The value of online learning communities is in their collective exploration of the core subject ideas and adding layers upon layers of knowledge, experience, and meaning to the initial structure, thus mirroring the way human memory works and creating strong, deep, multifaceted, and easily retrievable knowledge constructions. Besides building strong collective knowledge base, online learning communities develop important human interaction qualities: the ability to collaborate, to help each other, to overcome shyness and passivity, to exert oneself for the good of one’s group, to analyze and evaluate each other’s thoughts and ideas, to co-create, improve, and crystallize meaning, to sympathize with one another, and to develop personal distinctive voice. It is the best way to learn online because belonging to a community learning the same subject helps to overcome a sense of isolation. It also improves overall student satisfaction because of developing sense of belonging and of growing social presence (it is much harder to ignore a fellow student and leave his/her post without reply when it is right there, in front of you, in black and white; whereas in the classroom, it is easy to forget about one’s quiet presence).
According to Dr. Palloff (Walden University, 2010), learning community needs five elements: people, purpose, process, method, and social presence. The three major ones are people, who come together for a common purpose and interact using a certain process. Additionally, they use some method of interaction, and it helps when people develop a social presence, that is, their recognizable online personality, which makes communication more natural and trustworthy. Another important element of an online community is following certain rules and guidelines to keep constructive communication going.
An instructor is critical for successful functioning of a learning community. S/he plays many roles in an online classroom. Facilitator monitors discussion making sure the learning is happening and conversation is going in the right direction; s/he is the one who makes final decisions and is flexible enough to customize the learning experience for a particular group, to be able to recognize valuable points in discussion, change gears and stir the conversation in a new, even unplanned, direction if it seems important (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010). In an online environment, the instructor should be on a more equal footing with the students because the learning community makes everyone a learner and a practitioner: everyone’s experience becomes a valuable contribution to the common bank of knowledge. The instructor is also a moderator responsible for making the online environment a safe place free of any sort of bias, intolerance, anger, bullying, and other offences. As Dr. Pratt says, the instructor holds the key to the whole online environment and it’s his/her responsibility to create a dynamic setting where students feel safe to be who they are and develop as learners to their fullest potential (Walden University, 2010). Even though, the instructor’s role is very significant, the online environment makes invisible all that work behind the scenes, which might make some student uncomfortable (Walden University, 2010); that means, the instructor should explain to the students at the beginning that s/he will be always there in the supporter’s role ready to jump in if needed.
If you take a traditional face-to-face class and bring it to an online environment, it won’t work: experience shows that the constructivist learning paradigm, where students are engaged with one another to explore and make meaning out of the course content, works best in an online setting (Walden University, 2010)—the instruction has to be more learner-centered, learners have to interact more with one another and be empowered to make some important decisions, have freedom to explore and address their own learning goals, be more responsible for their learning, and share their own experience with other members of their learning community. Building a community of actively engaged learners is directly related to the successful online instruction.
From the online video this week (Walden University, 2010), I learned about the importance of building an online learning community and the right way to build it, also, about all the roles the online instructor has to play to keep the communication going.
References:
Boettcher, J., & Conrad, R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Walden University. (Producer). (2010). Online learning communities. [Online]. Retrieved from Walden University eCollege
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