Carla Colbert is an eighth grade Algebra teacher in a Northern California Middle School. She has been a traditional classroom teacher for 20 years. Currently, she is a candidate in California State University, East Bay’s Master of Science in Education, Option in Online Teaching and Learning program. ” I am interested in the opportunity to engage students in math in a completely different setting than the traditional classroom.” Carla’s interests include the development of an online Algebra intervention course to support struggling math students.
How to Repair Instructors’ Biggest Errors with a Community Builder’s Toolbox
Throughout history, humans have revealed a natural urge to build community; from groups sitting in caves gathered around a fire, to 19th century women gathered around a quilting frame, to people in the 21st century gathered together communicating with an online discussion board, humans have built communities. In early civilizations, community was an important tool for survival. Although survival is not the concern online today, the desire to communicate and relate to other people continues and it is not surprising that we observe it in online communities. According to Wikipedia (2007), “Â…a community usually refers to a group of people who interact and share certain things as a group.” Traditionally, community has been defined as a social unit based on close geographical location, interest, identification, culture, and activities (Garvin & Tropman, 1992). An online learning community is a group of people who meet online with a purpose: to communicate, interact, and learn from each other. This paper deals with using the technology of discussion boards as an effective tool to online course community building.
Community and Discussion Boards
Online communities have been part of the Internet since its development; in reality, they existed before the Internet in the form of Newsgroups. Online communities were a strong force in the growth of the Internet during the period from 1993 to 1994 (Marathe, n.d.). A discussion board is the virtual space where people meet online to form social networks, the foundation for building trust among people that leads to community (Wang, 2003). Using threaded discussion boards is advantageous by virtue of their being asynchronous. Students do not need to schedule a time to communicate with their classmates. Another advantage of threaded discussion boards is the topics are neatly organized. However, this advantage of being a very organized discussion can also be a disadvantage. Too much information can quickly overwhelm students. As in face-to-face conversations that drift off the topic, a discussion board thread can also drift off the topic and students can lose track of the conversation because this tangent is categorized under the original thread (Boetcher, 1999). If navigating the discussion board is manageable, students do not feel isolated or overwhelmed, and therefore, the sense of community is maintained.
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Instructor Errors–Obstacles to Successful Discussion Boards
Online instructors use discussion boards to encourage intellectual dialogue among their students. Building community is not an easy job. Keeping the discussion flowing, coherent, and timely outweighs the challenges (Ebenezer, Lugo, Beirnaka, & Puvirajah, 2003). Nevertheless, as handy as it is for a student to go to the discussion board, whether it is day or night, to write to their cohorts about the course readings, students often are frustrated with discussion boards because there is the lack of connection, camaraderie, and friendly conflict that face-to-face courses offer with their discussions (Murray, 2000). The need for these three important components of communication brings about some of the biggest errors that instructors can make concerning community and discussion boards (Avoiding Online Discussion Pitfalls, 2007).
1. An instructor’s first error is not keeping discussions connected to course objectives or the course readings. Instructors must maintain a presence in the discussion board to keep the students on the topic and relating to the objectives of the course.
2. A second error is not monitoring students’ participation. Instructors thwart community building by allowing too little or too much participation by students. It is difficult to form a “community of learners” online, it takes time for students to build trust and speak freely because they cannot see each other. The opposite of the reluctant student is the student who takes over a discussion, intimidating others from commenting.
3. A third error is not monitoring students’ responses that are made without providing evidence. Students who make arbitrary discussion thread posts without providing references to back up the statements can lead to a subjective discussion.
Community Builder’s Toolbox–Resolutions to Discussion Board Obstacles
There are techniques an instructor can use to resolve the obstacles of maintaining successful discussion boards. These procedures are part of a community builder’s toolbox.
Tool one. As the instructor manages an online discussion, it is important to balance interactions among the students by keeping the focus on the learning objectives while making it interesting so the discussion draws the students in, but not so complicated that the discussion overwhelms them. The instructor should structure the discussion questions in advance in terms of the course’s objectives and require the students to answer the questions using details from their readings (Generating and Facilitating, 2006). This keeps the students connected to the community.
Tool two. By establishing the minimum or maximum number of postings per student by topic, the instructor avoids too little or too much student posting and can prevent discussion domination by a small number of students. This also makes reading the posts manageable for the instructor and students (Raleigh, 2000). Making expectations of participation explicit, posting guidelines in the class syllabus, and making participation part of the grade are ways to make students understand what is expected of them. Too little or too much discussion board participation can make or break the sense of community in the class. To cultivate a feeling of community, instructors can use student interactions, like appealing icebreakers, to help the students feel part of the culture of course (Generating and Facilitating, 2006). The greater the sense of camaraderie and community the students feel, the more meaningful and rich the discussions will be.
Tool three. The instructor’s postings during the first week in the class should model ways to support arguments by citing research studies or theories to back up comments. Show the students an excellent model. Virk (n.d.) found that the presence of the instructor in the discussion board is helpful if done well. He stated that the instructor should ask the right questions, provide insights, and model appropriate posts. When students support their arguments with resources and the instructor is continually present, the discussions contain friendly conflict not subjective opinions.
Conclusion
Since the goal of an online learning community is to help facilitate learning, creating a sense of community that is productive and beneficial for the online student is essential. With careful calculations and consideration, an instructor can use the communication in discussion boards to create community, by connection, camaraderie, and yes, even friendly conflict-tools from the community builder’s toolbox.
References
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