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BUILDING COMMUNITY IN AN ONLINE COURSEDR. DONNA PETHERBRIDGE

#OLC15 #REALPERSONONLINE

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER

● Presenter: Dr. Donna Petherbridge, Associate Vice Provost, Instructional Technology Support & Development, DELTA and Teaching Assistant Professor, Leadership, Policy, Adult & Higher Education- NC State University, Raleigh, NC

● Contributor: Dr. Diane Chapman, Director, Office of Faculty Development and Teaching Associate Professor, Leadership, Policy, Adult & Higher Education- NC State University, Raleigh, NC

Which of the following best describes you?a. Instructor/Facultyb. Staff/Support Staffc. Graduate Studentd. Administrator/Managere. Multiple rolesf. Other

Twitter #realpersononline and your response a-f

INTERACTION TIME!

What are you hoping to learn today?a. Some real, tangible things I can do to create

community and engagement in my online classb. How to increase scores on my teaching evaluationsc. About some of the research in this aread. All of these

Twitter #realpersononline and your response a-d

INTERACTION TIME!

Other topics you wish to discuss?

Twitter handle & hashtags: #OLC15 #realpersononline

INTERACTION TIME!

Real Person Bingo Play online here: https://bingobaker.com/play/514216

Twitter handle & hashtags: #OLC15 #realpersononline

INTERACTION THROUGHOUT!

Community: a group of individuals linked together with a common purpose

Social presence: The degree of feeling, perception and reaction of being connected to other intellectual entities in online classrooms.

“Learners must perceive an appropriate degree of social presence before feeling comfortable in interaction with others.” (Wei, C.; Chen, N. & Kinshuk, 2012).

WHY BUILD SOCIAL PRESENCE?

I am a real person in this time and space with you.

In everything you do, your message is . . . .

“Evidence shows that instructors need to maintain substantial involvement in online courses . . . [and] . . . relationships with students in these remote environments.” (Crawford-Ferre & Wiest, 2012)

INSTRUCTOR INVOLVEMENT

●Welcome Letter

●Creation of Inviting Space (can an LMS such as Moodle look good?)

●Introductions that show your personality (faculty welcome video)

INVITE STUDENTS TO CLASS

●Especially at the start of course, be very present

●Respond to email within a defined time period

CREATE “IMMEDIACY”

●Inviting●Involvement●Immediacy

○ What are some ways that your course is inviting, that you get involved, and that you create a sense of immediacy to get students comfortable/build community?

○ #OLC15 #realpersononline and your response

THE I’S HAVE IT

●Planning Interaction Strategies - Important!

● “Learning environments with quality interaction strategies are associated with high levels of student satisfaction and retention” in an online course. (Hoskins, 2012, p. 52).

● Quality interactions = better student reviews (DE program coordinator’s note)

BUILD INTERACTION STRATEGIES

● Asynchronous interaction strategies - discussion

○ Personalize the discussion forum (question choice)○ Model effective discussion posts○ Summarize discussions throughout the course (Bart,

2010).

ASYNCHRONOUS INTERACTION

●Synchronous interaction strategies

● Students perceived that classes with synchronous communication as having higher instructional quality than those that only used asynchronous communication methods. (Ward, Peters & Shelley, 2010).

BUILD INTERACTION STRATEGIES

Icebreakers● Upload a map as your opening slide and have

students drop a location pin● Give students open access to the whiteboard tool

with a directive OR a question . . . ● Write your name in your favorite color.● Name an object you can see.● Share an image from your computer.

Office Hours, Content Session

SYNCHRONOUS INTERACTION

●Accountability

●Visibility (instructor awareness of participation)

●Assigned vs. Select

STUDENT INTERACTION: TEAMS

●Discussion choices

●Deliverable choices

●Learning contracts

INTERACTION WITH CONTENT

●Interaction○ What are some ways that your course is interactive

(student - student; instructor - student; student - content?)

○ #OLC15 #realpersononline and your response

THE I’S HAVE IT

I am a real person in this time and space with you.

In everything you do, your message is . . . .

“Students . . . defined a “good” instructor as someone who is “accessible,” “flexible,” and provides individualized feedback” (Boling, et.al, 2012).

BUILDING COMMUNITY: EVALUATION

●Midterm and not just final● suggestion box/informal (with points attached)● anonymous (department)

●Be ready to respond to feedback (e.g. how and when will you take action?)

ITERATIVE EVALUATION: COURSE

●Poor practice: a grade and a few comments (“it is only a sentence at the end, not very helpful”)

●Good practice: (“feedback given to students should help them to address the gap between what they know and what is expected of them”)

(Hernandez, 2012).

EVALUATING STUDENT WORK

●Give individualized feedback

●Comment on papers and assignments [Notability - POODLL]

●Give clear direction on how students can do better next time

●Pre-submission

GIVE MEANINGFUL FEEDBACK

●Evaluation○ What are some ways that you provide your

students feedback?

○ #OLC15 #realpersononline and your response

TYING UP LOOSE ENDS . . .

I am a real person in this time and space with you.

In everything you do, your message is . . . .

●Inviting, Involvement, Immediacy, Interaction, Iterative

●Evaluation

●Community

“I before E except after C” to “Some I’s with an E will get you to C”

SUMMARY: BUILDING COMMUNITY

Thank you!Questions?

#OLC15 #realpersononlineContact: donna_petherbridge@ncsu.edu, follow @dtpetherncsu

● Baran, E., Correia, A., and Thompson, A. (November, 2011). Transforming online teaching practice: critical analysis of the literature on the roles and competencies of online teachers. Distance Education. 32 (3): 421 - 439.

● Bart, M. (February 8, 2010). A Checklist for Facilitating Online Courses. Faculty Focus: Higher Ed Teaching Strategies from Magna Publications. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/distance-learning/a-checklist-for-facilitating-online-courses/

● Boling, E.C.; Hough, M.; Krinsky, H.; Saleem, H.; Stevens, M. (2012). Cutting the distance in distance education: perspectives on what promotes positive, online learning environments. The Internet and Higher Education, 15 (2): 118-126.

● Hernandez, R. (January, 2012). Does continuous assessment in higher education support student learning? The International Journal of Higher Education Research

REFERENCES

● Hoskins, B. (February 29, 2012). Connections, Engagement, and Presence. The Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 60: 51-53.

● Kelly, R. (October 17, 2013). Tips for Humanizing Your Online Course. Faculty Focus: Higher Ed Teaching Strategies from Magna Publications. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/tips-for-humanizing-your-online-course/.

● Lepi, K. (November 12, 2013). How 3 Teachers are Shaking up Online Learning. Edudemic: connecting education & technology.

● Ragan, L.C. (June, 2009). 10 Principles of Effective Online Instruction: Best Practices in Distance Education. Faculty Focus: Higher Ed Teaching Strategies from Magna Publications. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-reports/principles-of-effective-online-teaching-best-practices-in-distance-education/

REFERENCES

Ward, M.E., Peters, G., & Shelley, K. (2010). Student and faculty perceptions of the quality of online learning experiences. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 11(3), 57-77.

Wei, C.; Chen, N.; Kinshuk (February, 2012). A model for social presence in online classrooms. Educational Technology Research & Development.

Wiest, L. (2012). Effective online instruction in higher education. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 13 (1): 11 - 14.

REFERENCES

● http://www.clipgid.com - eye clipart● http://www.futurisconsulting.com/projects - world map with pins● http://openclipart.org - other images

ADDITIONAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS