Exploring Online Learning

Communities
What makes them tick?

Rochelle Jensen - 2009

What online learning communities are you currently involved
in or

What do you gain from your involvement in these

communities?
 IN GROUPS OF THREE DISCUSS:
Would it be beneficial to set up an online learning community
to

FEEDBACK
Human Continuum
Yes, No, Maybe -Justification
A glimpse at the research ....
“Some online communities emerge out of nowhere, are totally
unplanned and blossom. But these are the minority. There is a
good deal of evidence to suggest that careful planning is essential
to the success of an online community”
“Online is not separate to the physical world – in teaching or in the
development of Communities Of Practice – in reality hybrid models
usually operate”.
(Australian Flexible Learning Framework, What are the characteristics of effective online
PL + ICT = EPL
Poor Learning + ICT = Expensive Poor Learning
Three Elements of Communities of
Inquiry
“Social presence the ability of participant to project
themselves socially and emotionally as real people…”
(p. 28, Garrison and Vaughn)

role benefits
trust ownershi
protocols p
climate risk-
motivatio taking
collaborative
n
culture?
CONSIDER
What benefits/ motivation is there for participants? What is the purpose of this
community?
What are the roles and protocols? Do members have ownership over these
protocols? Who ensures that these are adhered to?
Is the culture of the group such that collaboration is valued? How do you promote
this collaboration online?
How is trust nurtured in this environment?
How is risk-taking / the sharing of half-baked ideas encouraged?
Have members had previous experienced working collaboratively as a group?
Are there opportunities for the group to meet face-to face?
 content
Responsive
Improvements in Methods,
Underpinned teacher practice and stories, cases
by inquiry and student outcomes , tool,
research documents

Understandings discussed and challenged.

CONSIDER
Is this a task that can benefit from collaboration, traditional or electronic?
Is there a defined focus?
Is there a common goal which is clearly articulated?
“Teaching presence is the design, facilitation and
direction of cognitive and social processes for the purposes
of realising personally meaningful and educationally
worthwhile learning outcomes”

facilitatio
n
design
direction

CONSIDER
How will the facilitator value and elicit input from others?
Is the facilitator someone who knows the content, is comfy with technology and has
the ability to draw and inspire participants?
How savvy is the group? How can they be supported?
 Please share your ideas re Social Presence

Bus- Stop What do you see as the purpose of

our online community?
Is the culture of the group such that
collaboration is valued? How
participants walk around the
will we promote this
room adding their ideas to the
three stops: Social, Cognitive and collaboration online?
Teaching Presence

Please share your ideas re Cognitive Presence

What content would you like to see

included in
our online community?

Please share your ideas related to:

Teaching Presence
Who should be responsible for
facilitating/moderating this environment?
What is the responsibility of the other members
of this online environment?
 Ideas from the bus-stop activity are
collated to form the foundations of the
online learning environment.
“There is no absolute formula, this is a fluid and rapidly
evolving medium;
you will have to experiment and improvise”.
 Online learning communities have been developed for many
years now but
few manage to actually provide more than just a repository for
information
and ideas.

Potter, 2004