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!! :-)
You can add @bwatwood when you start to tweet and I will be happy to join your community!
ReplyDeleteLinda, nice observations about community. In both the semester long faculty development for preparing to teach online and the year long online course development initiative at VCU, we give participants their own copy of Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt's excellent book: Building Online Learning Communities:
Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom. Most of it is available as a Google eBook.