Using Biographical Prompts to Build Community in an Online Graduate Course: An Adult Learning Perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy D. Lohr ◽  
Karen J. Haley
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Graduate Course ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Higher Education ◽  
Community Recommendations

Adult learners are taking advantage of the availability and convenience of online education. Mature learners in online higher education classrooms bring a wealth of experience filtered through cultural, generational, and socioeconomical differences. The purpose of this research was to explore community building in an online graduate course by tapping learners’ prior experience using an autobiographical memory exercise. The authors found that building social presence through course design contributed to increased communication and learning and encouraged an active and engaged online learning community. Recommendations for improving online learning communities provide educators with ideas for practice.

Connecting Communication to Curriculum and Pedagogy in Online Environments

2018 ◽  
pp. 1501-1525
Author(s):  
Marius Boboc
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Instructional Strategies ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Mediated Learning ◽  
Online Chat ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Grading Policy ◽  
Communicative Patterns ◽  
Communication Dynamics

This chapter relies on the analysis of communicative patterns, discursive sequences, and instructional strategies featured in an entirely online graduate level course featuring a combination of compulsory and optional chat sessions. Findings emphasize the use of communication dynamics to promote social presence and socially-mediated learning in online learning communities, which, for the purpose of this research project, are represented by the required synchronous discussions used in class. Recommendations focus on employing a flexible pedagogy that takes into account student characteristics, appropriate instructional and technological tools and strategies, course cadence or pace, creating and maintaining an online learning community, as well as clear and engaging communication. Further considerations relate to ensuring the identification of specific purposes for online chat sessions, their integration into the entire set of instructional strategies and resources, clear procedures for online discussion topic selection, and the associated grading policy.

Connecting Communication to Curriculum and Pedagogy in Online Environments

2016 ◽  
pp. 315-338
Author(s):  
Marius Boboc
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Instructional Strategies ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Mediated Learning ◽  
Online Chat ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Grading Policy ◽  
Communicative Patterns ◽  
Communication Dynamics

This chapter relies on the analysis of communicative patterns, discursive sequences, and instructional strategies featured in an entirely online graduate level course featuring a combination of compulsory and optional chat sessions. Findings emphasize the use of communication dynamics to promote social presence and socially-mediated learning in online learning communities, which, for the purpose of this research project, are represented by the required synchronous discussions used in class. Recommendations focus on employing a flexible pedagogy that takes into account student characteristics, appropriate instructional and technological tools and strategies, course cadence or pace, creating and maintaining an online learning community, as well as clear and engaging communication. Further considerations relate to ensuring the identification of specific purposes for online chat sessions, their integration into the entire set of instructional strategies and resources, clear procedures for online discussion topic selection, and the associated grading policy.

Connecting Communication to Curriculum and Pedagogy in Online Environments

2014 ◽  
pp. 132-156
Author(s):  
Marius Boboc
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Instructional Strategies ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Mediated Learning ◽  
Online Chat ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Grading Policy ◽  
Communicative Patterns ◽  
Communication Dynamics

This chapter relies on the analysis of communicative patterns, discursive sequences, and instructional strategies featured in an entirely online graduate level course featuring a combination of compulsory and optional chat sessions. Findings emphasize the use of communication dynamics to promote social presence and socially-mediated learning in online learning communities, which, for the purpose of this research project, are represented by the required synchronous discussions used in class. Recommendations focus on employing a flexible pedagogy that takes into account student characteristics, appropriate instructional and technological tools and strategies, course cadence or pace, creating and maintaining an online learning community, as well as clear and engaging communication. Further considerations relate to ensuring the identification of specific purposes for online chat sessions, their integration into the entire set of instructional strategies and resources, clear procedures for online discussion topic selection, and the associated grading policy.

Building a Dynamic Online Learning Community among Adult Learners

2003 ◽  
Vol 40 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 49-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minjuan Wang ◽  
Christina Sierra ◽  
Terre Folger
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Community

scholarly journals A Proposed Framework for the Growth of Online Learning Communities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nevine Mahmoud Fayek El Souefi
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Emotional Engagement ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

AbstractThe abrupt shift to full online learning due to COVID-19, displaced students and teachers, created multiple barriers in teaching and learning, and caused some instructors not being able to build and maintain an online learning community. This situation resulted in students’ detachment from their instructor and peers causing lack of motivation and increase of failure chances. First the paper explores the challenges and opportunities of building and online learning community highlighting the needs, and reviewes some past frameworks in the field. Second, a framework is proposed that identifies four factors that help the growth of online learning communities. Those facots are; teacher presence, social presence, cognitive presence and students’ emotional engagement. Further the framework  specifies type of actions and activities that teachers/instructors should be adopting throughout the course.  The paper adds to the growing knowledge on Coronavirus effects on the educational sector and highlights the need for the efficeint use of technology in education.

scholarly journals Emotional Presence in Building an Online Learning Community Among Non-traditional Graduate Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Jiang ◽  
Katie Koo
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Cognitive Presence ◽  
Teaching Presence ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Students Satisfaction

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework posits that a collaborative online teaching and learning process can be achieved through three interdependent dimensions of presence: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. Emotion is considered an important factor in successful online learning. This study explored non-traditional graduate students’ perceived emotional presence that emerged in participants’ online learning experiences. Based on quantitative and qualitative data from 45 non-traditional graduate students in the field of education, the study showed that participants demonstrated both positive emotional expressions (e.g., enjoyment and happiness) and negative expressions (e.g., frustration and disappointment) in their responses. Emotional presence ratings were found be significantly lower than cognitive, teaching, and social presence ratings. Emotions serving different functions were also identified in responses. Direct affectiveness surfaced where participants showed a strong emotional need to make connections with instructors and peers. Outcome emotions were also identified where participants showed emotional responses in regard to their eventual learning outcome. We also found emotional presence by itself a significant predictor of non-traditional graduate students’ satisfaction with online learning. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

scholarly journals Distributed Construction through Participatory Design

2005 ◽  
pp. 902-906
Author(s):  
Panayiotis Zaphiris ◽  
Andrew Laghos ◽  
Giorgos Zacharia
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Design Team ◽  
Online Learning Community

This article presents an empirical study of an online learning community that collaborates with the course design team under the Participatory Design methodology. The different phases of this methodology were implemented using a four-stage participatory design process (Zaphiris & Zacharia, 2001).

Influence of psychological safety and social presence on knowledge sharing behavior in higher education online learning environment

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Putra Endi Catyanadika ◽  
Jay Rajasekera
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Online Learning Environment ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The absence of physical interactions in online learning environment brings psychological influences on learning participants in interacting and sharing knowledge with others, such as ignorance of other member’s presence and insecurity to share something in online environment. The purpose of this research was to examine the knowledge sharing behavior (KSB) by online learning community members in terms of their psychological safety (PS) and social presence (SP) perceptions. In addition, this research also identified the influence of PS to promote SP and the mediation impact of SP in the relationships between PS and KSB. Design/methodology/approach The data were gathered through self-administered questionnaire distributed to 133 online class members at a university in Indonesia where online learning has created a new learning experience. To represent key behavioral attributes, 12 items were used to represent PS, SP and KSB. The relationships among the variables were analyzed using the structural equation modelling method. Findings The result showed that PS positively influenced SP and KSB. SP also brought a positive impact on promoting KSB and fully mediated the relationship between PS and KSB. Research limitations/implications The result may not have fully captured the reflection of the influencing factors of KSB, as this research focused only on two psychological factors, namely, PS and SP. The research may be further enriched by including additional factors and expanding the data collection to include more online learning institutions. Practical implications The results implied the importance of PS and SP perception to promoting KSB in online learning environments. The results highlighted an important message to universities and schools to be more concerned on students’ feeling safe personally and students’ awareness of others’ presence to maximize knowledge sharing activities in online class environment. Originality/value This paper revealed the importance of PS and SP to promote KSB in the higher education online learning community. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first study to link PS and SP to KSB and identify the importance of the mediation effect of SP on the relationship between PS and KSB specifically in higher education online learning environment.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document