AVLN: JAE - Learning Communities

Journal of Adventist Education
Distance Education Issue - April/May 2003

Creating Learning Communities in Online Classrooms
By Don C. Roy and Shirley A. Freed (pp. 17-19)

The term community is used to refer to a lot of loosely related concepts [1]. A clue to its true meaning, however, lies in its Latin root, communis, meaning “commonly shared.” Thus, a “community” consists of individuals who are connected by something they hold in common. Parker Palmer, in his seminal work, To Know as We Are Known, observes that “at the frontiers of intellectual life, scholars now regard the concept of community as indispensable in describing the terrain that educators inhabit.” [2]

But what does this mean in practical terms? What are the implications of community for the learning environment in general, and the online environment in particular? How can educators facilitate its development?

Seeking Community
The idea of community harmonizes with God’s design for human beings—to be intelligent, communicative, moral meaning-makers and decision-makers. In essence, humans are relational beings who do not function optimally unless they are in community. As John Donne wrote, “No man is an island.” Similar sentiments are echoed in Paul’s metaphor, “the body of Christ.” The sad reality, however, is that because of the Fall, we all experience fragmentation and alienation both personally and corporately.

Education’s Goal
From a Christian perspective, the goal of education is to reverse this predicament---to restore connectedness and wholeness through a process of development that encompasses the physical, mental, social, spiritual, and emotional faculties. [3] This requires a teaching style and curricula that integrate the various aspects of education in ways that are meaningful for every student.

The Learning Community
Traditionally, learners have been regarded as mere receptors in a one-directional process. However, learning represents a dialectic relationship between individuals and their community. This places obligations and responsibilities on individual members, whose contributions affect the ethos, culture, and integrity of the learning process. Each person makes unique contributions to the whole.

Wilson and Ryder state that “groups become communities when they interact with each other and stay together long enough to form a set of habits and conventions, and when they come to depend upon each other for the accomplishment of certain ends.” [4] Dwayne Huebner uses the metaphor of weaving to describe how individuals create a “fabric of life” [5] that interweaves ideas, abstractions, memories, biblical metaphors, and cultural mores derived from the faith community and the relationships within it. He argues that a life lived in the intimacy and context of those relationships affirms a personal and a collective past that, in turn, acknowledges and celebrates the presence of God.

The Place of the Teacher
Many teachers wonder how to create community in the “faceless” environment of an online classroom. There are some helpful parallels. Even though Christians have never “seen” Christ’s face, He is still very real to them. Similarly, many strong, long-lasting social relationships are based on written correspondence and telephone conversations. In the online context, students frequently testify to rich and meaningful personal exchanges—cognitively, spiritually, and socially—despite the lack of physical contact.

Teachers play a key role in creating a learning community. Their personal qualities (enthusiasm, communication style, spiritual commitment, etc.) have a major impact on students, enabling them to “weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects, and their students so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves. . . .The connections made by good teachers are held not in their methods but in their hearts …the place where intellect, emotion and spirit will converge in the human self.” [6]

The quality of those connections will be evident in the life, ethos, and relationships of the learning community. The teacher has the primary responsibility in this area. He or she will need to use a variety of techniques (bulletin boards, chat rooms, telephone conferences, E-mail, listservs) because people react in varying ways to the online environment. Paloff and Pratt have found that “people who are introverts are more adept at creating a virtual environment because they can process information internally and are less outgoing socially. It is more comfortable for an introvert to spend time thinking about information before responding to it. It is more difficult—but not impossible—for extroverts to interact this way, perhaps because they have less need to.” [7] Extroverts tend to establish their social presence by talking, laughing, and intuitively reading body language—something that is harder to do in the online space.

Online Learning Communities
Zimmer, Harris, and Muirhead suggest that “An online community has many of the same characteristics as a ‘real’ community. It offers individual support to its members so that they can feel safe to communicate openly, which in turn allows them to develop the shared vision that they need in order to learn together.” [8] Palloff and Pratt say that “in online distance education, attention needs to be paid to developing a sense of community in the group of participants in order for the learning process to be successful.” [9] Downs describes “online learning” as focusing on content, in contrast with “online communities,” which focus on interaction. [10] The challenge is to combine these two ideas, to integrate content and communication so that effective learning takes place.

In traditional education, the content is dispensed by teachers who are academic experts and who interact “live” with a classroom full of students. However, Palloff and Pratt point out that “teaching in the cyberspace classroom requires that we move beyond traditional models of pedagogy into new practices that are more facilitative.” [11] Since online learning takes place more through collaboration, teachers and students can facilitate this by managing the pace of conversations, asking questions, clarifying, summarizing, making connections between topics, and maintaining a positive tone in the online space.

In order for this level of interaction to occur, teachers and administrators need to address the issue of class size. In the early 1990s, administrators and business people thought online classes would be major cash cows for their institutions, and writers in various publications declared optimistically that cyber-instructors could enroll and teach hundreds of students with minimal time expenditure. Such illusions were rapidly shattered when it became clear that it took just as much, if not more, time to prepare and present instruction, grade papers, and interact with students online as it did in a regular classroom. In her dissertation study of six exemplary online courses, Eggers [12] found that teachers believed the optimal class size was five to 500 (the class with 500 students, however, made provision for students to work in small groups with student mentors for each).

Fifteen to 20 students seems to be an optimal online class size, in order to ensure that interaction is a key element of the class. (Incidentally, standards for online classes consistently identify interaction as a key element in the learning environment.) Larger classes can work if the teacher divides students into smaller groups and uses teaching assistants. Building community in the online course stands or falls on the quality and amount of interaction between teacher and students, and among class members, so teachers must plan for ways to make this occur. One way to do this is to organize the class so that small groups work together and then report back to the class (chat rooms work well for this). Another way is to use peer-review processes for written work.

Moussou and White have identified five key attributes of online communication:

Some of these seemingly negative attributes can be dealt with by encouraging students to dialogue rather than simply post completed assignments, [14] using emoticons (characters like smiley faces that show the emotion of the sender), [15] offering suggestions for creating excellent questions in the bulletin board space, [16] and studying how to design discussions [17] and facilitate online conversations. [18] Each of these activities helps ensure that this largely text-based medium provides for the social/emotional needs as well as intellectual needs of students.

Integrating Faith in Online Communities
Techniques and strategies are important, but they do not occur in a vacuum. For Adventist educators, the context makes a vital difference because it facilitates the integration of faith and learning. Such considerations are also fundamental to and reflected in the Adventist Virtual Learning Network standards. [19] As part of the effort to promote this distinctiveness, the model in Diagram 1 portrays the interrelationship between the various elements and concepts:

The Cultural Context: Here we find the goals of the learning community, its vision, and its sense of mission. Everyone who participates in the organization must understand its raison d’être, which is explained by a growing tradition based on the organization’s “grand story.” A sense of identity emerges from this shared purpose.

The values, ideas, mores, and customs that characterize Adventist culture must be expressed through the interaction between the teacher and students. Sometimes, these cultural expressions will be “visible”: for example, through the selection of reading materials or the schedule chosen by the teacher (including the incorporating of time for prayer and devotional sharing throughout the course). At other times, they will occur more subtly—through caring responses to students experiencing scholastic, technical, or personal difficulties, or by offering impromptu spiritual lessons related to online discussions.

The Learning Environment: In the online classroom, learning is much more than a cognitive exercise focused on information transfer and regurgitation of facts. The context is also important. It must be sensitive to the characteristics of human nature.

In Parker Palmer’s view, [20] three “spaces” are indispensable to effective learning:

The proposed model incorporates these spaces, shows their interrelatedness, and represents them in the cultural context in which they are embedded. (See Diagram 1.)

Building and Maintaining the Online Learning Community
The traditional learning environment emphasizes intellectual space, for this is where concepts, skills, and understandings are addressed and where teacher-student engagement occurs. However, in the online learning environment, the focus shifts from content to interactivity. In traditional settings, students expect teachers to share their expertise through lectures, while students assume a passive role, taking notes on the facts presented, then reproducing the information on a test at the end of the course. However, the online environment is ideally suited for use of a learner-centered pedagogy that emphasizes collaborative, interactive, active-learning techniques and encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning—thus blending the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual spaces

Online learning can honor student diversity by incorporating multiple means of learning and responding. In addition to the use of traditional readings, study resources, and stimulus material, online instructors can encourage interaction and teamwork by using threaded discussion forums, synchronous chats, collaborative assignments, personal E-mail, and Internet searches. Critical thinking, creativity, and decision-making can be encouraged and affirmed. A free online resource entitled Online Tutoring e-Book, Chapter 3—“Building an Online Learning Community” provides many helpful suggestions. [21]

The importance of the emotional climate in the online environment cannot be overemphasized. Paloff and Pratt state that “when working to draw participants in and keep them connected, it is important to remember that real people are attached to those posted messages—people who have lives as well as human needs and expectations.” [22] The “human side” of each student can be accentuated by having them share photos, short biographies, or individual Web pages with human-interest information like hobbies and family relationships, etc. It is also helpful to plan for an introduction and ending to the class that is social in nature. This could be as simple as opening a thread in the discussion board where students introduce themselves and explain what they expect from the course, how they learned about the class, previous experiences in online education, etc. These kinds of activities are especially important if students have not met face to face.

Distance education should provide a safe, supportive environment. Appropriate communication standards must be defined in advance and consistently enforced. [23] Communication skills and rules should be taught directly. Students will be more likely to be creative and to try new things if they are treated sensitively and affirmed by their teacher and fellow students. “Students need to gather in cyberspace, just as they do on the campus of a university. To accomplish this, they need to establish a sense of presence online; that allows their personality to come through to others in the group.” [24] Creating special forums where students can share concerns relating to family, spiritual life, school, and world events is easy to do. If you name such forums “Water Cooler,” “Student Lounge,” or “Prayer Room,” students more readily move into conversations typical of those kinds of spaces elsewhere in their lives. Don’t be afraid to tell jokes and share cartoons. Laughter and humor should happen in online classes, too!

The online teacher must be alert to signs of learners’ personal difficulty and find ways to deal with them constructively. To minimize confusion and anxiety, online teachers must ensure that course information, guidelines, expectations, and procedural details are communicated to students. It’s important to monitor discussion boards daily to ensure that posts get specific feedback. When students first use a bulletin board, they haven’t developed an online voice and tend to be quite insecure about whether they will be “heard.” They wonder if anyone will notice their post and respond to them. The teacher should encourage these timid ones, as well as the “lurkers” to move into the discussion. This can be done privately using E-mail rather than the discussion space.

Teachers also need to develop their conflict-resolution skills. [25] Online learning communities commonly experience tensions that threaten productive learning. However, both teachers and students report that resolving such difficulties usually leads to enhanced understanding, ethos, strengthened interpersonal relationships, and a renewed feeling of spiritual connection with God and others.

The Spiritual Dimension
For Christian teachers, the spiritual dimension is always a priority. They can seek ways to creatively integrate faith and learning, even in apparently secular subjects. Such efforts need not necessarily be overt or directly connected to the content of the subject. Recognizing students as created in the image of God, and relating to them accordingly, is truly sacramental. (See Matthew 25:40.) Whatever fosters deep connection, meaning, and purpose in the lives of students will nurture spirituality and invite the presence of God. The faith modules at the AVLN Web site suggest some questions a Christian educator must think about: What does it mean to be human? What is faith? What does it mean to know? [26]

When teachers and students have dealt with these basic questions, there will often be “serendipitous moments” when inspired, unplanned insights emerge from class activities. Sometimes, the insights will not relate directly to the subject matter, but nevertheless, enrich the moment as they are shared by the members of the learning community. I (Don) frequently recall the emotion I experienced the first time I was asked unexpectedly by the tutor to pray online. Others who were “present” on that occasion still recall the special quality of the fellowship we shared.

Sometimes such events will be part of a Christian teacher’s regular practice, but on other occasions, they will occur spontaneously, as the faith, grace, and integrity of the teacher flows into and enriches the learning community. Learners, too, can make a contribution in this area. As trust develops between teacher and students and between learners, they will find many opportunities to share and to build a caring, interactive community online, to the glory of God. In creating something “in common,” they will achieve the goals of Christian education.

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Dr. Don C. Roy is Associate System Director (Curriculum) for Adventist Schools Australia. In addition to facilitating the development of curriculum resources for K-12, he maintains an interest in teaching and writing relating to the philosophy of Christian education. Dr. Roy is fascinated with the idea of faith integration in schools, facilitating fresh understanding of its significance, and exploring with teachers ways of making it a reality in a range of settings, especially in the online environment. He writes from Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia, and can be reached by E-mail at droy@adventist.org.au.

Dr. Shirley A. Freed is one of the Coordinators for this special issue of the Journal. She is a professor in the School of Education at Andrews University. She is currently teaching all of her classes online and loves the flexibility and deep discussions generated by her graduate students. She is committed to networking with others in the Adventist system so that more students can have access to Seventh-day Adventist education—worldwide.

This article has been peer reviewed.
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NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. Nancy White, “How Some Folks Have Tried to Describe Community.” See http://www.fullcirc.com/community/definingcommunity.htm.
2. Parker J. Palmer, To Know as We Are Known: A Spirituality of Education (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983), p. xiii.
3. Ellen G. White, Education (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Publ. Assn., 1903).
4. Brent Wilson and Martin Ryder, "Dynamic Learning Communities: An Alternative to Designed Instructional Systems." See http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/dlc/html.
5. Dwayne Huebner, “Practicing the Presence of God,” Religious Education 82:4 (Fall 1987).
6. Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1998), p. 11.
7. Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt, Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999), p. 22.
8. Bob Zimmer, Rachel Harris, and Brent Muirhead, Online Tutoring e-Book: http://otis.scotcit.ac.uk/onlinebook/otisT307.htm.
9. Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt, Lessons From the Cyberspace Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001), p. 20.
10. Creating an Online Learning Community. See http://www.atl.ualberta.ca/downes/resources/Learning_Community.ppt.
11. Palloff and Pratt, Lessons From the Cyberspace Classroom, p. 20.
12. Marilyn Ruth Eggers, Web-Based Courses in Higher Education: Creating Active Learning Environments. Ph.D. dissertation, 1999, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan.
13. Miheala Moussou and Nancy White: http://www.fullcirc.com/community/avoidingconflict.htm .
14. See http://www.avln.org/learning/aot/dialogue.htm .
15. See http://www.fullcirc.com/community/emoticons.htm.
16. See http://www.avln.org/resources/webct/level1/6questions.htm.
17. See http://www.avln.org/resources/standards/rwritecomm.htm.
18. See http://www.fullcirc.com/community/facilitips.htm.
19. See http://www.avln.org/standards.htm.
20. Palmer, The Courage to Teach.
21. See http://otis.scotcit.ac.uk/onlinebook/otis-t3.htm.
22. Paloff and Pratt, Lessons From the Cyberspace Classroom, p. 107.
23. See http://www.albion.com/netiquette/.
24. Palloff and Pratt, Lessons From the Cyberspace Classroom, p. 11.
25. See http://www.fullcirc.com/community/avoidingconflict.htm.
26. See http://www.avln.org/faith/index.htm.