After researching how to build online communities among students, this is what stood out the most:
Planning real-life or online synchronous meeting times can massively help build connections among students who are enrolled in asynchronous classes. These meetings don't have to be mandatory; however, when students begin to participate and build connections with not only the instructor but their peers, it motivates them to try in class. This feeling of an actual classroom helps students feel like they aren't just staring at a screen, but they are actually part of an online community. A good way to set up these meetings is to post a survey at the beginning of a course to see what time and/or location works best for everyone, and overall get a general demographic of your students and what the classroom looks like. This is also highly important because students and instructors are able to know what their students are like and students can feel like their instructor isn't a demanding force on a screen but an actual human being.
Secondly, using collaborative learning techniques help immensely foment an online learning presence among students. As students are forced to collaborate with each other, they are able to get to know each other better and work together on assignments. Although this technique may not work in every asynchronous classroom, in English classes, for example, online collaborative learning techniques can be extremely helpful. Peer review, group projects, and splitting class reading and notes are all examples of online collaborative techniques that increase virtual interaction among students, ultimately creating a small online learning community. A con to this perhaps is the lack of teacher presence; meanwhile, students connect, there is lack of teacher presence among the classroom, creating a lack of connection between students and instructor. Despite this, the student-to-student connection can increase massively through these techniques.
Thirdly, an initial introduction from students on a discussion board/presentation can massively help asynchronous students introduce themselves to one another. An additional bonus is requiring them to reply to people's videos, as this can help begin the online community. When you introduce students to each other, you open the door for further interaction, as you continue to assign group tasks, students are more likely to set up virtual meetings or exchange social media for group projects as you're able to put a name to a face. This task can be the foundational block for an online learning community, when combines with the two other previously mentioned tasks, a teacher can successfully build an online learning community.
To tie this up, after doing half of high school both asynchronous and synchronous during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I practically consider myself an expert in what methods work the best for learning and for creating those online communities. I personally believe that zoom and online virtual meeting help the most with establishing an online community, things like breakout rooms and virtual collaboration is so highly important. Humans are naturally social animals and when we lack this socialization, it can be detrimental to us, so by virtually socializing with people, we are able to get what we need and build connections that may be beneficial to us later.
That's all I have, thanks for reading. Do you struggle in asynchronous classes when you don't have an online learning community?
- Ms. C.
Websites used:
https://kpcrossacademy.org/building-community-in-online-courses/
Hi Ms. C.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your thoughts on building community in an online classroom. Your writing is very clear and carefully described with thorough details. I had not really considered optional attendance zoom meetings to build the classroom community for an asynchronous class. I also liked your suggestion for setting up these non-mandatory zoom meetings by surveying students about their availability to get a better understanding of students as well as a higher likelihood of student participation. Since you mentioned that you were a student in both synchronous and asynchronous classes during the height of the Covid pandemic I wanted to ask, do you think your asynchronous classes or your synchronous classes had the strongest communities and why?
Hello! I liked your idea of using collaborative learning as way to create a community, having students do peer reviews and share notes is a wonderful way to get to know each other. I learned that using online resources to set up in-person meetings is a cool way to further introductions with class. What do you think is the hardest part about trying to build a community within your classroom?
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