Online learning incorporates computer-mediated exchanges, typically seen as less intimate and having less social presence. This situation poses a challenge for both learners and educators. All the participants need instructional strategies for transforming a cohort into a community in online learning for the learning experience to be more effective. The formation of a community has effects on developing learner engagement.
Everyone agrees that education is a social activity that requires interaction. The physical classroom has traditionally been where cooperative learning activities occur. However, this is no longer the only case with the development of technology. Several other digital communities’ success demonstrates how communities may exist outside physical environments and still involve active people.
Discussion Forums
It is a challenging undertaking that affects designers, facilitators, and participants to construct the ideal atmosphere for online communities. To encourage learners to perceive their practice in a new light, the goal is to foster a community that promotes and participates in dialogue and discussion. Discussion forums are great tools for achieving this objective.
Discussion forums can be both synchronous and asynchronous, but they are mostly the latter. Participants in asynchronous discussions have the chance to consider their writing before uploading it as well as the input of their peers while composing their own. Discussion forums in an online course often foster a culture of reflection and an appropriate level of mindfulness among the learners.
Peer Reviews
Collaborative learning can either be process-oriented or product oriented. This activity is more of the former. Process-oriented collaboration frequently entails sharing and discussing concepts relevant to the course material that might not produce an outcome. It involves students in a planned discussion about a course topic which in this case is their output.
Aside from cultivating student engagement and community, peer reviews enhance students’ writing and analytical skills. This activity enables the students to assess their work. By evaluating their classmates’ work, the learners can help them understand difficult things to figure out or discover entirely new things.
Group Activities
Using computers to facilitate communication promoted experimentation, idea sharing, widespread engagement, and collaborative thinking. However, for online learning to be effective, there needs to be a supportive and structured social atmosphere that encourages peer interaction. Instructional designers must consider the best activities they can incorporate into their courses to achieve this goal.
Group activities like case studies, project works, and collaborative text analysis are just some of the examples an instructor can utilize to foster learner engagement in the classroom. A viral tweet about how he shared the class syllabi as a Google Doc with the students having the privilege to comment became a game changer in his class. A “virtual arena for collaborative learning” is created when the students are asked to share the concepts and sources they need for the course. This outcome supports the study of Abdelmalak that Google Docs and wikis are Web 2.0 technologies that “had the most impact on students’ sense of a learning community in the course.”
Breakout Rooms
This is one of the most famous strategies by instructors in online learning to prompt a discussion among their students to increase learner engagement. This activity is commonly done in a synchronous class with the instructor’s chosen platform. The class is divided into smaller groups where they will exchange ideas, consult conflicts, and ask questions for a certain amount of time. This activity is ideal for those who are not comfortable in larger groups.
Breakout rooms provide similar benefits to discussion forums. The main difference lies when it is conducted synchronously with the camera opened. Aside from words, students can see the facial reactions and gestures of the individual they are discussing, which can increase their familiarity as classmates. Social presence is essential for building online communities as the foundation for authentic interpersonal interaction and relationships that allow learners to exchange information during the learning process.
References:
Abdelmalak, M. M. M. (2015). Web 2.0 Technologies and Building Online Learning Communities: Students’ Perspectives. Online Learning, 9(2). Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1062942.
Faja, S. (2013). Collaborative learning in online courses: Exploring students’ perceptions . Information Systems Education Journal (ISEDJ), 11(3), 42–51. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1145013.pdf
Ryman, S., Burrell, L., Hardham, G., Richardson, B., & Ross, J. (2009). Creating and sustaining online learning communities: Designing for transformative learning. International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning, 5(3), 32–45. https://doi.org/10.5172/ijpl.5.3.32
Swan, K. (2002). Building Learning Communities in online courses: The importance of interaction. Education, Communication & Information, 2(1), 23–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/1463631022000005016
Key Elements of Building Online Community: Comparing Faculty and Student Perceptions. (2007). MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 3(3). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255006755_Key_Elements_of_Building_Online_Community_Comparing_Faculty_and_Student_Perceptions
Wang, M., Sierra, C., & Folger, T. (2003). Building a dynamic online learning community among adult learners. Educational Media International, 40(1-2), 49–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/0952398032000092116