RSA #3: Instructional-Design Theory to Guide the Creation of Online Learning Communities for Adults

Online Resource: http://web.ebscohost.com.cucproxy.cuchicago.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=119&sid=82ae8cfa-b6a9-4cf0-8116-e74657199942%40sessionmgr113&vid=12

            This week’s reading introduces the concept of an online community. Online learning communities are very similar to professional learning communities in terms of their goal of socially constructing knowledge, but through a different medium: technology. One of the major hurdles an online learning community must overcome is creating a sense community and social presence when participants do not meet face to face. Social presence is defined by Palloff and Pratt (2007) as “the person we become online” (p. 28). This social presence is usually not established until a person feels comfortable in the online community where trust, common goals, and mutually agreed upon guidelines are present (Palloff & Pratt, 2007). The authors present several methods of how to create an effective community that will foster an enthusiastic online learning environment in which participants feel comfortable and willing to express themselves. They suggest starting with a face to face meeting in which participants agree upon goals, social guidelines, time lines, methods of research, online tools, and spend some time getting to know one another, thus jump starting their formation of social presence within the community (Palloff & Pratt, 2007).

            The online article I found this week was written around the same time the Palloff and Pratt book was written and even used some of their previous work as a reference. Many of their ideas were the same, but I thought the way the author broke down the idea of an online learning community into values and goals was interesting. Her 5 values were: learner centered environment, community synergy, respect of individuality, focus on real world problems, and self directed learning (Snyder, 2009). These are general guiding principals for online community building, but she also presented instructional methods which can be used to guide behavior. These instructional methods were: establish trust, maintain consistency, define and communicate purpose, confirm expectations, promote communication and collaboration during the learning process, offer flexibility, differentiate, encourage sharing of information, shared leadership, use internet resources and information, recognize and reward students, and provide time for reflection (Snyder, 2009).

            Both readings covered the same topic, but I found the Snyder article much more concise and helpful in terms of being able to figure out what’s really important when facilitating an online learning community. Although, all the authors tended to agree on the major points, I thought a few of Snyder’s instructional methods were interesting. When she talked about confirming expectations, she mentioned that after setting a purpose together as a group, each individual member should write down and share what they expected to gain from the community (Snyder, 2009). The author says that this will help other members of the group clarify what they are setting out to achieve and what the true direction will be. The other method that stuck out was time to reflect on what the group had done and what it still needed to do. She encouraged members to reflect on whether or not they had achieved their personal goals and how they would use what they learned in the “real world”. Synder also suggests that these reflections be shared online through a blog so that others can read and learn from their reflections (2009).

            Overall, I think it is interesting to note that many of the methods and practices suggested by the authors are being used effectively in this course. As I was reading this week I found myself comparing our online community to the theoretical/idealistic online communities being presented and found that they were very similar. It would seem that our instructor has done her homework. :)

References

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: effective                  strategies for the virtual classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Snyder, M.M. (2009). Instructional-design theory to guide the creation of online learning      communities for adults. TechTrends, 53(1), Retrieved from      http://web.ebscohost.com.cucproxy.cuchicago.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid            =119&sid=82ae8cfa-b6a9-4cf0-8116-e74657199942%40sessionmgr113&vid=12