How do online learning communities significantly impact both student learning and satisfaction within online courses?
Online communities break the isolation a student may feel because there is a distance between the student and the professor (instructor). I know that when I first took online courses I was okay as long as I could teach myself the concepts but when a problem arose I had no physical professors’ office to go visit to get help with concepts I did not understand. There were also students that I could go to if I were at a traditional brick and mortar school. I could go to study groups or to group tutoring in order to get the help I needed on a Saturday afternoon or Wednesday night but that same dynamic does not exist in an online program. I am the teacher and the student. I have to teach myself the concepts that I do not understand. So an online community, I think can make a significant impact on student retention. Palloff and Pratt Laureate Education have a conversation where they talk about the students challenge one another and are able to draw things out of one another. Students also professionally support one another; they give feedback to one another.
What are the essential elements of online community building?
The students’ experiences that they bring with them have some bearing on how well the education process may go. Bottecher and Conrad talk about what learners bringing their own personalized and customized knowledge, skills and attitudes to the experience. Each member of the online community brings a wealth of experiences to the learning process. Instructors should be aware of this so that the curriculum can be adjusted if necessary.
The students have a professional responsibility to complete the assignments and communicate with the instructor in courteous and timely manner. Other essentials needed for online learning are people because without people there is no community but within that it’s not just people because people can be anywhere. It is how you bring them together for a purpose which is the online class then there is a process which is how you engage the learner in the online community building. The people have to be able to interact and develop social presence (Palloff & Pratt, Laureate Education). They also go on to say that there has to rules to how to interact in terms of how to respond to course threads; how many times one has to respond to classmates. . .
How can online communities be sustained?
What is the relationship between community building and effective online instruction?
The relationship between community and effective online instruction is that there has to be both components in order for the students to want to stay in a form of education where the professor is separated from the student by computer. In an effort to answer this question I went to the online library at Walden University and found an article to help explain why the relationship has to exist. What I found is that as institutions of higher education confront changing demographics, including an increasing number of second-career students juggling the demands of careers, families, and education, creative teaching strategies are needed to meet the needs of contemporary students (Hege 2011, p. 14). Hege goes on to say that professors who go from teaching in a traditional setting to teaching online have to change the way they teach in order to meet the needs of the students need for connectedness. Students connect differently online than in a face-to-face classroom. The professor who teaches online now has to utilize video clips, blogs, participate in threaded discussions in order to get students to participate. This also the way the professors get to know their student population.
References
Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Hege, B. R. (2011). The online theology classroom: Strategies for engaging a community of distance learners in a hybrid-model of online education. Teaching Theology & Religion, 14 (1), 13-20.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2010). Online learning communities [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu.
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education 5th edition. Pearson Boston, MA.
Angela,
ReplyDeleteLearning communities bridge the distance between the learners and the facilitator when created effectively, otherwise, it may increase the gap because of a failure in one of the central components of the learning community. You identified the need for the instructor to know how to teach online and not simply follow the same process of a traditional brick-and-mortar instructor. I think the same applies to the learner, he or she cannot attend an online course in the same fashion as a face-to-face classroom. Engaging with others enables a transition from physical distanced to a perceived closeness and exempliflies the idea of presence.
Isaac
Hi Isaac,
DeleteI agree with your statement that the students have a responsibility too because without my commitment there would be no course for me. But in order for me to feel the need to participate the instructor has to initially engage the student learner. Boettcher & Conrad 2010 also mention that the role of the instructor is establishing quick trust, promoting social presence; getting acquainted with learners' backgrounds (p. 10); and for the student to post get to know the fellow learners; familiarizing self with course goals and setting personal and customized objectives; testing and using the course tools. . .(p. 10). Boettcher & Conrad (2010) support your view point of both the student and facilitator have a job to do in securing a sucessful online community.
Thank you for sharing your points in my blog.
Angela
Boettcher, J. V. & Conrad, R. M. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. Jossey-Bass San Francisco, CA.
Angela,
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned "Online communities break the isolation a student may feel because there is a distance between the student and the professor (instructor). I know that when I first took online courses I was okay as long as I could teach myself the concepts but when a problem arose I had no physical professors’ office to go visit to get help with concepts I did not understand."
I totally agree with this--in most of my Walden classes my instructors have been very present and respond to questions posed in a timely manner. This is consistent with what Dr. Keith recommended in the Online Learning Communities video. However, there was one instructor in a recent course that was not present--he did not respond to email questions, didn't post grades for weeks, and even had students asking where he was. In this class, it was very frustrating because there was no way to get clarification since we couldn't meet with him F2F. I was glad to finish this course and hope I don't have this instructor again because as you said " in an online course the professor sets the tone for the course."
BTW, I really liked your use of graphics. I am going to try and incorporate more into my future blog posts (although it seems difficult to do that in Wordpress--but I'll try). Thanks.
Kim
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Kim,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your response to my post. I particularly enjoyed your personal experience because it shows that the instructor really does make the course.
There may be some really good activities that are interactive but without a facilitator (professor) to help steer the students it can be hard to want to do the assignment. I think it could be very discouraging to students new to the process. I am glad you made it through the course and are here in this one. Your experiences are going to enhance the learning. Boettcher and Conrad 2010 talk about learners bringing their own personalized and customized knowledge, skill, and attitudes to the learning experience (p. 23). What you have done in this response is to prove that this principle is so true.
Angela
Reference
Boettcher, J. V. & Conrad, R. M. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. Jossey-Bass San Francisco, CA.
Hi Angela!
ReplyDeleteWell, heck...your answer as to how learning communities could be sustained is far superior to my own. I froze a bit and did not answer very well but your inclusion of Web 2.0 tools is perfect! As active as I am on social media, I am disappointed that I did not think of this myself. Like you, I also felt painfully isolated as a new online student. I must admit that I still do miss the familiar brick and mortar environment, however, I think I am actually a better student...a better learner...in the online format. Great post, Angela!
Lorena~
Hi Lorena,
DeleteThank you for the kind words. I think we both did an exemplary job writing about importance of online communities.
We all use social media but not in conjunction with the courses we are taking at Walden; so it make perfectly good sense that as you were writing your blog posting web 2.0 tools did not come into play. I just happened to find an article with these tools and also I thought about other classes where we have had to develop wiki pages and use different methods to communicate with our fellow students.
Angela