N.Corchado Reflections:

Are you convinced that it is actually important to foster online learning community in your online classes?

Yes, I’m convinced that is important to foster online learning community in our online classes because is in a “learning” community where learning happens. To have a successful online class, you need one thing: the willingness of online learners to build an online learning community. But, this is not an easy task.
First of all, online learners have their own characteristics that are as the same token, different from f2f learners. For example, online learners have to take responsibility for their own learning and have to be active participants in the process in order to reach the higher level skills needed to accomplish a truly learning community. In order to reach this “active participation”, learners have to feel connected (engaged) with content as well as with other participants.
In Engaged Learning in an Online Environment, the author tell us about the importance of collaboration in a meaningful and actively way. This means, as David Lee’s 4L Model (Linking, Lurking, Learning, Leading) suggest, participants have to be “Learners”: regular visitors who contribute to the community regularly. In active learners’ contributions, they discuss and/or explain about others posts.
But again, this active participation happens if learners feels connected (engaged) in a learning environment which provide a supportive system from which sustainable learning processes are gained through dialogue and collaborative construction of knowledge by acquiring, generating, analyzing and structuring information (Jobring as cited in Carlen, 2002). Also, the learning environment have to give to participants a feeling of belonging, a feeling that, according to McMillan (1986), “members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be together”. When a learning environment successfully achieves this level of emotional connection then, it becomes a “community”, a learning community where learning happens and this is what we are looking for.
As an instructor, as well as a learner, I consider that accomplishing all of the above is a difficult task. In these times when even standard education is a challenge, an instructor can sometimes not achieve these goals. Communication and learning patterns are far more dynamic and transcend neat categories (Solomon as cited in Muirhead, 2004).
One thing is for sure; motivation is required for successful learning. Fostering an online learning community aids in motivating a deeper interaction between members of the class and the instructor. An online learning may also provide a less structured forum to discuss class related topics that can be provided by some online classes. This may foster a better environment for students for express them.



References:
*Carlén U. (2002, November). "Typology of Online Learning Communities". Paper presented at the 2002 First International Conference on NetLearning . Retrieved September 10, 2010), from http://learnloop.org/olc/publications.htm
*McMillan, D. W., & Chavis, D.M. (1986). Sense of community: A definition and theory. American Journal of Community Psychology, 14(1), 6-23.
*Muirhead, B. (2004, June). Encouraging Interaction in Online Classes. International journal of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning, Article 07. Retrieved in September 24, 2010, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jun_04/article07.htm
*Palloff, R. & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.