A sense of community is not easily obtained--either in an online environment or elsewhere. Getting people to work alongside one another is a classic dilemma that plagues humanity. We see this at our workplaces, in our families, between counties, and of course, in our online courses.
It is claimed that a greater sense of community is possible in an online course. I don't think this is necessarily so. I would argue that assigning group projects to students is a poor way to create community because it is forced. The students may or may not want to get to know the other members of their group; regardless, due to the fact that the students' initial motivation is their grade in the course, the sense of community is not well-developed, weak and pathetic. And who can blame them? How can something significant with respect to a community develop from a required community-developing assignment?
A casualty of exclusive online learning is our humanity. Our humanity is diminished when we exclusively communicate with others by artificial (technological) means. Some examples of communication by artificial means are: phone conversations, letter or email-writing, text messaging, etc. What have we lost? Some may argue that we haven't lost anything, because the words that we communicate are clear, but I would argue that we have lost something important in our human communication with one another. We cannot see facial expressions, or hear the tone of voice, or see body language--these are essential components of human communication. Facts can be communicated through artificial means, but a sense of community is not.
I have taken two online courses before taking this one, and although I may interact with members of my class, I do not feel like I am in a community with them. I didn't feel any connection with my fellow classmates. I think a good explanation for this is that it's particularly difficult to connect with someone when there isn't a face to associate to the text. When we exclusively know someone from the text they type, it's easy for us to classify them as an online entity: although we theoretically know that this person exists and lives a real life somewhere, it's easy for us to categorize them as an "online entity."
Another casualty of exclusive online learning is entropy in group assignments. In either synchronous or asynchronous settings, it is challenging to communicate efficiently to the other members of your group in a timely manner.
When we made our team charter, we found it challenging to come to a group consensus. We could use the synchronous or asynchronous methods of communication, and ultimately used a little of both. I don't think it is particularly effective because there is such a delay between responses (either in synchronous or asynchronous formats). Moreover, many times a few members of the group would type the same thing, which is a far cry from efficiency. I know that to get a group of people to work together is never a simple task--it always takes some work--but I'd like to wager that would could have agreed more quickly (and with fewer hindrances) if we had spoken in person. However, having said that, to meet in person would have taken quite a bit of driving time. So, although I think meeting in person is a better way of problem-solving, I am happy that I didn't have to drive a few hours to meet in a coffee shop. I think that entropy is a valid concern that online courses have to deal with.
I am not sure that I would like to force my students into an online community if/when I teach my online classes. In particular, for an online class in mathematics, I do not think that an online community is necessary, and I am not sure that it is beneficial. Having feedback/input from fellow classmates is irrelevant and impractical in a math course--impractical because communicating mathematics via text exclusively (without a special program involving mathematical symbols or diagrams) is terribly complicated.
8 comments:
You made some great observations. I am a novice at this online thing, but I would have to agree that there is an important element of communication missing. Considering that we get the majority of our communication information from body language, tone of voice, etc. and not from the actual words, I would have to say that an online environment is definitely a challenge!
Liked your post BN
the ad part is to me as pre watergate grown up is that vocab is so purified now even a lot of verbal context is lost. People said "then" not "at that point in time etc". "xxx challenged" yuk!
Good ideas! Over 90% of a message is nonverbal when we are face-to-face, but it is also most likely to deceit us. When we are exposed to both verbal and nonverbal messages, research shows that we find the nonverbal messages much more powerful. I can see your position that something would be missing. I personally believe that with community will come a better understanding of the subject matter. And for some students they are more likely to ask their peers a question than the instructor. I’m not saying that the class will become best friends. . .but hopefully they will have a sense that they are in this together. Heather
I have found by taking the one short class and this one that I have had very different experiences in the two. In the first one, it was just a get to know the online environment. I did not connect with anyone in the class. This term, with the group project and the introduction, I have found that I am connecting more. In fact, I feel like I am getting to know my group member's personalities through their writing. It definitely has me thinking more about how I can make my online classes more personal. I also wonder about doing enforced blogging. Last year I was part of a pilot study in hybrid classes. The students were not real happy about it. Overwhelmingly they said that if they had wanted to be online, they would have taken classes online. Instead, they wanted the personal face to face contact.
Brittany,
You have made some very good points. Yes, getting people to work together is difficult and the separation we are experiencing as online students makes it more difficult to form a sense of community. That being said, I do think that group work, even if forced, can and does create a sense of community and social capital. I found this to be true at the university I attended where group work was required. The group products were often much better than what we could have created on our own due to the broad knowledge base each member brought to the group.
I agree with Kat's comments that we are getting to know each other by online communications. Another reason to "force" communication and group interaction is so that each of us can exhibit our "voice" - our unique communication style. This becomes very important in totally online courses so that the instructor has a good sense of the student and their style of writing (their "voice"). Thus, the instructor can have more confidence that the student is the same person who enrolled in the class - something many in class instructors express as a fault with online instruction; i.e. do we really know that "Student Y" is in fact "Student Y", the one who enrolled?
These are great comments and I totally agree with you on the loss that we have experienced in the art of communication due to technology. I do think that the blog itself is a really useful tool though especially for those students who are the reluctant ones.I also see for teachers a chance to respond faster and more frequently.
Interesting... You remind me that people have different learning styles and that some people may not be as comfortable with technology as a medium to community as I am.
I do have a different feeling about whether you can get a real sense of community, of humanity, through "artificial means". There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that I'm a stay-at-home Mom with young kids, so practically the only outlet for professional development that I have is online. The other is that I have had the experience of online communities apart from the online classroom, which I agree with you is a somewhat artificial environment. I'll share with you a story...
One of the things that happened was shortly after I started my blog. I had commented that I really liked the design of some young kid, and he tracked-back to my blog and left a thank you. I remembered that he was from Lebanon, and that became important when, in the early weeks of July of last year, Beruit was being bombed.
I sent him an email, "are you ok?", and thankfully he was, although his apartment had been bombed! Over the next weeks we corresponded over chat and email as he shared with me his travails and successes and I fretted and prayed for him. This was one talented young man! He wasn't some face in an AP photograph, I knew him, you know?
As peace settled in Lebanon again, we gradually stopped talking so often, but we are still in touch. I would never had such a personal window on the crisis of last summer if not for the communication that was possible via the internet.
I have also had the experience of being involved in a lively group of learners and doers for an open source program I like to use, where the conversation is by choice, and not by fiat (as in a classroom), but I'll save that for another time because my comments have gotten long!
Brittany, you make some good points about challenges that students face when communicating with technology. And I agree that in a perfect world, students would self-organize and work collaboratively without motivation from grade requirements.
But students don't self-organize, and that is the vital role that the facilitator/instructor plays. I would disagree that the process of assigning an activity and having it grade-weighted devalues the meaning and benefit of the activity. Moreover, if you recall from the literature on Millennial students, they work best in an environment that balances structure and creativity. In my own experience, introducing group activities has improved retention and student satisfaction tremendously.
You make a great point that some disciplines, such as math, pose greater challenges to the design of collaborative activities. One idea that was suggested by a classmate is the use of group quizzes, in which small groups work on a problem and come to consensus about the solution. In such an activity, the sole benefit is not merely testing each student's knowledge, but also that it creates a support group for each student. I would think this would be particularly powerful in a math course.
Suzie
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