Week 1: Online Learning Community Impact

 

The significance of an online community for the effectiveness of an online course and the student’s satisfaction is the connection it offers to others who have like interests.  Often a student can feel isolated, alone, and hesitant to reach out to fellow students when starting as a novice to online learning.  Although social media is commonly used to share information recreationally, making professional connections can be intimidating.  Establishing a community for peer students to discuss relevant topics studied provides exposure beyond a single class.

The essential elements of building an online community are people, purpose, process, platform, and presence (Producer, 2010).  All great communities are connected by a common purpose that attracts the interest of other like-minded people who want to learn more or share thoughts using a reliable platform.  The platform must be accessible and user-friendly to consistently exchange provocative ideas to sustain a constant online presence.  Lessons learned from engaged activity stimulate memory retention (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011).

Facilitators serve as guides to provoke conversations, create interactive activities, and encourage networking connections.  Facilitators who serve as role models to demonstrate preferred behavior must establish rules of engagement.  The community must also support best practice knowledge transfer and critical thinking discussion to encourage problem-solving (Boettcher & Conrad, 2016).

 

Reference

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2016). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips (2nd ed.).San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2011).  Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction (Updated ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Laureate Education (Producer).  (2010).  Online learning communities [Video file].