Learning communities are defined as a group of people, usually consisting of students and faculty that explore content together in order to construct meaning and gain knowledge and to support and challenge each other academically (Pallof and Pratt, 2011).
Online communities significantly impacts both student learning and satisfaction within online courses in that it gives learners a better perception of learning, a feeling of being a part of something larger, and increases social pressures to succeed.
The elements essential to the building of an online community as discussed in the video are people, process, and purpose. I think that this is important because you cannot have a community let alone an online community without people. Also essential is social presence because it helps to define who the people are as they participate in the course. Next, you need to have purpose. The purpose for people coming together would be to take a course. Then there is process which is how and when the course is delivered. In addition to process, there is also method which is how the people/learners communicate within the course. Although not mentioned as an essential to building an online community, I’ve added the facilitator because you need someone to actually build and facilitate the course. There would be no course, purpose, and people without a facilitator.
Online learning communities can be sustained by keeping the learners engaged and participating in the course. They need to have activities and dialog that will provide continuous reflection, challenge, and support each other. This can be also be achieved by setting up Rules of Engagement which dictates how the learners will engage, how often they’re expected to participate, and how often the institution expects the students to participate.
References
Palloff, R. and Pratt, K.(2011). Online Learning Communities [Video]. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5089770&Survey=1&47=6354370&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1&BrswrOK=1&PrevRef=http%3A%2F%2Fsylvan.live.ecollege.com%2Fec%2Fcrs%2Fdefault.learn%3FCourseID%3D5089770%26Survey%3D1%2647%3D6354370%26ClientNodeID%3D984650%26coursenav%3D1&submit1=Continue
Hey there Yolanda,
ReplyDeleteI am following your blog again as well!! I wanted to let you know that I agree that we have to have a purpose for learning and our courses. If we are to become truly engaged we have to know why we are learning and then get involved in the learning community that we can assure new understanding and knowledge.
Hi Yolanda
ReplyDeleteYou’ve hit on all of the issues identified in this week’s reading and I’d like to know more about your opinion on the issue of social pressure. In particular, what is your personal take on the importance of social pressure for learning? For me, social pressure, like any other form of pressure, can be positive or negative. Some students are motivated by social pressure and others are not. One common strategy intended to facilitate social pressure is the posting of grades (individual or group). This strategy works for some and not for others.
Second, what strategies do you think will work best in an online environment to facilitate social pressure for increased learning and performance?
Rudy
Hi Yolanda,
ReplyDeleteI like your synopsis of how to sustain the online learning (OL) communities. I find that the idea of continuous engagement is a similarity in OL and ClassRoom (CR) learning. From my past CR learning experience I believe that historically that similarity has gone un-noticed.
We are beginning to see a shift in the CR learning approach to incorporate more of the OL learning strategies.. and I do believe that implementing the engagement and building communities, OL or CR will truly impact our future leaders!! Nice Blog Post. D
Hi Yolanda.
ReplyDeleteI think your post highlighted two important points for me. First, that the instructor is not just another person in the community. The instructor sets agenda for the community and it keeps the community focused on achieving the course objectives. The second is concept of social presence. Not only does this entail making regular comments, but also finding a way to project an online personality that community respects and enjoys.
I look forward to your continued presence as we build our community for this course.
Stephen