ISWO - Building an Online Learning Community

I have chosen to use this blog to pull together ideas that I have learned from week to week.

What is an online learning community?

I believe an online learning community enables sharing, communication, and collaboration. It allows members of the community to build knowledge, share their experiences with each other and support one another. Communities should also be social, fun, and provide a way for members to make connections. Most of all the online piece allows for flexibility.

Some ways for an online facilitator to enable/encourage/build an online learning community are:

• Provide an audio/video introduction to the course and yourself. Encourage learners to do the same. Video and audio make it easier to build a sense of connection.
• Make expectations regarding the course and behaviour clear up front.
• Be present in the course, respond to questions in a timely manner, be available to learners, and be clear in your responses.
• Provide a place where learners can connect socially , without requiring them to do so. ex. share photos, exchange link to personal accounts such as blogs, twitter and facebook.
• Provide a Q&A area that allows learners to jump in and help other learners.
• Model behaviours/expectations you have for learners.
• Provide similar types of interaction (forum, wiki, etc) repeatedly to allow learners to become comfortable with them.
• Allow routines to develop. People like routines and it puts them at ease.
• Throw in activities from time to time that shake things up. This keeps learners interested.

Note: In the end, it is up to learners how much they want to participate, you can't force community, all you can do is try to enable it.

I am sure I haven't captured all of the ways to enable/encourage/build an online learning community, if you have others please comment and let me know :)