scholarly journals Social presence in online learning communities: the role of personal profiles

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Kear ◽  
Frances Chetwynd ◽  
Helen Jefferis
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Online Learning Communities

Online communication is increasingly used in education, but it is not without problems. One significant difficulty is a lack of social presence. Social presence relates to the need for users of technology-based communication to perceive each other as real people. Low social presence can be a particular issue in text-based, asynchronous systems such as discussion forums, leading to feelings of impersonality and disengagement from online learning. Features of online communication systems have the potential to increase social presence. One possibility, advocated in the literature on online learning, is the use of personal profiles and photos to help participants to learn something about each other and feel more connected. This paper discusses the question: To what extent do personal profiles enhance social presence in online learning communities? It presents research findings from two studies which investigated learners’ use and perceptions of personal profiles in online forums. The findings suggest that personal profiles and photos help some online learners to feel in touch with each other. Other learners, however, do not feel the need for these facilities, have privacy concerns or prefer to focus on the forum postings.Keywords: personal profile; online community; learning community; social presence; distance learning(Published: 7 August 2014)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2014, 22: 19710 -http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v22.19710

scholarly journals Models to evaluate online learning communities of asynchronous discussion forums

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khe Foon Hew ◽  
Wing Sum Cheung
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Online Discussion Forums ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Geographical Locations

Recent developments in learning theory have emphasised the importance of context and social interaction. In this vein, the notion of a learning community is gaining momentum. With the advent of asynchronous online discussion forums, learning communities now need not be confined to any specific geographical locations, as people can now interact with one another at any place and time convenient to them. In this paper, we describe appropriate models that can evaluate these online learning communities. We examine pertinent issues including learner-learner interaction, learner-teacher interaction, the thinking skills of the learners, the levels of information processing exhibited by learners in the online discussion, and the roles played by the online moderator. A practical example is also provided to illustrate how these models can be used. Finally, we discuss some drawbacks related to each model and ways for overcoming them.

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.

Evaluation

2011 ◽  
pp. 186-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Bell ◽  
Elena Zaitseva ◽  
Danuta Zakrzewska
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities

Our emphasis in this chapter is on the sustainability of online educational communities, particularly the role that evaluation has to play in promoting sustainability. From the literature on online communities and evaluation of technology, we select and extend models of online community and technology acceptance that inform and enable the design and evaluation of sustainable online educational communities. Sustainability is a key issue that highlights the sociotechnical nature of these communities. Collaboration Across Borders is an online learning community that has received EU Socrates-Minerva funding to establish international collaboration between tutors and students and investigate sustainability of online learning communities. We present a case study of the development of the CAB community and its associated portal http://moodle.cabweb.net as a chronology of significant events. We then chart the evaluation process, using examples of tools and data to highlight the role of evaluation in the development of CABWEB and the sustainability of the CAB Community. Finally, we offer practical advice to those who wish to develop online learning communities, either small-scale collaborations between two groups of students or international networks of students and tutors.

scholarly journals Building Creative Critical Online Learning Communities through Digital Moments

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Barber
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Teaching Strategy ◽  
Problem Based Learning ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Pedagogical Strategy

This paper is a mixed methods case study measuring student perceptions of a pedagogical strategy called “Digital Moments” (DM) for developing creative interactive online learning communities. The theoretical framework within which this resides is the Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) model (vanOostveen et al, 2016), based on a foundation of problem‑based learning, cognitive and social presence, and learner‑centred pedagogies.The article reviews a specific teaching strategy for increasing social presence and student engagement through the use of creative and artistic expression in problem‑based learning spaces. Using “Digital Moments” as a way to build inclusion in two synchronous graduate online courses, the author describes how the teaching strategy increased student participation, developed student ownership of learning, and encouraged collaborative processes between participants. This teaching strategy makes a significant contribution to digital pedagogy. Although the growth of online learning is quite substantial, our ability to develop online communities that inspire critical and creative thinking has not kept pace. Traditional teacher‑centred learning environments do not meet the needs of students in today’s Fourth Industrial Revolution. As such, the FOLC model provides an online learning community model that removes traditional teacher‑learner roles, allows the instructor to act as a facilitator and challenges learners to co‑design and co‑create the learning process. Within this digital space, collaborative disruption is encouraged, and, in fact necessary for the types of critical and creative thinking to emerge that are central to the FOLC model. Digital Moments, is one example of a pedagogical strategy that enables learners to co‑create and own the digital learning space, within a fully online learning community.

Designing Online Learning Communities to Encourage Cooperation

2011 ◽  
pp. 102-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miranda Mowbray
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Antisocial Behavior ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
The Other ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Technical Architecture

This chapter is concerned with how to design an online learning community in such a way as to encourage cooperation, and to discourage uncooperative or antisocial behavior. Rather than restricting design to visual and interface issues, I take a wide view, touching on aspects of the governance, social structure, moderation practices, and technical architecture of online learning communities. The first half of the chapter discusses why people behave antisocially in online learning communities, and ways to discourage this through design. The second half discusses why on the other hand people behave cooperatively in online learning communities, and ways to encourage this through user-centered design, applying some results of experiments in social psychology. The chapter is intended to be of practical use to designers of online learning communities.

Fostering Collaboration in CSCL

2009 ◽  
pp. 335-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donatella Persico ◽  
Francesca Pozzi ◽  
Luigi Sarti
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Collaborative Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Computer Supported Collaborative Learning ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Social

Some collaborative learning strategies widely used in face-to-face settings can also be adapted to online contexts. They allow us to master the complex relations between members of large, heterogeneous online learning communities. The authors build on their experience in the application of some of the most well-known strategies and techniques used in online courses, such as jigsaw, peer review, role-play, case study, and brainstorming. The use of these strategies in computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments and the related models describing the social structure of the learning community is discussed in the attempt to highlight their strengths and weaknesses and investigate the conditions for their applicability. The aim is to inform the design and the management of online learning communities.

Online Learning Community

2011 ◽  
pp. 1506-1511
Author(s):  
Michelle M. Kazmer
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Collaborative Culture ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Computer Mediated

The study and implementation of online learning communities emerges from two approaches related to the idea of “community.” The first approach was how people began to think about learning community, but not restricted to online settings. Learning community incorporates the idea of a cohesive, collaborative culture among members with the purpose of supporting individual learning by facilitating shared knowledge creation. The idea of a learning community, and its importance for improving learning, pre-dated most online learning, and the focus was on building communitiesto support learning regardless of setting. The second approach was that people began to inquire whether it was possible to build community online, but not for purposes restricted to learning. The idea that true community was possible via computer-mediated communication (CMC) was, and still is, contentious. However, as the years have passed since this question first emerged, the idea that community can be formed online has been increasingly accepted.

scholarly journals The emergence of an online learning community in first year tertiary studies in psychology

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale Holt ◽  
Mary Rice ◽  
Christine Armatas
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
First Year ◽  
Older Students ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
And Function ◽  
Discussion Postings

The introduction of an online supported, resource based learning environment into a large, multi-modal first year psychology unit led to the spontaneous development of a small, but active, learning community. While off campus students were more active online contributors, many other students “observed” these interactions, not actively contributing but finding the discussion postings valuable to their learning. Overall, use and perceived value of the online communication facilities were related to how confident students were that they had an appropriate study strategy, with off campus and older students reporting greater confidence in their study approach. The results highlight that the nature and function of learning communities for large, multi-modal foundation units are quite different to those typically articulated in the literature and are worth further investigation.

Emergence of a New Identity

2011 ◽  
pp. 107-130
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
The Self ◽  
Online Environment ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Online Learning Communities

Online learning communities are created and sustained by a collective sense of we-ness. There are many factors however, that influence the development of the community. Cyber educators may use digitally mediated communications (DMC) that are synchronous or asynchronous to promote social presence and connectedness within the online environment. The identity of the self as well as the identity of the group must be developed in order for knowledge to be co-constructed by the group and for trust to be established. Often times, however, a new self identity emerges as part of the process.

Hybridizing Online Learning with External Interactivity

2010 ◽  
pp. 24-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Morrow ◽  
Richard G. Bagnall
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Online Professional Development ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
On Line ◽  
External Learning ◽  
On Line Learning

One approach to hybrid learning is to hybridize online learning through recognizing and including external interactivity. This chapter examines that possibility. After reviewing the nature of interactivity and individual learner experience in online learning communities, it presents a recent study of interactivity in online professional development learning by practising teachers. From that study emerges the importance and scope of external interactivity between the learner and his or her local community of colleagues, friends, and family in a learning community beyond the traditional online class. Building on that case study, and indications from the literature that its implications may be generalizable, the chapter suggests ways in which external interactivity can be recognized and included in the online learning environment – as a way of hybridizing on-line learning through its inclusion of learners’ interactive engagements in the external learning communities that they bring to their studies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document