Developing Online Communities: New Roles for Instructors, New Roles for Students

1. Developing Online Communities: New Roles for Instructors, New Roles for Students Dr. Curtis J. Bonk Indiana University CourseShare.com http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk cjbonk@indiana.edu

2. Are You Ready???

3. Administrators and faculty members at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are debating what could become a $100-million effort to create extensive World Wide Web pages for nearly every course the university offers. Jeffrey R. Young, March 1, 2001, The Chronicle of Higher Ed

4. Faculty Entrepreneurship Douglas Rowlett has turned his English-department office into a virtual radio station that broadcasts continuously on the Internet, offering a mix of poetry readings, lectures, and popular music. He plans to deliver entire courses over the Internet radio station. Jeffrey R. Young (Jan 8., 2001). Chronicle of Higher Ed.

5. What if you are on too much?

6. When unable to access the Internet or forbidden to go online, do you feel: A. Anxiety B. Depression C. Mood swings D. Irritability E. Insomnia F. Panic attacks G. Restlessness

7. How many hours per week do you currently spend online(for nonessential purposes)? • Do you feel preoccupied with the Internet? • Have you ever used the Internet to escape situational difficulties? • Does Internet use disrupt your work or job-related performance?

8. Contact the Center for On-Line AddictionsNetaddiction.comDr. Kimberly Young, Univ of PittsburghCaught in the Net (1998), John Wiley and Sons

9. What Other Supports Do You Need?David Greenfield, Founder of the Center for Internet Studies (www.virtual-addiction.com)

10. To Cope with the Explosion, We Need Instructor E-Learning Support!!!

11. Administrative: “Lack of admin vision.” “Lack of incentive from admin and the fact that they do not understand the time needed.” “Lack of system support.” “Little recognition that this is valuable.” “Rapacious U intellectual property policy.” “Unclear univ. policies concerning int property.” Pedagogical: “Difficulty in performing lab experiments online.” “Lack of appropriate models for pedagogy.” Time-related: “More ideas than time to implement.” “Not enough time to correct online assign.” “People need sleep; Web spins forever.” Problems Faced

12. TrainingOutside Support • Training (FacultyTraining.net) • Courses & Certificates (JIU, e-education) • Reports, Newsletters, & Pubs • Aggregators of Info(CourseShare, Merlot) • Global Forums (FacultyOnline.com; GEN) • Resources, Guides/Tips, Link Collections, Online Journals, Library Resources

13. Certified Online Instructor Program • Walden Institute—12 Week Online Certification (Cost = $995) • 2 tracks: one for higher ed and one for online corporate trainer • Online tools and purpose • Instructional design theory & techniques • Distance ed evaluation • Quality assurance • Collab learning communities

14. Inside Support… • Instructional Consulting • Mentoring (strategic planning $) • Small Pots of Funding • Help desks, institutes, 1:1, tutorials • Summer and Year Round Workshops • Office of Distributed Learning • Colloquiums, Tech Showcases, Guest Speakers • Newsletters, guides, active learning grants, annual reports, faculty development, brown bags, other professional development

15. Technology Professional Development workshop participants practice their new skills.

16. Four Key Hats of Instructors: • Technical—do students have basics? Does their equipment work? Passwords work? • Managerial—Do students understand the assignments and course structure? • Pedagogical—How are students interacting, summarizing, debating, thinking? • Social—What is the general tone? Is there a human side to this course? Joking allowed?

17. Study of Four Classes(Bonk, Kirkley, Hara, & Dennen, 2001) • Technical—Train, early tasks, be flexible, orientation task • Managerial—Initial meeting, FAQs, detailed syllabus, calendar, post administrivia, assign e-mail pals, gradebooks, email updates • Pedagogical—Peer feedback, debates, PBL, cases, structured controversy, field reflections, portfolios, teams, inquiry, portfolios • Social—Café, humor, interactivity, profiles, foreign guests, digital pics, conversations, guests

18. How to Combine these Roles?

19. E-Moderator • Refers to online teaching and facilitation role. Moderating used to mean to preside over a meeting or a discussion, but in the electronic world, it means more than that. It is all roles combined—to hold meetings, to encourage, to provide information, to question, to summarize, etc. (Collins & Berge, 1997; Gilly Salmon, 2000); see http://www.emoderators.com/moderators.shtml.

20. Other Hats

21. Online Concierge • To provide support and information on request (perhaps a map of the area…) (Gilly Salmon, 2000).

22. Personal Learning Trainer • Learners need a personal trainer to lead them through materials and networks, identify relevant materials and advisors and ways to move forward (Mason, 1998; Salmon, 2000).

23. E-Police • While one hopes you will not call yourself this nor find the need to make laws and enforce them, you will need some Code of Practice or set procedures, and protocols for e-moderators (Gilly Salmon, 2000).

24. Other Hats • Weaver—linking comments/threads • Tutor—individualized attention • Participant—joint learner • Provocateur—stir the pot (& calm flames) • Observer—watch ideas and events unfold • Mentor—personally apprentice students • Community Organizer—keep system going

25. Assistant Devil’s advocate Editor Expert Filter Firefighter Facilitator Gardener Helper Lecturer Marketer Mediator Priest Promoter Still More Hats

26. Sure…but Cat Herder???

27. Reality: ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ Ideal World: ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ Activity: Pick a Online Instruction Metaphor from 40 Options

28. So You want to Be A Flexible Learning Consultant or an E-Moderator??? • Berge Collins Associates • Mauri Collins and Zane L. Berge http://www.emoderators.com/moderators.shtml#mod

29. You Must Understand How to Build Online Communities

30. Survey Finds Concern on Administrative ComputingChronicle of Higher Ed, June 22, 2001, A33, Jeffrey R. Young “Campus-technology leaders say they worry more about administrative-computing systems than about anything else related to their jobs.” (survey by Educause—an academic-technology consortium)

31. Who else am I Mad At??? • Administrators • Colleagues • The Registrar’s Office • Students • Textbook Companies • Bookstores ============================= • Courseware Companies • The Media

32. “Colleges and universities ought to be concerned not with how fast they can ‘put their courses up on the Web,’ but with finding out how this technology can be used to build and sustain learning communities” Hiltz (1998, p. 7)

33. How form a community…???

34. A learning community is a group of individuals interested in a common topic or area, who engage in knowledge related transactions as well as transformations within it. They take advantage of the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn collectively. (Bonk & Wisher, 2000; Fulton & Riel, 1999)

35. A learning community as defined by Kowch & Schwier (1997 pp.1) ‘is a group of individuals engaged intentionally and collectively in the transaction, or transformation of knowledge’. Communities are not built they grow through personalisation, member participation, contribution and most importantly ownership (van der Kuyl, 2001). (Stuckey, Hedberg, & Lockyer, in press)

36. Factors in Creating any Community(Stuckey, Hedberg, & Lockyer, in press) A community of practice is a refinement of the concept of community defined by Amy Jo Kim as ‘a group of people with shared interest, purpose, or goal, who get to know each other better over time.’ (Kim, 2000 p.28).

37. Building Community in Schools(Thomas J. Sergiovanni, 1994) “Communities are socially organized around relationships and the felt interdependence that nurture them…In communities we create our social lives with others who have intentions similar to ours.” (p. 4)

38. Building Community in Schools(Thomas J. Sergiovanni, 1994) “But instead of relying on external control measures, communities rely more on norms, purposes, values, professional socialization collegiality, and natural interdependence.” (p. 4)

39. Building Community in Schools(Thomas J. Sergiovanni, 1994) “There is no recipe for community building—no correlates, no workshop agenda, no training package. Community cannot be borrowed or bought.” (p. 5)

40. Rena Palloff of The Fielding Instituteand Keith Pratt of Ottawa University in Kansas Palloff, Rena M., & Pratt, Keith (1999). Building Learning Communities in Cyberpsace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc.

41. Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace(Palloff & Pratt, 1999) “In some respects these educational communities may be more stimulating and interesting for those involved with education because they bring together people with similar interests and objectives, not just people who casually connect, as we find in other areas of cyberspace.” (p. 23)

42. Steps in Building an Electronic Community(Palloff & Pratt, 1999) • Clearly define the purpose of the group. • Create a distinctive gathering place for the group. • Promote effective leadership from within. • Define norms and a clear code of conduct. • Allow for a range of member roles. • Allow for and facilitate subgroups. • Allow members to resolve their own disputes.

43. Indicators Online Community is Forming(Palloff & Pratt, 1999) • Active interaction involving both course content and personal communication. • Collaborative learning evidenced by comments directed primarily student to student rather than student to instructor. • Socially constructed meaning evidenced by agreement or questioning, with the intent to achieve agreement on issues of meaning. • Sharing of resources among students. • Expressions of support and encouragement exchanged between students, as well as willingness to critically evaluate the work of others.

44. Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace(Palloff & Pratt, 1999) “In the online learning community, conflict not only contributes to group cohesion but to the quality of the learning outcome. Therefore, instructors in the online environment need to feel comfortable with conflict...” (p. 28)

45. Factors in Creating a Community • Goals and Milestones for the Group • (Kulp, 1999) • Synchronous provides conversational space • (Colomb & Simutis (1996) • Collab tasks/sharing build camaraderie & empathy • Rice-Lively (1994) • Groups need shared frustrations and celebrations, implicit rules for communication, courteous and helpful behaviors, self-disclosures, openness, less isolation, simple tasks, general collab spirit.

46. Interaction Research Findings • High level of mutual support • including acknowledgments, encouragement, • personal information and feelings, • metainteraction. In effect, these online conferences blended both cognitive and interactive acts, • Avoid peer controversy & critical attitudes • Need intersubjectivity online wherein participants agree, disagree, challenge, & negotiate. Bakardjieva and Harasim (1999)

47. Interactivity Defined “The extent to which messages in a sequence relate to each other, and especially the extent to which later messages recount the relatedness of earlier messages.” Rafaeli and Sudweeks (1997)

48. (Herring, 1997)

49. Collaborative Behaviors(Curtis and Lawson, 1999) • Most common were: (1) Planning, (2) Contributing, and (3) Seeking Input. • Other common events were: (4) Initiating activities, (5) Providing feedback, (6) Sharing knowledge • Few students challenge others or attempt to explain or elaborate • Recommend: using debates and modeling appropriate ways to challenge others

50. Linda Harasim(June 4, 2002, Global Educators’ Network) “Findings indicate that collaboration facilitates higher developmental levels in learners than accomplished by the same individuals working alone (Stodolski; Webb, 1986; Johnson, Maryuma, 1983). Conversation, argument, and multiple perspectives that arise in groups contribute to such cognitive processes as verbalization, cognitive restructuring, and conflict resolution.”