Impacts of Instructors on Creating a Supportive Community of Online Learners

 Impacts of Instructors on Creating a Supportive Community of Online Learners

By Sedi Minachi

 

Objective:  The Role of Faculty

A successful online course is marked by a high level of support provided by the instructor to the online learner community. It is expected that students want the instructor to initiate the creation of a supportive online community enabling them to communicate and engage with their classmates and the instructor in a non-judgmental environment.  Palloff and Pratt (1999) stated that creating a supportive online community results in students feeling welcomed and supported as they progress through their course without being impacted by discrimination, and feel safe to express themselves without being judged by other online community members (Palloff & Pratt, 1999).  

In an engaged learning environment, instructors have ethical and professional responsibilities to ensure they are approachable by their students, and that their community of learners is continuously supported regardless of who they are. Online courses designed and developed to provide students with a friendly/inclusive learning environment in which all students feel respected and empowered, and develop a sense of acceptance and belonging among them (Conrad & Conaldson, 2011). 

The objective of this journal is to reflect on the role of instructors in supporting a community of online learners and explore ways to maximize learning and other benefits. 

Reflective Comment: Success is Marked by Effective Engagement

In my opinion, a key element that faculty must be vigilant of while delivering an online course is whether learners experience a sense of community. One indicator of the absence of this sense of community and community building support from faculty is when students indicate they feel isolated and/or when a course has a high dropout rate. 

To prevent failure caused by a lack of support from faculty, it is essential for instructors to build trust and understanding between learners and between learners and faculty. Without this, students experience burnout and a sense of disconnection from the course is likely to follow (Kranzow, 2013).

To overcome the sense of isolation in an online classroom, Rovai (2002) recommends the following:

… one strategy to help increase retention is to provide students with increased affective support by promoting a strong sense of community. Such a strategy has the potential to reverse feelings of isolation, and, by making connections with other learners, to provide students with a broader base of academic support. (p. 12)

I believe that creating a supportive online learners’ community is difficult and requires creativity on the part of the instructor because students mainly work at their own pace and at times convenient to them. This implies that the main responsibility lies on the instructor to create strategies for learning and to provide guidance to students while connecting them together via technology and via their curricular decisions. Conrad and Donaldson (2011) suggest using an online icebreaker activity as one way to establish the supportive learning community and initiate interactions between community members. “If the instructor knows other experienced online learners in the environment, he or she may assign them a special role to play in the icebreaker, or even ask them to lead it (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011, p. 51).”

In echoing Conrad and Donaldson’s argument, and as a person who has taken several online courses, I pose that the faculty needs to be directly involved in creating a supportive online community by organizing students’ online group meetings/discussion and by sharing pedagogical course components with students. Without frequent interaction with students, students who are not used to participating in online courses can feel lost and confused.

Interpretive Comments: Team work and Collaborative work through Supportive Faculty

Building a supportive educational community among online learners is important because instructors establish role models for students to follow while students learn to care about their peers while participating in teamwork and collaborative learning.  

Instructors who are passionate about creating a supportive online community of learners are expected to spend more time to set up several groups at different times and form informal social interactions among students, and these informal interactions go beyond being mere discussion forums. This approach can be challenging for instructors teaching many courses simultaneously. These busy instructors can find it more challenging to develop a supportive environment and often due to lack of time and energy leave students to deal with the course on their own.

On the one hand, once students feel the presence of a supportive online community, they can develop friendships among themselves, and not only will they in many cases successfully finish their course, they may also use its example of teamwork and collaborative problem solving throughout their careers. 

On the other hand, once students are empowered to engage with each other through collaborative work and different activities like interacting with each other beyond the group discussion, they will share and exchange academic and non-academic experiences with peers, providing these learners with additional opportunities, especially for those new to technology and the online environment (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011). 

Decisional Comments: Applying a Supportive Online Community

As suggested by Conrad and Donaldson (2011), an icebreaker activity helps to create a supportive online classroom. In addition, faculty can connect with online learners by posting an introductory video welcoming students which goes beyond explaining the course and assignment expectations. For example, in this video faculty should encourage students to develop friendships among themselves and share their academic experiences and knowledge with each other in an informal setting. 

This step first requires students to introduce themselves by posting their bio or short introductory video of themselves. They should also have options for using different technological tools to interact socially and communicate with others engaged in collaborative course work. I am inspired by Conrad and Donaldson’s book (2011), Engaging the Online Community and feel positive about applying their words of wisdom in building a supportive online community in which all students feel safe to share their backgrounds, cultures, experience and knowledge with peers and the instructor in a non-structured setting which connects students with communities related to their course, and encourages them to build networks reaching beyond the classroom environment.

References

 Kranzow, J. (2013).  Faculty Leadership in Online Education:
Structuring Courses to Impact Student Satisfaction and Persistence.  MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, Vol. 9, No. 1, March 2013.                        Retrieved on March 4, 20014 from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol9no1/kranzow_0313.htm

Palloff, R M., & Pratt, K. (1999). Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Rovai, A. P. (2002). Building sense of community at a distance. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 3(1). Retrieved on March 4, 2014 from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/79/152

Conrad, R. M. & Donaldson, J. A. (2011). Peer Partnership and Team Activities. Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction. Jossey-Bass Wiley: San Francisco