Designing Online Learning Communities to Encourage Cooperation

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, the author takes 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.

The Key Elements of Online Learning Communities

Web-Based Education ◽

10.4018/978-1-61520-963-7.ch009 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 119-132

Author(s):

Jianxia Du ◽

Yunyan Liu ◽

Robert L. Brown

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Social Interaction ◽

Learning Communities ◽

Learning Community ◽

The Other ◽

Online Classroom ◽

New Ideas ◽

Media Choices

An online learning community can be a place for vibrant discussions and the sharing of new ideas in a medium where content constantly changes. This chapter will first examine the different definitions that researchers have provided for online learning communities. It will then illuminate several key elements that are integral to onlinelearning communities: interactivity, in both its task-driven and socio-emotional forms; collaboration, which both builds and nurtures online communities; trusting relationships, which are developed primarily through social interaction and consist of shared goals and a sense of belonging or connectedness; and communication media choices, which impact the other three elements. This chapter also provides suggestions for the practical application of these elementsin the online classroom.

The Key Elements of Online Learning Communities

Handbook of Research on Practices and Outcomes in E-Learning ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-788-1.ch004 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 61-75 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jianxia Du ◽

Yunyan Liu ◽

Robert L. Brown

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Social Interaction ◽

Learning Communities ◽

Learning Community ◽

The Other ◽

Online Classroom ◽

New Ideas ◽

Media Choices

An online learning community can be a place for vibrant discussions and the sharing of new ideas in a medium where content constantly changes. This chapter will first examine the different definitions that researchers have provided for online learning communities. It will then illuminate several key elements that are integral to online learning communities: interactivity, in both its task-driven and socio-emotional forms; collaboration, which both builds and nurtures online communities; trusting relationships, which are developed primarily through social interaction and consist of shared goals and a sense of belonging or connectedness; and communication media choices, which impact the other three elements. This chapter also provides suggestions for the practical application of these elements in the online classroom.

Online Learning Community

Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, Second Edition ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-198-8.ch219 ◽

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 ◽

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.

Fostering Effective Learning Community in the Online Classroom

Research Anthology on Developing Effective Online Learning Courses ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-8047-9.ch089 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1786-1802

Author(s):

Mary I. Dereshiwsky

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Learning Communities ◽

Learning Community ◽

Online Classroom ◽

Face To Face ◽

Effective Learning ◽

Faculty Concerns ◽

Face To Face Learning

Online learning communities are an important aspect of successful virtual learning experiences. They bring opportunities for peer collaboration and sharing of ideas in a globally based classroom unrestricted by time and space. At the same time, online learning community participants may face some challenges of effective communication and collaboration as compared to traditional face-to-face learning environments. The author discusses issues, concerns, and potential solutions with regard to online learning communities in the areas of discussion participation, group work on assignments, faculty concerns, and miscellaneous issues such as technology access. Maximizing the potential of online learning communities will facilitate higher-order learning in the technologically mediated twenty-first century classroom.

A Proposed Framework for the Growth of Online Learning Communities

10.4995/head21.2021.13010 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nevine Mahmoud Fayek El Souefi

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Learning Communities ◽

Learning Community ◽

Social Presence ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Emotional Engagement ◽

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.

Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design - Enhancing Education Through Open Degree Programs and Prior Learning Assessment ◽

Fostering Effective Learning Community in the Online Classroom

10.4018/978-1-5225-5255-0.ch012 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 203-219

Author(s):

Mary I. Dereshiwsky

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Learning Communities ◽

Learning Community ◽

Online Classroom ◽

Face To Face ◽

Effective Learning ◽

Faculty Concerns ◽

Face To Face Learning

Online learning communities are an important aspect of successful virtual learning experiences. They bring opportunities for peer collaboration and sharing of ideas in a globally based classroom unrestricted by time and space. At the same time, online learning community participants may face some challenges of effective communication and collaboration as compared to traditional face-to-face learning environments. The author discusses issues, concerns, and potential solutions with regard to online learning communities in the areas of discussion participation, group work on assignments, faculty concerns, and miscellaneous issues such as technology access. Maximizing the potential of online learning communities will facilitate higher-order learning in the technologically mediated twenty-first century classroom.

Tools and Methods for Supportiing Online Learning Communities and Their Evaluation

User-Centered Design of Online Learning Communities ◽

10.4018/978-1-59904-358-6.ch010 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 215-237 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Maria Rigou ◽

Spiros Sirmakessis ◽

Dimitris Stavrinoudis ◽

Michalis Xenos

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Learning Communities ◽

Learning Community ◽

Online Teaching ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

General Purpose ◽

Specific Domain ◽

Quality Aspects

Scientific observation during the last years has indicated that learning on the web in many cases is accompanied and promoted by the creation and maintenance of an online learning community. The goal of this chapter is to define and describe the notion of online communities, describe their types and core functionalities, and focus on the specific domain of online learning communities. More specifically, it presents an overall categorization of the technological tools used for supporting online learning communities and suggests a set of general-purpose evaluation methods suitable for assessing quality aspects of these tools, along with a method for the statistical analysis of the derived data. The chapter concludes with a discussion on foreseen future trends concerning ways to enhance the everyday life of OLC inhabitants and upgrade the effect of online teaching and learning.

Online learning communities: Investigating a design framework

Australasian Journal of Educational Technology ◽

10.14742/ajet.1708 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Chris Brook ◽

Ron Oliver

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Learning Communities ◽

Learning Community ◽

Contemporary Literature ◽

Design Framework ◽

Online Instructors ◽

Construction Of Knowledge ◽

Collaborative Construction

This paper reports the development of a design framework intended to support and guide online instructors in the development of a learning community. The study was guided by an investigation of contemporary literature focused on the community construct, online learning community development and the collaborative construction of knowledge and the practices of experienced professionals working in the field. The intended outcome is a design framework that may be useful in guiding instructors in the development of said communities.

CULTIVATING VOLUNTARY ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITIES IN BLENDED ENVIRONMENTS

Online Learning ◽

10.24059/olj.v10i4.1745 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Robert Heckman ◽

Hala Annabi

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Learning Communities ◽

Learning Community ◽

Future Study ◽

Research Agenda ◽

Theoretical Concepts ◽

Face To Face ◽

The Future

In this paper we argue for the possibility of using asynchronous technology to create a continuous, voluntary learning community in face-to-face courses. We discuss the theoretical concepts and values that are the foundation of such a community, describe some of the activities that take place there, and present principles of cultivation that we believe will help instructors nurture such communities in their own classes. The examples we present suggest that the emergence of a voluntary online learning community is possible in any course. Nevertheless, more research is necessary to better understand the nature of such learning communities, and we present a research agenda for the future study of this phenomenon.