Week 2: THE FIRST STEPS IN COMMUNITY BUILDING

Outcomes:

Given academic readings you will develop strategies and gain competency in developing and contributing to online communities.

• Develop and contribute to online community by sharing an introduction and responding to other participants’ introductions.
• Explore the “Community of Inquiry” model.
• Examine sound practices in building an online community from a social constructivist perspective.
• Work toward developing a personal teaching philosophy by analyzing your beliefs about higher education as a whole as it relates to your teaching and learning practices, your students, and your chosen subject matter.

Introduction

The goal of Week 2 is to get to know each other. Share your experiences to start creating a community.

What do you think of when you hear the term “online community?” Do you have negative or positive reactions? When students and teachers first moved into online learning environments, many reported feeling a sense of isolation and “distance” from each other.

Many surveys of online students report common issues: students find it difficult to identify or understand course goals, requirements, and instructor expectations. They lament the loss of “real-time” feedback and often feel a lack of connection and support from the instructor. Over the years, researchers have found that students experience an improvement in actual and perceived learning when the online instructor strives to address these concerns and build online community.

The “Community of Learning” model also referred to as the “Community of Inquiry” model was developed by researchers at the University of Athabasca and used to support research and practice in online education. The COI framework identifies three main elements that help to create an online educational experience that engages students in deeper learning and critical thinking. The model illustrates a significant change in the roles of teacher and students – teachers step back from a purely “expert” role and spend more time facilitating social and environmental aspects of the course while students can take on more independent learning tasks and participate in the knowledge building and peer-to-peer learning that can take place.

We’ve given you some resources to help you explore ideas about the value of building online learning communities and the potential impact of “instructor presence” in helping learners to be successful in online environments. However, we’d like you first to introduce yourself to our course community and then draw on, and share, your personal experiences of online community.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES THIS WEEK:

Step 1. Video – Participants watch a video to familiarize themselves with elements of building online community.

Step 2. Readings – Participants read articles to learn more about building online communities.

Step 3. Introduction Videos – Participants create video vignettes to introduce themselves to the class.

Step 4. Teaching Philosophy – Participants respond to a set of prompts to help them develop a teaching philosophy.

Step 5. Reflection Cues for Writing a Teaching Philosophy – Participants write a letter to their students to share their motivations behind their online teaching approach.

Step 6. Glossary – Participants add one new term to the glossary with a definition, example and/or a personal question.

References

Royal Roads University, Sc. B. C. (n.d.). Course: OER-Facilitating Learning Online-Fundamentals. Retrieved February 14, 2020, from https://oer.royalroads.ca/moodle/course/view.php?id=29

Schedule and Deadlines