The goal of this session is to discuss how you can build a robust community of learners using the latest available technologies. In an online environment students might feel alone, unsupported, or disconnected from their instructor or peers. Successful learning communities are connected, cooperative, supportive and learn from each other.
A community of learners can be defined as a group of learners or students who are actively engaged in learning from one another and share knowledge and ideas. At DELTA (Digital Education and Learning Technology Applications), we worked on several projects to build and cultivate an online learning community. Wenger, E., McDermott, R. A., & Snyder, W. (2002) defined these communities as communities of practice (CoP). According to them these communities are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. When students are online, they can feel as if they are on their own, without facilitated interaction by the instructor. In an online environment “there is greater possibility for a sense of loss among learners—loss of contact, loss of connection, and a resultant sense of isolation.” (Palloff & Pratt, 2007, p.31).
Building an online community can be challenging. It takes a good deal of effort, planning, and effective use of instructional design strategies to create a sound and robust online community. Different strategies and technologies were adopted to build a robust online community of learners. We investegated several technologies and online platforms like BlueJeans, Slack, Yellowdig, Blogs and Discussion forums. We looked for ways to make students comfortable with the online environment and to build trust amongst themselves.
We will provide examples of courses where we have built a successful community of learners. DELTA collaborated with the Agricultural and Human Sciences Department to redesign their AEE 435: Professional Presentations in Agricultural Organizations online course. We assisted them with creating collaborative learning opportunities that foster community within the online setting and instructional strategies that will support the overall goal of the course. This helped prepare students to give effective and engaging presentations. We evaluated different technologies and selected Yellowdig as our platform for building a community of learners. The Yellowdig Community is a student-to-student informal learning space for informal discussions between students from any course or discipline, sharing knowledge and ideas and thus creating a sense of belonging to the learning community.
For audience engagement we will ask questions about what activities and tools they are using to build a successful online community of learners during the discovery session. We will use a Padlet board to capture the ideas and resources and share it with the audience later.