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.

Tools and Methods for Supportiing Online Learning Communities and Their Evaluation

2011 ◽  
pp. 215-237 ◽  
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 ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
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.

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.

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.

Fostering Effective Learning Community in the Online Classroom

2021 ◽  
pp. 1786-1802
Author(s):  
Mary I. Dereshiwsky
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Online Classroom ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
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.

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 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.

The Key Elements of Online Learning Communities

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 ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
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.

Fostering Effective Learning Community in the Online Classroom

2018 ◽  
pp. 203-219
Author(s):  
Mary I. Dereshiwsky
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Online Classroom ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Online learning communities: Investigating a design framework

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Brook ◽  
Ron Oliver
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Design Framework ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Instructors ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document