"It's so much more friendly with two" ..............Winnie the Pooh

BUILDING ONLINE COMMUNITIES
(many of the links and text on this page are taken from the T3 WebCT Trainer Certification online course)

 
Need Help with this Module?

Contact the author or Cambrian Online

Questions to ask yourself before you leave this module:

• What is an ALN? (hint: It stands for Asynchronous Learning Network)
• How are student and instructor roles changing?
• Which online technologies will be the most effective, or comfortable, for you?
• When is it a good idea to NOT use certain online technologies?
• What strategies can YOU use to build online communities with your students? And colleagues?
• What tips from current practitioners could you try? Here are some of mine that have have worked.

How Roles of Online Students & Teachers are Changing

Creating Community Online (March/April 1999) by Solloway and Harris offer their experience with student expectations and professorial commitment to learner-centered communities as the challenge to become engaged in the Information Age presents itself. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/erm99021.html

Concerns of Instructors Delivering Distance Learning via the WWW (Fall 1998) by Wilson shares data collected from 71 online instructors relevant to faculty concerns and needs for the delivery of online learning.  These needs include: technical training, technical support, administrative support, time for faculty to develop and teach these courses, a revised faculty reward system, and reliable computer hardware. http://www.westga.edu/~distance/wilson13.html

Asynchronous Learning Networks: A Sloan Foundation Perspective (March 1997) by Frank Mayadas describes some projects at institutions of higher education funded by the Sloan Foundation.  It identifies some early results and the possible evolution of ALN's to large scale implementations. http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/issue1/mayadas.htm

What Researchers are Finding that Works
 

Klemm's (1998) "Eight Ways To Get Students More Engaged in Online Conferences":

1. Require participation 
2. Form learning teams 
3. Make the activity interesting 
4. Don't settle for just opinions 
5. Structure the activity 
6. Require a hand-in assignment 
7. Know what you are looking for and involve yourself to make it happen 
8. Peer grading 

An Integrated Technology Adoption and Diffusion Model http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A2640.cfm

Through our evaluations of several educational technology initiatives, especially the Boulder Valley Internet Project (Sherry, Lawyer-Brook and Black 1997; Sherry 1997), we found that teachers generally go through four distinct stages as they develop expertise with the Internet and the World Wide Web. Our Integrated Technology Adoption and Diffusion Model (Sherry 1998; Sherry 1999) describes a learning and adoption trajectory. In other words, a cyclic process in which teachers evolve from learners (teacher-trainees) to adopters of educational technology, to co-learners/co-explorers with their students in the classroom and, finally, to a reaffirmation/rejection decision.

 It is at this final stage that teachers decide whether the use of telecommunications to enhance teaching and learning is working for them. Is the use of telecommunications contributing to their self-efficacy as teachers? Is it compatible with their personal vision of learning, and worth the time and effort that they have put into mastering  a new set of skills?

At each of these four stages, there are professional development strategies that work. For example, training may be more appropriate once an "advertising campaign" that informs teachers, parents and administrators about student successes and promising educational practices using technology in the classroom is in place. Learning communities can also be more easily formed at later stages.

 

"Going Beyond Content" with Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

by Dr. David Pedergrass and Problem Based Learning (student centered/faculty facilitated)http://edweb.sdsu.edu/clrit/learningtree/PBL/WhatisPBL.html

The WebCT Community

 
  The e-Learning Hub 

WebCT sponsors a dynamic e-Learning Hub filled with information, newsletters, the latest research on distance education, online learning and much more. Communities of professionals, including faculty from every discipline,  instructional designers, computer programmers, graphic artists, an students come together to share ideas about teaching and course development. 

Personal Tips from the Field for Building Online Communities

• If possible, have your course populated with students before the course starts, then get the message to them (maybe announce in a colleagues’ class at end of semester), and invite them to “take a look” and pose their early questions, suggestions or concerns in the discussion area. At the very least, you’ll see who’s lurking and who’s posting! 
• Get permission from previous students to showcase their posts (compile and omit names if necessary) where previous topic threads were active and “alive” as examples of what went on, and what you expected.
• Allow guest account and discussion participation in your other courses, if the host students don’t mind. Then encourage your students to “visit” students in your other course(s). 
• To help everyone learn names, host a chat session in which pairs of students introduce each other to the class. This will need to be preceded by an assignment or online exercise where students exchange email bio’s or visit each other’s Student Homepage. You can pair students manually to avoid the “last one picked” dilemma. Odd number of students? You join in.
• Use the syllabus page or a link to your personal homepage to include information about yourself. Include pictures, maybe one of you participating in your favorite sport or hobby OUTSIDE of academia, a family shot, or something humorous.
• Before conducting the first course survey (of three), I insist students visit my homepage and take a look at the results of previous surveys. They learn more about me, my goals, and sometimes they discover an item I overlooked on a previous survey. 
• At the beginning of a Chat session, I always go over the “rules”. No interrupting. “Stop talking please” means that. “Stand by” means that person is  thinking or composing, don’t keep “talking” to them. If there are several visitors at a time, type the person’s name at the beginning of your post, so students know who you’re talking to. 
• Ask someone to be the timekeeper and post a 10, 5 and 2-minute warning. Then be prepared to wrap things up.