Creating Online Communities

Creating Online Communities – Richard Poole

Summary

There are significant pedagogical differences when delivering taught materials online at a distance, compared with the traditional campus-based delivery mode. Universities need to create high quality, digital content, suitable to express learning in an efficacious way through an online medium (Lentell, 2012). Developing a sense of community is a challenge as human-to-human interactions are limited and prominence needs to be placed on reducing any feelings of isolation for students. This is an area in need of attention as research has shown that an interactive learning pedagogy, facilitated by high quality digital resources, significantly impacts the student learning experience in terms of positive emotions, self-efficacy and stronger learning outcomes, when compared with traditional and antiquated distance learning approaches (McBain et al., 2016; Shorey et al., 2018; Wolverton, 2018; & Jeong et al., 2019).

This session will offer a selection of practical tips as to how to structure the VLE platform to facilitate a learning programme which supports engagement and community whilst learning at a distance. A particular focus will be placed on video content and collaboration forums as research has shown how video content can support the engagement of students and fosters a sense of community (Moore, 2014). Combined with online communal spaces (Heaney & Walker, 2012) and human interactions, rather than solely written communication, these pedagogical adaptations allow pertinent communication thus reducing isolation and improving self-efficacy through validation of opinions and reassurance regarding academic endeavours (Dueber & Misanchuk, 2001; & Lucero et al., 2017).

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