Setting Up an Online Learning Experience

Setting Up an Online Learning Experience

By creating a positive learning experience, the instructional designer can ensure an effective learning outcome for the learners. To ensure the learning experience will be positive, there are several elements the instructional designer should incorporate into the planning and designing of the online learning course.

What is the significance of knowing the technology available to you?

By knowing the technologies that are available to them, instructors can design an effective online experience, making sure they are implementing the proper online technology for the occasion. Instructors are better able to plan out how to effectively incorporate the technology into the course to maximize on learner engagement and understanding. Technologies offer the instructor better data recording and reporting functionality. With knowing what types of technologies are available, instructors can learn those technologies they are not familiar with, to have a functioning knowledge of the technology by the time the online environment starts. Knowing the technologies available helps the instructor plan out the best approaches to communicating complex topics, and how to promote learner engagement better.

Why is it essential to communicate clear expectations to learners?

Clear and unambiguous guidelines about what is expected of learners and what they can expect from the instructor can make a significant contribution to ensuring understanding and satisfaction (Boettcher & Conrad, 2016). When an instructor communicates the expectations to the learner, the instructor can determine if the learner understands what will be expected of them and what they are expected to gain from the learning experience. The learners can identify what they will be expected to do at the completion of the learning experience. When the learning outcomes are not clear or are not provided to the learners, learners can get lost or feel as though the information may not pertain to them. Also, without knowing the expectations of the online experience learners may not have the motivation needed to complete the program.

What additional considerations should the instructor take into account when setting up an online learning experience?

When creating an online course, the instructor should take the following items into account:

·         The is a syllabus that will provide the learners with a high-level overview of what to expect in the course.

·         The instructor should provide learners with rubrics for assignments and discussions requirements. The rubric provides learners with the expectations for each item that will be graded.

·         The instructor needs to make sure they plan an icebreaker to allow the learners to get acquainted with one another and establish a positive tone for the online experience.

·         The instructor needs to ensure that the learning outcomes, assessments, and experiences are all aligned and consistent with one another.

·         The instructor should also be sure to have a set of housekeeping guidelines to make all of the learners are aware of what is expected with their interactions with one another.

·         The instructor needs to be aware of the learner’s current experience level in the online learning environment.

Reference

Boettcher, J., & Conrad, R. (2016). The Online Teaching Survival Guide (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Online Learning Communities

Online Learning Communities

An online learning community is a public or private destination on the Internet that addresses the learning needs of its members by facilitating peer-to-peer learning (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2016). Online learning communities provide a way for learners to engage with their peers, the facilitator, and the learning content. In an online learning community, facilitators are no longer relying on lengthy lectures to pass on knowledge to the learners. The faculty role shifts to more coaching, guiding and mentoring (Boettcher & Conrad, 2016).

How do online learning communities significantly impact both student learning and satisfaction within online courses?

 Engaged learning has been described as a collaborative process, in which an individual learns through negotiations between multiple personalities. This collaborative acquisition of knowledge is one key to the success of creating an online learning environment (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011). In an online learning community, learners can have a deeper understanding of concepts by participating in discussions with their peers. Facilitators are then able to challenge learner responses to topics promoting deeper thoughts on the given topic. Learners walk away from the experience feeling more knowledgeable about the course content, and able to hold a more meaningful conversation regarding the topic.

What are the essential elements of online community building?

The key elements of an online learning environment include:

·         Students establishing their own learning goals

·         Students working together in groups

·         Exploring the appropriate resources to answer questions

·         Task that are multidisciplinary and authentic

·         Assessments that are performance based and ongoing

·         Products that are shared with an audience beyond the classroom (Johnson, 1998)

How can online learning communities be sustained?

The four essential elements for every structured learning experience consist of the learner, the faculty/mentor, the content, and the learning environment. For a facilitator to maintain an effective online community, they must develop trust between the learners. By developing trust, learners will be more confident in engaging and holding discussions with their peers. This is extremely important since with the online learning, the learning occurs from the discussions had and the different perspectives on a given topic.

What is the relationship between community building and effective online instruction?

When learners feel comfortable and trusting of their peers, they are confident enough to have meaningful engagement with them. When we design engaging learning experiences, learners spend more time interacting with and develop more complex, better-structured knowledge bases and efficient automatic behaviors (Boettcher & Conrad, 2016). As described in the text Engaging the Online Learner, engaged learning is a collaborative process. The community is essential for the online instruction to be effective.

Conclusion

Going forward, when developing online courses, I see the importance of ensuring peer to peer interaction occurs in a meaningful manner. As the facilitator, it is my responsibility to begin the course with icebreakers and activities that will allow learners to become familiar with each other and build trust. Reflecting on my past experiences as a facilitator in online classes, I can see how I was the type of instructor that wanted to jump into the core of the content and begin teaching. Following that approach did not provide much of an opportunity for my learners to get to know each other and become comfortable with one another. Another item that I have learned during my research this week is to allow the learners to control their own learning goals. As the facilitator, I should challenge the learners and promote deeper though on a concept, however, I should not be controlling the pace of the learning the entire time.

References

Boettcher, J., & Conrad, R. (2016). The Online Teaching Survival Guide (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2011). Engaging the Online Learner (Rev ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Johnson, M. (2000). Article for School Times. Retrieved from http://www.ash.udel.edu/incoming/mjohnson/article1.html

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. (2016, September 24). Online learning community. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_learning_community