By Marsha Haynes
Increasing Interactivity for Greater Community Engagement among Online LearnersAdvances in technology are amazing. More convenient and faster ways of staying connected are developed each year. However, as more institutions adopt new online technology as a means of reaching increasing numbers of students and providing efficient low cost cyber-classrooms, educators and course designers must also consider new ways of teaching the cyber-student effectively. U.S. News and World Report (January 14, 2008) stated that online courses often can be boring, have higher dropout rates and—“on average—yield lower grades than regular students get.” The article offers hope in reporting that professors and schools are redesigning their courses to take advantage of the web’s interactive possibilities to make courses more exciting and effective than traditional classrooms. Students say that a good E-learning course “inspires them to work harder.”(Clark, 2008) Isn’t that the goal of every educator—to instill in their students the desire to learn and to work harder? How can this be done in the online format? What kind of interaction is needed by the student to maximize learning and how is that best accomplished? When students are connected to other classmates in learning communities, is their online learning enhanced? This paper will explore the answers to these questions.
Why are communities important?
“Communities are at the heart of civilization, society, organizations, and learning.” (elearnspace, 2007) Students in asynchronous online courses work miles from one another at various times of the day and night. The feeling of aloneness that a student experiences can be overcome and learning enhanced by the creation of communities among the participants. In my experience as an online learner I was quite surprised at how much the interaction and encouragement from other students afftected the quality of my learning and enjoyment of the course. Studies have shown that the idea of community is an important element in distance learning because it affects student satisfaction, retention and learning. (Brown, 2001) Utilizing technology instructors can create gathering places for learning—communities that allow students to share and contrast their own views against those of others, offer a place to grow, connect and gain a larger perspective. As the community develops, members gain a responsibility for their own learning but also have a desire to help teammates learn as well. I have observed this when classmates have expressed frustration or concern over a particular assignment. Other members of the class have come to their rescue in sending extra e-mails and postings to support the class member. This type of association can’t help but create greater retention and increased enjoyment of the course.
Can interactivity build greater engagement among students?
It would seem that online learning environments are well suited for collaborative learning. Palloff and Pratt (2001) have studied this extensively and found that if the learning activities are carefully designed to include interactive projects and the instructor acts more as a guide than its director, the students will take responsibility for their own learning. The interactivity that needs to occur will only happen if the instructor lets go of the control of the course and empowers the students. Instead of an instructor “teaching” the content of the course students should be “encouraged to embark on a process of discovery with one another, rather than being told what they need to memorize or know.” Some distance education courses I have taken only required that the student read the text and take a test at the end. There was no interaction or engagement with other students. It was tortuous and difficult to stay motivated. On the other hand, courses that did include interactivity with other students were more interesting and memorable. Relationships were formed that led to further engagement after the course was over. It would appear as Pallof and Pratt (2001) indicate that the greatest and most profound learning comes through reflection and interaction with one another.
What are the possible outcomes and implications?
As community develops within the online course, social capital is increased giving more enjoyment, satisfaction and self-esteem to those engaged in the learning process. The feelings of camaraderie and concern for the success of other students I experienced were completely unexpected but added so much depth and meaning to the courses. As stated by Imel and Stein (2003), “Social capital becomes an outcome of learning as well as a resource to enhance learning.” Although many educators would agree that interactivity is important in the education process, researchers have observed that even though the communication tools may exist (whiteboards, chat rooms, videoconferencing, e-mail) most online instruction in the past has been focused on student-content and self-study lessons and materials. Just making these tools available to students does not mean that they will use them. Unless the interactivity is “an integrated, essential and graded part of the online learning environment, students will not use it nor gain the benefit from the community interaction. (Moallem, 2003)
What are some suggested methods for increasing interactivity?
One suggested method for increasing interactivity among groups is to have an orientation at the beginning of the course covering what is expected in an on-line community and the benefits of community building. Most students don’t realize that online learning is an opportunity to learn from each other, to network and to gain support beyond what the instructor can provide. (Brown, 2001) Another suggestion to increase interactivity is to build an opportunity for students to learn more about each other to facilitate commonalities and to establish comfort levels. Students could be encouraged to share email address and phone numbers and be encouraged to interact beyond the required responses. (Brown, 2001)Reflection assignments several times during the semester that ask students to evaluate their experiences with the learning community will also improve the interactivity and help instructors design better courses. Students could be asked what they have done to contribute to the community, what others have done to help them feel more a part of a community and what they still see as needs for optimal interaction. This assignment reminds learners that online interaction is important and can benefit them now and in the future. It also shows students that development of community is valued by the instructor and a course expectation. If students are given this background and provided with the expectations, interaction should happen more readily. (Brown, 2001)Other research indicates that discussions promote interaction between students, but don’t provide teamwork-based interactions. (Scarnati, 2001) Online courses that incorporate teamwork can actually create a synergy of learning resulting in a greater amount of learning than the sum of individual efforts. In order for teams to be successful in creating a unified community of learners an orientation to online teaming and successful conduct of team activities should be implemented. Teams will be more effective if they establish guidelines, ground rules and roles. In addition, online teams will be more successful if they are not assigned tasks that require a high degree of coordination. Problem-solving tasks are more suitable for the online collaborative learning environment. Groups will be more stable and effective if they work with each other for longer periods of time, therefore it is suggested that the groups remain the same for the entire semester. Instructors should facilitate smooth interaction among group members and encourage group members “to help one another, exchange needed resources, provide appropriate feedback on performance, and encourage efforts toward achieving the group goals.” (Moallem, 2003) Group size will also affect the interaction of the group. Optimal size is groups of three to four. Finally, interaction will be increased if the course requires well-designed and well-developed collaborative tasks or problems or activities that stimulate peer interaction and encourage peer collaboration. Supplementing the group activities with individual learning activities will also add to the strength and contributions of each member. This also allows the instructor to provide individual feedback to encourage students to examine alternative perspectives and resources. (Moallem, 2003)
Conclusion
Communities play a vital part in online learning by using technology to create a student gathering place. Leaving interactivity out of the curriculum denies a student the opportunity for broader perspective, the enjoyment of social capital, and increased learning. There are many different collaborative tools available electronically, however, it is not the tools that make the difference in the quality of the learning experience. Instructors that create well designed courses that prepare students for the online experience by setting proper expectations and providing encouragement and reflection along the way will be effective in increasing interactivity and helping students to make important connections in their online experience.
EDUI 6707 Midterm
Professor Datta kaur Khalsa
February 15, 2008
References
Brown, R.E., (2001). The process of community-building in distance learning classes. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 5(2),18-35.
Clark, K. (2008, January 10). New Answers for E-Learning. Retrieved February 5, 2008, from U.S. News and World Report: http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/e-learning/2008/01/10/new-answers-for e-learning.htm
elearnspace. (2007). Retrieved September 4, 2007, from http://www.elearnspaace.org/managing/community.htm
Imel, S. and Stein, D. (2003) Creating self-awareness of learning that occurs in community. 2003 Midwest Research to Practice Conference in Adult, Continuing, and Community Education, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, October 8-10, 2003.
Moallem, M. (2003, December). An interactive online course: A collaborative design model. Educational Technology, Research and Development, pp. 85-103.
Palloff, R.M., and Pratt, K. (2001). Lessons from the cyberspace classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Scarnati, J. (2001). On becoming a team player. Team Performance Management, 7 (12), 5.