Sunday, January 13, 2013

Online Learning Communities

 

Online learning is an oppurtunity to learn information with other learners at your own time and pace on a virtual social enviorment.  It also is a way to earn a degree, diploma, cetification, etc. in a short time span while continuing your daily life responsibilities such as working, parenting, etc. 

The essential elements of online community building has to be the learners, or teacher, the his or her purpose for seeking the infomation, and the experience gained from the learner.  Ex.  Was the learner purpose a good process or not?

Online learning communities significantly impact the learner’s learning and satisfaction with online education by first understand engaged learning and be amenable to adopting the strategy.  Impact of online learning communities can also be done by:  "incorporating the strategy and attitude of engagement is presented, having a safe student-centered learning environment, and opportunities for self assessment or reflection are provided" (Conrad and Donaldson, 2011, p.7).


In order to sustain online learning the instructors first establish their own learning goals, information given to the learner should be information that can be used after the learning environment the learner may need help from technical support, and the learners need to be exploring appropriate resources to answer meaningful questions.  "The task that are multidisciplinary and authentic, with connection to the real world" (Conrad and Donaldson, 2011, p.6).

The relationship between community and online instruction are similar in the since that they give the learner a opportunity to learn in a environment whether virtual or face to face.  Both offers different academic courses to advance learning experiences.  Online learning offers students a opportunity to learn at their own pace and also express their opinion during discussion boards and academic advising.


References:

Conrad, R.M. & Donaldson, J.A. (2011). Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

1 comment:

  1. Hiraman,
    Thank you for sharing your thoughts on online learning communities. You raised two of the most important elements: 1) learning at our own pace, and doing the work at the time of day that works best with adult learners lifestyles of work and family responsibilities and 2) we get the opportunity to express ourselves in discussion boards. Thank you for your blog, it looks great! Teri

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