STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF AN INTERDISCIPLINARY POP-UP LEARNING COMMUNITY ON CLIMATE CHANGE

With advances in communication technology and online pedagogy, virtual learning communities have become rich learning environments in which individuals construct knowledge and learn from others. Typically, individuals in virtual learning communities interact by exchanging information and sharing knowledge and experiences with others as communities. The team at the Virtual Learning Community Research Laboratory has employed an array of methods, including social network analysis (SNA), to examine and describe different virtual learning communities. The goal of the study was to employ mixed methods to explore whether the content of students’ interaction reflected the fundamental elements of community. SNA techniques were used to analyse ties and relationships among individuals in a network with the goal of understanding patterns of interactions among individuals and their activities, and interviews were conducted to explore features and student perceptions of their learning community.

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Using Gagné's Events of Instruction to Analyze Online Course Quality

Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, Second Edition ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-198-8.ch330 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 2231-2238 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marc R. Robinson

Keyword(s):

Instructional Design ◽

Online Education ◽

Learning Community ◽

Student Perceptions ◽

Course Design ◽

Online Courses ◽

Online Course ◽

Design Quality ◽

Course Quality ◽

Events Of Instruction

Student perceptions of online courses are likely influenced by two overarching aspects of quality: instructor quality and course design quality (Ortiz-Rodriguez, Telg, Irani, Roberts & Rhoades, 2005). Both of these forces in online education may be analyzed using a well-known model of instructional design - Gagnés instructional design and cognition theory, the centerpiece of which are the nine events of instruction (Gagné, Wager, Golas, & Keller, 2004). Multiple studies positively correlate learner attitudes and perceptions of the online course to instructor quality. Early studies evaluating instructor quality attempted to correlate instructor quality with the attitude and perception of the learner, but not directly to learner success or course design quality. Researchers of online courses, such as Palloff & Pratt (2003), discussed the role of the instructor in depth while neglecting the roles of the learner, the institution, and course design. The main focus remained instructor-centered, and highlighted key instructor tasks such as understanding the virtual learner in terms of roles the learner plays, fostering team roles for the learner, designing an effective course orientation, and identifying potential legal issues the instructor might face (Palloff & Pratt, 2002, p. 16). A distant secondary focus was on effective course design. This highlighted instructor tasks in building an effective online learning community without highlighting the roles effective communication tools would play.

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Teaching in Stormy Weather

Pedagogy Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature Language Composition and Culture ◽

10.1215/15314200-7615468 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

pp. 513-517

Author(s):

Shawna Ross

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Learning Community ◽

Heat Waves ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Weather Patterns ◽

Weather Events ◽

Oak Trees ◽

Event Attribution ◽

Adverse Weather ◽

Stormy Weather

This article considers the pedagogical implications of climate change and other environmental catastrophes of the Anthropocene, the new geological epoch identified by climate scientists. In the Anthropocene, the human species has become the most significant force shaping Earth’s geosphere and is responsible for a number of anxiety-producing effects beyond the rise of global temperatures. As erratic weather patterns and extreme weather events have increased, climatologists have been perfecting new methods of single-event attribution capable of linking particular adverse weather events (including droughts, heat waves, flooding tornadoes, and hurricanes) directly to climate change. To provide a concrete example of those universal trends, the author applies her experiences in teaching in Texas, which is strongly marked by long-term forces of anthropogenic environmental devastation (such as the northward migration of the oak trees and alterations in the lithosphere caused by oil extraction). It has also been impacted by hurricanes, floods, and freezes that delayed the onset of the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 semesters and, in many cases, damaged or destroyed her students’ homes at Texas A&M. The article recounts the strategies that her learning community used to adjust to these exigencies and then offers suggestions for adapting these strategies to other locales.

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The Collective Learning Community for Climate Change Adaptation in Mauche Ward of Njoro Sub-county, Kenya

Universal Journal of Agricultural Research ◽

10.13189/ujar.2017.050212 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 164-175

Author(s):

Taiy Rael Jepkemei ◽

Onyango Christpher ◽

Nkurumwa Agnes ◽

Ngetich Kibet ◽

Birech Rhoda ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Learning Community ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Collective Learning

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Perceptions of the Persistent: Engagement and Learning Community in Underrepresented Populations

Online Learning ◽

10.24059/olj.v22i2.1368 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Wendy Athens

Keyword(s):

Learning Community ◽

Students With Disabilities ◽

Student Perceptions ◽

Positive Relationship ◽

Public Institution ◽

Pell Grant ◽

Underrepresented Populations ◽

Online Learners ◽

Minority Males ◽

Strong Positive Relationship

In an effort to characterize perceptions of learning community and engagement in relation to success for underrepresented populations of online learners at a public institution in southeastern United States, a survey was conducted in Spring 2016. The results of the survey were paired with institutional data to create a baseline engagement and learning community profile for the online student population, which comprised 22% of total enrollments. The subpopulations of interest were: Age, gender, race/ethnicity, disability, Pell grant eligibility, first-generation, and orphan. For all students, a very strong positive relationship was observed between student perceptions of engagement and learning community and student outcomes (grades). This strong and positive relationship was confirmed across the subpopulations, but there were a few noteworthy exceptions: Hispanic and Black students were more engaged than Whites, but earned lower grades. Younger students and students with disabilities were less engaged than their counterparts, but earned equivalent grades. These patterns corresponded to withdrawal statistics, which revealed a higher percentage of young minority males withdrawing from online courses.

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Student Perceptions of Various E-Learning Components

10.28945/3204 ◽

2008 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Nicole Buzzetto-More

Keyword(s):

Learning Community ◽

Historically Black ◽

Student Perceptions ◽

Learning Experiences ◽

Course Content ◽

Historically Black University ◽

Online Submission ◽

E Learning ◽

Electronic Technologies ◽

Comprehensive Study

Learning that is facilitated by electronic technologies, otherwise known as e-Leaming, can be either fully online, mixed mode (also known as hybrid), or web assisted; however, regardless of the delivery method, there are numerous tools and features at the disposal of students and instructors, and it is important for the e-learning community to examine both preferences and usage of these features. This paper presents the findings of a comprehensive study that examined the elearning perceptions and preferences of students enrolled at a historically black university. During this study a series of courses were specially designed to be intensive hybrid learning experiences. The Blackboard CE 6 Course Management System was adopted and paper-less learning experiences created. The results of the analysis indicate that students find course Websites to be helpful resources that enhance the understanding of course content, and that these Websites will continue to have an impact on higher education in the future. The examination of individual e-learning components indicated that students responded favorably to most available features. The strongest preference noted in this study was towards the online submission of assignments, with students overwhelmingly noting that they like having the ability to check their assignment grades online.

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