I have to admit that I am one of those who thought that a strong sense of community in the classroom was only achievable through face to face interaction. I specifically choose my Master’s program based on the fact that I would be able to interact with students in a classroom setting. My idea of social community was interactive discussion with fellow students in the same room. I am realizing now that my reasoning may have been short sighted. My experience at Cerro Coso Online is teaching me that social community is achievable in an online classroom environment.
Alfred Rovai’s report, Building Sense of Community at a Distance, supports my experience at Cerro Coso. Rosvai states that effective schools provide students with a supportive community that online school’s have the challenge of creating that sense of community outside traditional means.
Rosvai further breaks down community into ten essential elements: mutual interdependence among members, sense of belonging, connectedness, spirit, trust, interactivity, common expectations, shared values and goals, and overlapping histories among members.
As a student outside the virtual classroom, it was easy to think that these essential elements were only attainable in traditional settings. My experience at Cerro Coso Online is proving me wrong. Belonging and connectedness are created not with physical presence in a four-walled classroom, but with the exchange of common ideas that has no limits.
Quality interaction, I am learning, can be achieved online. Students develop trust among members as discussion forums expand and assignment deadlines are met. They create a spirit of camaraderie through shared life histories and everyday events.
If online learning, therefore, can achieve community just as successfully as its classroom counterpart, then, how do learners and facilitators in a virtual classroom build community? Rosvai highlights seven factors: transactional distance, social presence, social equality, small group activities, group facilitation, teaching style and learning state and community size.
As I reflect on my current experience, I think the instructor has done an excellent job in incorporating these building blocks of online community. A short transactional distance has been achieved. Students are encouraged to interact frequently. Timelines and the amount and quality of participation are graded part of course requirements. Social presence has been nurtured by the instructor’s consistent engagement with students. At about 28, class size is manageable and small group activities have been established (i.e. the group charter due this week). Group facilitation is encouraged with forum based assignments. The teaching style of the instructor and the learning stage of students seem to match well as most of us are self-directed learners.
In conclusion, I will go so far as to characterize myself as a “convert” to online education. The social community that I have experienced among virtual class members clearly rivals that in a traditional classroom. So, I challenge those traditional learners out there, to expand your horizons, and join the growing numbers of converts to online education. You won’t be disappointed….
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2 comments:
Feeling as if you were in a community with an online group was strange at first, i to felt that online classes never allowed people to actually interact. However I am now an avid fan and even try to get people who go to classes on campus to take online classes.
And if the instructors do not push for interactions I do not think that there would be that sense of "camaraderie" as you said. It's so helpful to have a class and group that I can communicate whenever I am available to do so. So Blogs, Online Communities and Online college classes are now to me, extremely helpful and I feel very accepted and comfortable in them.
I guess the definition of being social will now include instant message and texting
Hi Therese,
You have done a wonderful job of succinctly synthesizing the important points from the reading, that lead the activities we've been engaged in this week, to promote social capital. Thank you for articulating that in such a clear manner, that really helped me relate the reading to my own experience.
While I had the sense that it was POSSIBLE to achieve a sense of community in online classes, I did not have a clear sense of how to do it. The readings and our class experience this week have made me a convert also! I look forward to providing the same level of excellence in facilitating social interaction for my own students some day. I feel it will take a while and some trial and error in working with different groups, but it will be an interesting and rewarding journey.
Rebecca
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