there!!
How can online learning communities be sustained?
Online learning is a great thing, in so many ways because it takes the participation of a community. An online learning environment can be sustained because we are all vessels of learning. Once operational, there will be instructors, students, monitors, and various other roles that are responsible for ensuring a strong community for learning. Learning can be profoundly and personally transformative when it occurs within a community. Creating knowledge in learning communities can facilitate innovative solutions to increasingly complex problems in today’s knowledge society. Designing the right environment to sustain online communities is a complex task that has implications for designers, facilitators and participants. When the community is able to function effectively, learning for the individual learner can result in a profoundly transformative experience where they can view their practice in an entirely new way (Sall’ee Ryman, 2009) .
What is the relationship between community building and effective online instruction?
Online courses offer the opportunity to create a highly social learning environment, characterized by participation and interactivity for both students and instructors. Online learning is as much a social activity as an individual one. However, the quality and quantity of interactivity can vary dramatically from course to course. Swan (2001)
One of the great benefits of online education over traditional is the amount of possible diversity because geography is not a factor. I cannot imagine being in a class with just the instructor and myself much less an online class like that. Being able to share knowledge and experiences with people from all different backgrounds helps us communicate better as well as broadening our perspectives. I have never been in a class alone and yet your sharing of the experience is information I can think on and keep in mind during my educational journey and before your telling about it I had never considered such an idea. As you point out, online education is both education and social time in a way because of the flexibility it offers.
ReplyDeleteReesa Blakes
ReplyDeleteNice post David, I agree that students can’t be passive knowledge absorbers. As learners our part is to interact, participate, and collaborate within the online class. Online classes are like a community thru the communication, the support of each other with comments, sharing experiences. Have taken many online classes some good, others not so good, you do gain different experiences from the classes. Effective Instructors benefit by using instructional strategies, along with educational resources for guiding their learners to self-direction. (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011). P.S. how did you add the pictures?
David,
ReplyDeleteYour post is very interesting; education in and of itself helps build strong communities. Online education broadens the reach of education. I enjoyed your thoughts.