How to create a sense of community?

Week f July 10-16

What is a community?   How can we promote it?  Should we worry about it?

For me, a community in this sense is a group of people that work together to learn. Wilson defines a community as a group that has made a commitment to a certain class, that has a common goal in learning.

 In a f2f classroom, creating a sense of community may be quite easy, although not as intuitive as one might think. The students are there and can see each other as well as be seen by the teacher.  Creating a group may be as easy as moving a few desks and then observing the interaction, intervening as necessary.   In an online classroom, it's obviously more difficult.  The first problem is that students are not all there at the same time.   Even if you have a synchronous classroom or instant messaging, it may not be used.  This is another aspect of having the technology available to do a job, but if it's not well thought out, then it won't be used appropriately.  Simply giving students access to a wiki won't mean that you'll end up with a creative wiki.  It may mean you'll end up with a bunch of confused students unless you give instructions on how to use the wiki and clear expectations of what  is expected to be in there.  Scaffolding for technological competence is just as important as scaffolding for content.
You can monitor discussion or wiki creation to see that work is being done - but community seems to be more than just posting responses to a discussion board or contributing to a wiki.   Even if everyone posts something, then it doesn't mean that there is a community -there's a level of communication that shows interaction in a community.  You could have 30 students all post a response, and those responses may be relevant to each student's learning but if there's no give and take in the responses, there's no sense of community.

Is being part of a community vital for all students?  Does the fact that some students don't feel like they are part of a community prevent them from learning?   For some people, not being part of a group may be more desirable and being able to work alone may seem preferable.  If the instructor believes that it is beneficial for students to be part of a group, then it's the instructors responsibility to address the issue in such a way that the student understands the benefits of group work.  This can be tough as many students may already have a poor impression of group work after unsuccessful experiences.   However, just giving a student a grade and requiring the work will not promote the benefit of group work for all students.

If students who feel isolated tend not to finish the course as a result of feeling isolated, that's obviously a problem. Being part of a group where one students feels as if they are the only ones working is also disheartening and can be discouraging.   So how do you resolve the issue of group work, yet still help students feel like they are part of a learning community?


Given that creating a sense of community among students does seem to be important in helping the students feel connected and in improving the learning, then how can an instructor or designer affect that?  If group grading is an issue, and it does often seem to the the grading that's  the issue, not the working together, then how do you resolve that?

1.  If the discussion board is going to be part of the grading system, and it normally is, then a really good question has to be the basis.  If the question promotes thinking, then the students are more likely to respond and that's how the discussion can start.  If it's a poorly thought out question, students will either respond with a rote answer or not at all.  Monica pointed out in the DB this week that each students insight into the issue will bring forth a different side of the conversation which will ultimately benefit all students who  read the discussion posts.  This is exactly why a good question, especially in an online higher education class is so important.  Students at the college level all have a wide variety of work experiences and/or life experiences that will come out in a discussion once it's ongoingThe instructor is integral to success in this aspect of creating a community.

2. Group formation.  It's probably a good idea to have students write a group "mission statement" so that everyone knows exactly what is expected of them and they have committed to it.  Create small enough groups to allow for more personal interaction.  Having a really large group can be intimidating for many students.

3.  Encourage group interaction but grade individual projects.  How can this be done?  One possibility could be to have students work on a wiki or group document/presentation that will then form the basis of their study notes in preparation for a final exam.  If they work well, they'll have good study notes that they will probably not need as much if they worked on it.  If they don't actively participate in the group work, they will still have good study notes but will have to apply themselves to studying alone if they are to do well in a final exam.
4.  If you're going to use a wiki, a blog or a journal  or some other unfamiliar web 2.0 tool,  the student should understand clearly what is expected. A clear rubric is obviously necessary but additional instruction on how to work in a wiki may be necessary before the project gets underway.

Note
One of the things required at the k12 level (at least where I teach) is a 3 day orientation to the classroom.  This involves teaching students how to send a message, use instant messaging and completing an online  scavenger hunt to find answers from the various tutorials etc.  Each day has a checklist of activities to be completed and there is a grade for each day.   The result is that when students sit down to do content work, they are already familiar with the classroom and where to find various items such as how to create a voice board for the speaking assignments.   Creating a pre-week of orientation activities for those who want them might be a good idea.  Most students can access the online classroom during the week prior to the class.  For some students, a class may be their first online experience; for others it may not be.  The pre-week would be a good week for the teacher to get to know who is in an online class for the first time.   We've already learned that where the student starts, as far as content, is a necessary piece of information for the instructor so that material can be scaffolded.  In fact, our readings have shown us that this is perhaps more important even than the way the material is presented.   Perhaps we also need to look at where the student is starting as far as the online experience, rather than just the content.  An orientation module could be easily prepared for all classes and then inserted into pre-week automatically.  At the college level, it need not be for a grade, but just be available for new students, or students who are transferring in from other colleges but may not be familiar with web tycho.  If left available, it may also be a great resource for students who realize that they don't know how to do something and need a refresher.  The UMUC library does have some great tutorials, but perhaps a few well placed links in the webliography to tutorials on how to do APA citations etc will point students in the right direction as they find that they need the information.  Just in time tutorials can be very helpful but the key is pointing the student in the right direction at the right time.

An awareness that they are obviously not the only student who needs a quick review of something prior to starting a task should also help to reduce the sense of being the only one who needs something.  Having a list of  "how to" tutorials can really help the students feel more like they can help themselves when they need to, but not waste their time if they don't need it.

The role of the instructor in building community and social presence is important.  Students, especially at the K12 level will probably not guide themselves to where they need to be.  Teachers have to create interesting, well structured assignments that will promote real conversation, not just rote responses.    

One of the things that caught my attention in this week's reading


Learning communities can serve as a bridge between school and work environments 

My first thought here was that this was applicable to adult learners who work and go to school at the same time.  However, I then realized that it could be also applicable to high school students but in a slightly different way.  Of course, the  community in a high school doesn't generally work - but that doesn't mean that you can't invite guest speakers who do work full time to become part of the community for a day or a week of the course.  Its important for K12 students to be aware of the businesses in the communities around them and sometimes it might be possible to bridge the gap  by incorporating a guest speaker each week.


http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/PUB7102d.pdf

This was also an interesting book/chapter on facilitating community. Although she's not writing about DE specifically, there are many similarities to our class reading.  The importance of community in education is not just important in DE but we do have to look at it differently to achieve the same goals.