Creating Online Community

2018 ◽  
pp. 368-387
Author(s):  
Mats Deutschmann
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Collaborative Environment ◽  
Learning Contexts

The challenges in creating a collaborative environment for online learning are great. This chapter describes some practical examples of community building in online learning contexts and discusses the effects of such activities. It draws its data from six years of online courses in English at Mid Sweden University, where the author was employed from 2003-2009 and worked with development and implementation of their Internet course program.

Creating Online Community

2014 ◽  
pp. 86-111
Author(s):  
Mats Deutschmann
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Collaborative Environment ◽  
Learning Contexts

The challenges in creating a collaborative environment for online learning are great. This chapter describes some practical examples of community building in online learning contexts and discusses the effects of such activities. It draws its data from six years of online courses in English at Mid Sweden University, where the author was employed from 2003-2009 and worked with development and implementation of their Internet course program.

scholarly journals Keeping Up with the Trends: Analyzing the Dynamics of Online Learning and Hiring Platforms in the Software Programming Domain

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramtin Yazdanian ◽  
Robert West ◽  
Pierre Dillenbourg
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
Stack Overflow ◽  
Questions And Answers ◽  
Learning Platforms ◽  
The Right

AbstractThe Fourth Industrial Revolution has considerably sped up the pace of skill changes in many professional domains, with scores of new skills emerging and many old skills moving towards obsolescence. For these domains, identifying the new necessary skills in a timely manner is a difficult task, where existing methods are inadequate. Understanding the process, by which these new skills and technologies appear in and diffuse through a professional domain, could give training providers more time to identify these new skills and react. For this purpose, in the present work, we look at the dynamics between online learning platforms and online hiring platforms in the software programming profession, a rapidly evolving domain. To do so, we fuse four data sources together: Stack Overflow, an online community questions and answers (Q&A) platform; Google Trends, which provides online search trends from Google; Udemy, a platform offering skill-based Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) where anyone can create courses; and Stack Overflow Jobs, a job ad platform. We place these platforms along two axes: i) how much expertise it takes, on average, to create content on them, and ii) whether, in general, the decision to create content on them is made by individuals or by groups. Our results show that the topics under study have a systematic tendency to appear earlier on platforms where content creation requires (on average) less expertise and is done more individually, rather than by groups: Stack Overflow is found to be more agile than Udemy, which is itself more agile than Stack Overflow Jobs (Google Trends did not prove usable due to extreme data sparsity). However, our results also show that this tendency is not present for all new skills, and that the software programming profession as a whole is remarkably agile: there are usually only a few months between the first Stack Overflow appearance of a new topic, and its first appearance on Udemy or Stack Overflow Jobs. In addition, we find that Udemy’s agility has dramatically increased over time. Our novel methodology is able to provide valuable insights into the dynamics between online education and job ad platforms, enabling training program creators to look at said dynamics for various topics and to understand the pace of change. This allows them to maintain better awareness of the trends and to prioritize their attention, both on the right topics and on the right platforms.

Learning Analytics Considered Harmful

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie P Dringus
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Analytics ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Full Potential

This essay is written to present a prospective stance on how learning analytics, as a core evaluative approach, must help instructors uncover the important trends and evidence of quality learner data in the online course. A critique is presented of strategic and tactical issues of learning analytics. The approach to the critique is taken through the lens of questioning the current status of applying learning analytics to online courses. The goal of the discussion is twofold: (1) to inform online learning practitioners (e.g., instructors and administrators) of the potential of learning analytics in online courses and (2) to broaden discussion in the research community about the advancement of learning analytics in online learning. In recognizing the full potential of formalizing big data in online coures, the community must address this issue also in the context of the potentially "harmful" application of learning analytics.

10. Designing an online curriculum supporting risk management and patient safety

2007 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
T. Gondocz ◽  
G. Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Medical Education ◽  
Patient Safety ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning System ◽  
Online Curriculum ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Not For Profit ◽  
Managing Risk

The Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) is a not for profit mutual defence organization with a mandate to provide medico-legal assistance to physician members and to educate health professionals on managing risk and enhancing patient safety. To expand the outreach to its 72,000 member physicians, the CMPA built an online learning curriculum of risk management and patient safety materials in 2006. These activities are mapped to the real needs of members ensuring the activities are relevant. Eight major categories were developed containing both online courses and articles. Each course and article is mapped to the RCPSC's CanMEDS roles and the CFPC's Four Principles. This poster shares the CMPA’s experience in designing an online patient safety curriculum within the context of medico-legal risk management and provides an inventory of materials linked to the CanMEDS roles. Our formula for creation of an online curriculum included basing the educational content on real needs of member physicians; using case studies to teach concepts; and, monitoring and evaluating process and outcomes. The objectives are to explain the benefits of curricular approach for course planning across the continuum in medical education; outline the utility of the CanMEDS roles in organizing the risk management and patient safety medical education curriculum; describe the progress of CMPA's online learning system; and, outline the potential for moving the curriculum of online learning materials and resources into medical schools.

Learners’ perceptions of instructor feedback in e-learning courses – findings from HBMSU, United Arab Emirates

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niyi Awofeso ◽  
Moyosola Bamidele
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Student Perception ◽  
Test Reliability ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Limited Participation ◽  
Instructor Feedback ◽  
Learning Programs ◽  
Real Person

Instructor feedback is constructive and specific information provided by an instructor to a learner on his or her course work and/or class contributions in relation to the course objectives and expectations. Effective instructor feedback is particularly important in online learning as learners are more likely to withdraw from online learning environments due to delayed, or inadequate feedback, compared with students enrolled in physical classes. Not all learners are equally active, and there are indeed learners who hardly take an active part in online course activities -the so-called lurkers. Courteous instructor feedback to such learners on their limited participation has been shown to improve learners’ participation in online courses. Diligent learners engaged in online learning programs expect feedback to be contextual, supportive, constructive, timely, substantive, summative and formative.  This study examined the perceptions of 66 undergraduate and postgraduate learners on feedback provided in eight online courses facilitated by the same instructor at the School of Health and Environmental Studies, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, Dubai, UAE between August 2014 and December 2015. Data collection from learners was anonymized and participation was voluntary. The survey sought to elicit learners’ perceptions on the extent to which feedback provided in specified courses were motivational, timely, frequent, supportive, and individualized. A polytomous Rasch model was utilized to analyze the data with Winsteps and STATA. Analysis of the 20 survey questions revealed a real person reliability of 0.82 and a Cronbach Alpha test reliability of 0.96, suggesting that the scale discriminates well between the persons. The real item separation reliability of 0.77 suggests that the questions are reliable in measuring the specified items.  Descriptive analyses revealed general agreement among the majority of learners on the effectiveness of feedback provided by the instructor, although Infit and Outfit Z-standard deviation statistics revealed two questions with unexpected rare (i.e. “mostly disagree” or “completely disagree”) extremes in several learners’ responses.  Unlike single questions related to learner feedback in most Student Perception of Teaching Surveys, this survey instrument comprehensively explores the dimensions of instructor feedback, aspects of which may not be previously known to learners or instructors. Our results indicate that systematic collection and analysis of learners’ feedback comments have a strong potential to enhance feedback competencies of course facilitators, as well as provide a common platform for both learners and course facilitators vis-à-vis the diverse objectives of instructor feedback.  

scholarly journals Computer Literacy and Online Learning Attitude toward GSOE Students in Distance Education Programs

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lung-Yu Li ◽  
Long-Yuan Lee
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Computer Literacy ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
The Body ◽  
Education Management ◽  
Learning Attitude ◽  
Learning Attitudes ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Learning Programs ◽  
Managerial Implications

<p>The purpose of this study was to explore graduate students’ competencies in computer use and their attitudes toward online learning in asynchronous online courses of distance learning programs in a Graduate School of Education (GSOE) in Taiwan. The research examined the relationship between computer literacy and the online learning attitudes of these students. Data were collected via a survey through 252 GSOE students in Taiwan. Results revealed a significant positive relationship between computer literacy and online learning attitude among the students. Higher computer literacy was correlated with higher online learning attitude. However, no statistically significant difference was found in online learning attitude by gender or by age group. Suggestions and managerial implications were discussed in the study, and would provide contribution both to the body of knowledge in the filed of education management.</p>

scholarly journals A guide for evaluation of online learning in medical education: a qualitative reflective analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nourhan F. Wasfy ◽  
Enjy Abouzeid ◽  
Asmaa Abdel Nasser ◽  
Samar A. Ahmed ◽  
Ilham Youssry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
Expert Consensus ◽  
Educational Effectiveness ◽  
Education Community ◽  
Rapid Shift

Abstract Background With the strike of Covid-19, an unprecedented rapid shift to remote learning happened worldwide with a paradigm shift to online learning from an institutional adjuvant luxury package and learner choice into a forced solo choice. This raises the question of quality assurance. While some groups have already established standards for online courses, teaching and programs yet very little information is included on methodology of their development and very little emphasis is placed on the online learning experience. Nevertheless, no work has been done specifically for medical education institutions. Aim To develop a set of descriptors for best practice in online learning in medical education utilizing existing expertise and needs. Methods This work utilizes a qualitative multistage approach to identify the descriptors of best practice in online learning starting with a question guided focus group, thematic analysis, Delphi technique and an expert consensus session done simultaneously for triangulation. This was done involving 32 institution in 19 countries. Results This materialized into the development of a set of standards, indicators, and development of a checklist for each standard area. The standard areas identified were organizational capacity, educational effectiveness, and human resources each of which listed a number of standards. Expert consensus sessions identified the need for qualification of data and thus the development of indicators for best practice. Conclusion Standards are needed for online learning experience and their development and redesign is situational and needs to be enhanced methodologically in axes that are pertaining to the needs of the education community. Taking such axes into consideration by educators and institutions will lead to planning and implementing successful online learning activities, while taking them into consideration by the evaluators will help them conduct comprehensive audits and provide stakeholders with highly informative evaluation reports.

Blocked by YouTube? Unseen digital intermediaries for social imaginaries in the Asia Pacific

2021 ◽  
pp. 1329878X2110179
Author(s):  
Jonathon Hutchinson
Keyword(s):  
Online Community ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Asia Pacific Region ◽  
Social Imaginaries ◽  
Content Sharing ◽  
Enterprise Education ◽  
Commercial Enterprise ◽  
Asian Pacific

YouTube is one of the most utilised online content sharing sites, enabling commercial enterprise, education opportunities, and facilities for vernacular creativity. Its user engagement demonstrates online community development; alongside its use as a distribution platform to monetise one’s branded self. However, as a subset of Alphabet Incorporated, its access is often restricted by governments of Asian Pacific countries. This research describes how countries that have banned YouTube still have exceptionally strong online communities, bringing into question the sorts of augmentations used by its participants. This article focuses on digital intermediation strategies, specifically the DIY approach of community building through the use of unseen infrastructures. This comparative study of YouTube channels in several Asia Pacific countries highlights the techniques that bypass limiting infrastructures to boost online community activity. The results demonstrate digital intermediation provides unique opportunities for key agents to contribute to strengthening social imaginaries within the Asia Pacific region.

scholarly journals MOOCS As A Method Of Distance Education In The Arab World – A Review Paper

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raniah Samir Adham ◽  
Karsten Oster Lundqvist
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Review Paper ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Developed World

Abstract Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in the Arab World are still in their infancy. Many Arab countries are now starting to launch their MOOC platforms; however, there are only a few who have actually implemented such systems. This paper will explore online learning, in particular the rise of MOOCs around the world and their impact on the Arab World. The purpose of this paper is to give a true picture of the development of the first MOOC platforms in the Arab World. It will analyse in detail the concept, definitions, background, and types of MOOCs (xMOOCs and cMOOCs), as well as the main MOOCs platform in the Western and Arab worlds, and a timeline of the development of MOOCs. It will then observe the status of MOOCs in the developed world, opportunities in the Middle East, and the influence of Western MOOCs on the Arab world, from many perspectives, e.g. educational, religious, cultural and social.

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