The online learning community has impacted my life in a positive way. In the past two years I have learned what distance learning can be, whereas in the past I had only seen a class at a time and not much in the way of collaboration toward learning from others.
Online learning communities significantly impact student learning by allowing students to take courses at their own pace, work from home, and carry a career while working in a distance course. An online learning community can satisfy the needs of individuals by allowing students the opportunity to take their time formulating their thoughts before responding to questions, and allowing for all students to respond to each questions. Personally, when I am in a face-to-face setting, I find that there always seems to be the student with the quickest response time that speaks the most in class. In an online setting everyone participates.
The essential elements in an online learning community are collaboration with reflection of learning, sticking to the objective, "learner-to-learner engagement" (Laureate Education, 2010), instructor as the facilitator and a well-designed course. As stated by the experts in Laureate Education (2010) it is the responsibility of all the people in the environment, students and instructor, to continue the collaboration in the community. This really hit home for me. This puts the ownership of the learning on the learner, instead of putting the responsibility on the teacher.
An online learning community can be sustained by "assuring the people in the community can interact" (Laureate Education, 2010). It is important to keep the collaborative learning going and build one piece of learning off the other. I like that Walden University courses start with a small piece of information at the start and builds through an eight week course, making each week more and more in depth with that same information. Not all schools do that, believe it or not. Some schools bounce around with all types of information and do not stick to an objective.
The relationship between community building and effective online instruction is important within the first two weeks, according to Laureate Education (2010). Building community by having the students get to know each other and letting them know the instructor cares within the first couple weeks is imperative. Getting to know your students is very important! I think in an online learning community it is even more important to have students share, since there is no way to see them and hear them. Having students share is the best way to know how to group them later on in the course and the find out who the students are. Laureate Education (2010) discusses the importance of orientation course. Whether it is through an orientation course, a blog post, a discussion post, email, etc. I think any introductory paragraph where the instructor states a clear picture of what needs to be in the paragraph (background, career, family, etc.) is enough. This will set the expectation and assure students put more than "hello, my name is..." as a one liner.
I truly feel that Walden University is the reason that I have learned what I know now about collaboration in an online learning community. I know that in the past all I did in online courses was read a little from a text or online reading and take a quiz as many times as I wanted until I passed it. That was not real learning. Collaboration is! Working with other learners is learning.
I find that lately I have been able to come away with information to help me become a better instructor. This week's assignment has taught me that skipping the orientation course or introductory session of the course would be a huge mistake for me and my students as a future online instructor or course designer.
Resources
Laureate Education (Producer). (2010). Online learning communities [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Dear Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteWhat a coherent and engaging post, thank you for sharing your personal perspective as well as academic thought. I totally agree that in a traditional F2F setting, students often find themselves in a situation where they either win (supposing, by dominating a discussion or a whole class) or lose (if they fall prey to the ‘carnivorous’ domineering classmates). In an online learning setting, each situation is more of a win-win type.
I also admire your mentioning the importance of getting to know your students and letting them know who you are. I am convinced that engaging students to participate in a fashion that goes beyond the purely academic discourse is a potent means of combating plagiarism and, more broadly, academic dishonesty. Another point that you mention – “build[ing] one piece of learning off the other” (Hogg, September 4, 2015, para.3)- is one more piece of good advice for those who formulate an institution’s anti-plagiarism strategy.
As for an orientation course or an informative introduction, I am sure, it is a must, as it helps “students understand the context of the learning experience” (Simonson et al, 2012, p.156). Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2012) focus on the three types of context as identified by Morrison, Ross, and Kemp, with each of the contexts serving “a particular purpose for the learner” (p.157):
1) “the orienting context refers to the students’ reasons for being in a course” (p.157);
2) “instructional context addresses the learning environment” (p.157);
3) “transfer context refers to the way in which the knowledge will be used by students. It is critical when planning that the instructor considers what information is important so the students will relate it to work or school application” (p.157).
I think, an orientation course also helps to reduce the student-instructor distance, while an introduction helps to reduce both student-instructor and student-student distance.
Thank you, Jennifer, for your thought-provoking talk,
Marina
References
Hogg, J. (September 4, 2015). Online Learning Communities [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://jennymariehogg2.blogspot.ru/2015/09/online-learning-communities.html
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Thanks for your intro. You made some insightful comments about the significance of community building, and I appreciate your acknowledgement of the importance of engaging with a course orientation and introductory assignments.
ReplyDeleteHello Jenny, great blog post. You stated "The relationship between community building and effective online instruction is important within the first two weeks, according to Laureate Education (2010)." I also read this and in thinking back to the courses I have taken, the first couple weeks really set the tone for the course.
ReplyDeleteYou also stated " Having students share is the best way to know how to group them later on in the course and the find out who the students are." Again I agree with this statement, a collaborative work environment is a great place to learn. Also glad to see that you feel this program at Walden has helped you.
Derrick