Creating an Online Learning Community~
Aries Catalogna
Creating an Online Learning Community
During this blog, I will be discussing how to create an online learning community and how to make this community a safe place for yourself and your students. The first way instructors can promote an online community is by ensuring that they have a safe environment. Now, you are probably wondering, but this is online. How can you create a safe environment for students who are over a screen? Well, a few ways to make your environment safe even over a screen, is by allowing your students to feel more engaged in this community online. It can be hard for students doing online courses, they may feel alone or simply bored because they just have to sit back and listen. Don't make it boring for them, engage them and allow them to produce their own questions for you as their teacher. Allow them to engage with each other to create a non-embarrassing or scary atmosphere. This whole change could be something completely new to students, so show them that you care and that you want them to feel as natural as possible.
The Second way that instructors can promote an online community is by allowing the students to get to know each other and know you. This is a huge change for some students so allowing them to have the opportunity to share knowledge with each other can promote more engaging students that actually learn more significantly because they are engaged. Friendships can still be made over an online course which secures positive energy throughout your course and among your students. As an instructor, make sure you provide a good welcome for every student and take your time getting to know your students.
The third and final way to promote an online community as an instructor is by serving as a role model while promoting a sense of understanding. As I have said before, this can be a completely new feeling and thing for many students. Think of it as COVID-19, no one expected to have to all of a sudden go to online learning, and my school went to that option as soon as possible. It was a brand new feeling for so many of us, and some students thought that since this is now online learning, they did not have to engage, provide their time, or even try in classes. A way for you, as an instructor can serve as a role model is to provide your students with an encouraging point of view. Let them know, "Hey, I understand that this is new, it's new for me too. But let's just get through this one section and we can all go and do our own things." This is not a way to just communicate with your students but also a way for them to understand you on a personal level and then they will know that this isn't just new for them.
To conclude, I want to discuss which method is the most interesting to me. Well, my answer to that is the first paragraph. Creating a safe atmosphere over the screen seemed ridiculous to me when I first began learning. Thinking of how and why would instructors would need to do that, made no sense to me. However, when I began to think about it and actually do research about it, I came to understand that it is actually a very important step in any type of learning.
Work Cited/Where I got my Information-
3 Ways an Online Community Enhances Learning - WBT Systems
5 Ways Online Instructors Can Increase Community Engagement | Wiley
I appreciate the candor in your post, you convey your thoughts and concerns about online learning and acknowledge that with research your opinions have changed. Thank you for the great writing, but I am curious about what you would implement if you had to run a online course?
ReplyDelete