Module 1: Building Community – Presence in the Classroom

Introduction to Module

This 2-week module is designed as an introduction to building online community. Participants will be immersed in both theoretical and practical applications of adult education practices, which will be transferable to a higher education workplace context. Participants can expect to spend approximately 6 hours a week engaging in online readings, discussions posts, and activities. As adult learners, your take-away from the course will be highly dependent on your commitment and contributions. After completing this module, participants will be able to apply community building strategies to their online courses.

In this module, you will be given guided questions that challenge you to analyze your personal beliefs about education, teaching, and learning. As you work through the questions, you will work towards developing a personal teaching philosophy. By better understanding who you are as a teacher particularly in an online context, you can better serve your learners. You will be required to delve into assigned readings that outline sound practices in building an online community and then apply learned strategies to the design of a community building activity.