Building An Online Community

So, this was our first week online in ADLT640.  I found it challenging and motivating at the same time.  The ability to timelessly connect is liberating.  The ability to learn from peers is inspiring.  (If they can do it there is hope for me!)  It was perplexing at times – trying to type my thoughts and ideas and clearly communicate them.  Our schedules, not to mention Mother Nature’s designs, directly affected connectivity.  Assignments needed to be coordinated and broken into smaller tasks.  Tasks needed to be divided.  Choosing a format for our presentation proved problematic, only because there are so many choices of digital presentation media.  Overall, it was a good experience.  I like online learning.  I like the ability to peruse posts, formulate questions, and reflect.  I came away wondering how this virtual group work could be facilitated.  I believe our group was at an advantage, having met several times face to face.  What if I hadn’t known them at all?  Would our interactions have been different?  I believe so.  In order for any group to function effectively there has to be a level of trust.  Trust is difficult to establish in person, much more so in an online environment…unless it is planned well.  Additionally, roles, rules and norms need to be established – something we did collectively in the traditional setting.  As I did some reading on the subject, I kept coming across the need to build an online community.  This seems vital to facilitating interactions between teacher, students and content.  However, I had never thought of this component of eLearning.  I have pondered design, delivery, maintenance and assessment.  I guess I just assumed (yes, I know that is dangerous!) that community would follow.  Now, I think the online educator needs to be proactive in establishing “presence” and helping the students develop their own educational society.  I am beginning to see this ability to facilitate an online community as an art as well as an educational mission.  It takes technology and content knowledge PLUS the talent to manage students online.  I found this article, Online Facilitation: It’s Not Just For Geeks Anymore!, that you may find enlightening.  Dr. Watwood also put a link under week 3 course lessons to a set of excellent videos by UNSW Teaching Online, two of which speak on this topic of creating online communities:  Online Teamwork & Collaboration  and Engaging and Motivating Students.  The video below also gives excellent tips for using Web 2.0 applications in fostering students’ sense of online community and presence.  

p.s.  I guess this means I am going to have to learn to tweet!! :-)