Online Learning Community: A Learner who Learnt how to Learn

Alien schoolbus illustration

Safety Net

An online community is a dynamic and safe place where a student can be who they want to be, who they can be, say Dr. Pratt and Dr. Palloff. It is true for any kind of community - we crave that feeling of acceptance and nothing is more destructive than that of rejection. For instance I come from the background of Linguistics, always and forever storytelling and digressing. My mind is not a map, it doesn’t work like that. It is more suited to creating poetry than diagrams and it is my gift and a downfall. But so is everyone else’s way of thinking and learning. It is the ability to see our shortcomings and the desire to help others and accept help from them that matter at the end of the day. That feeling of affiliation with your peers is facilitated by the sense of online presence.

Online Presence

As Dr. Pratt and Dr. Palloff explained when adult learners used to traditional learning engage in online learning they might experience a feeling of isolation and the two first weeks of a course are a critical time for an instructor - they might lose a student. Online community, they continue, begins before the class even starts. A warm and friendly instructor who relates personally to students will set the tone for the students and will affect how they relate to the instructor and to each other. Add communication tools and strategies that will facilitate students to engage with each other to create meaning together and you are almost there.

Traditional vs Online

An online learning community is where the magic of learning happens but only if the instruction was not merely moved from a book to a screen. Effective online learning shifts from an instructor to a student, and the goal of learning community is to co-create knowledge and meaning and there is no place for a ‘talking head’ instruction, as Pratt & Paloff say. However if we do not consider the concept of digital natives and immigrants there will be a huge drop out rate and without facilitating those who initially feel challenged by technology we will create unnecessary barriers.

Rules that Support

Students need to be aware of their role in online learning. It is important to inform them of what their expected conduct is, whether it is the content of the course or their behaviour within the learning community. It is no difference really to any community whether it’s a Secondary school or a corporate environment. In the first you are not allowed to bang your mate on the head with a chair and in the second people are expected to not turn up to work drunk and disorderly. Similarly school kids will have a curriculum and a company will expect its employees to do their jobs. But also both environments will provide training and support to those who needs it. At school you go through grades and have a form teacher to look after you, at work you have got training sessions and HR. An online community according to Pratt & Paloff will be most effective if it keeps it simple and gradually builds the technology skills. They do not recommended to use technology just for the sake of using technology - drop it, if it doesn't serve any purpose apart from being shiny.

Transformation

Transformation is the simplest way to explain what the primary goal of online learning is. And not just in the way that a student will be transformed into a more knowledgeable, skilled self. But a learner who learnt how to learn in an effective autonomous way. Who at that learnt it in a dialogue with others, who is now more reflective and self-directed with a developed sense of online presence. Der Überstudent.  

References:

Laureate Education (Producer). (2010). Online learning communities [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu