Online Learning Spaces 5 Creating Community

Once you have planned and created your Learning Space, it is time to open the virtual classroom door to your students.  Once they arrive, you have to be sure to keep them there since online learning can make a student feel very isolated unless you employee specific strategies to prevent this from ocurring. 

Creating Community
It is important for students to gain a feeling of belonging in a learning community. Many students find that they learn the most from collaborating with others in the class. Students also have a tendency to drop out when they feel disconnected and unsupported. This sense of community is an important first step in making online learning successful.

When designing a learning space, it is important to have a community-centered approach since social interactions aid learning and improve student engagement. You can enhance and support a feeling of community by:

Designing an effective learning space that supports student interaction and involvement

Incorporating tools (e.g. e-mail, instant messaging, threaded discussions, blogs, and wikis) that enhance and focus on student communication and collaboration

Using Cooperative and Collaborative Learning Activities

Have a community-friendly class from the very beginning and continuing to foster a sense of community by:

• Setting a warm and friendly tone. Include an autobiography, picture, audio/video greeting, etc. Have students do the same.
• Conducting ice-breakers and other cooperative learning activities so students can get to know one another.
• Creating welcoming and familiar Learning Spaces by allowing student ownership. Allow students to customize the space such as adding a picture, an avatar, or a background on the course management system to express themselves.
• Maintaining an online presence, provide ongoing support, and be accessible to students.
• Assigning students a group or partner so if they have a question or need help they can first contact them. They can also work with their group/partner during cooperative learning.
• Being available to students via email, instant messenger, phone, or whatever you prefer and have office hours so students can contact you for immediate help or questions.
• Conducting weekly chats/conferences/meetings for discussion, brainstorming, and collaboration.
• Checking on students and send friendly reminders if they have been absent for a while.
• Incorporating open, discussion-friendly spaces to communicate including a special discussion thread for general chatting. Different tools you can include are email, instant messenger, discussion boards, voice/audio/video chat, wikis, blogs, etc.
• Including space for announcements, homework assignments, course materials, syllabus, quizzes, and grades.
• Including cooperative learning.
• Integrating and encouraging diverse viewpoints and multicultural awareness. Ensure that students feel safe discussing their own perspectives and opinions. Do not allow negative or flaming posts. Depending on the level, you may have to teach students how to respond to others with whom they do not agree. Students must feel safe and comfortable! Otherwise, they will become distracted and frustrated and won’t learn.
• Making sure students know where to go for help and information and help them feel comfortable if they do have questions so they will feel safe ridicule if they don’t understand the material or the technical requirements.
• Including virtual seminars and socials in addition to the curriculum. For example, I may invite students for a virtual chat/social hour so students can practice Spanish/discuss a hot topic or include a guest speaker or performer on different topics of interest to students.
• Fostering an even richer learning environment with other instructors by team teaching, collaborating, and teaching across the curriculum. For example, in a teacher education program there is class for ESL teachers and another class on Differentiating instruction in the classroom. Why not have the ESL instructor be a guest speaker in the Differentiating instruction class sometime or better yet have the ESL teachers taking the ESL course do presentations or work on a project with students in the Differentiating instruction class to enhance their learning? Both groups would benefit.