Thoughts on Online Community

Image: Professional Learning Communities in Second Life

Thoughts on Online Community – Reflections on the Video below

Which of these approaches are appropriate to my discipline?
Which would force a redesign of my current teaching practices?

Whatever my thoughts on this, we are all about to find out the answers!

Here are some notes from the interviews in the video:

Jeremy Knox
Digital Spaces can be isolating.

Fostering community is important. Give students people to connect with – it motivates them and helps them keep on track with their studies.

Sharon Boyd
There is the happy experience of unexpectedly becoming part of an online community from one course to another.

Areti Manakawi
MOOC forums are fun for students.
The best discussions became sharing enthusiasm.
Weekly forums, social forum, and general discussion forum were inspired by MOOCs.

Dr Sharron Ogle

Students learn from each other: with prompts, focus and directions from us they share their collective knowledge.

Louise Connolly
Create a sense of place. Use avatar photos.
Academic staff are encouraged to use the same photo on each platform.
A sense of identity helps build a sense of community.

Jean-Benoit Falisse
Community and a group of friends was an added value of the Masters programme.
Online, some of that happens with Facebook and LinkedIn groups.
We could do more to create opportunities in other spaces for them to exchange ideas informally.
It’s good to encourage networking with alumni around the world by creating non-digital opportunities to meet.

(Image by F Delventhal via Flickr: "Professional Learning Communities: On March 11 2008 the DEN in Second Life hosted a discussion on Professional and Personal Learning Communities." License: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) )