RSA4:
Strategies for Collaborative Learning: Building eLearning and Blended Learning
Communities
Since
the development of online learning, instructors have been searching for a way
to promote collaborative learning online. It becomes a struggle to collaborate
with people you have never met or spoken with face to face. “The online
environment can be a lonely place” (Palloff & Pratt, 2007). Collaborating
with classmates can help ease those feelings of loneliness, but only if it is
done correctly. Collaboration can also help create an atmosphere of critical
thinking, therefore allowing students to learn more and gain deeper
understandings of content. So then the question remains, how can one promote
collaboration in an online class?
Before
one can begin to promote online collaboration, they must first understand how
creating community relates to learning. According to Soren Kaplan, co-founder
of iCohere, Inc., communities are the vehicle for which people are connected to
other people’s stories, ideas, and knowledge. “Communities extend learning by
creating a structure whereby people can learn from “informal” interactions”
(Kaplan, 2009). With an online learning community, facilitators need to think
specifically how they can create a collaborative atmosphere without pushing any
students into that lonely place. It is important to create an environment of
trust in which students feel safe to open up and share their thoughts and
experiences. Among many others, one suggestion Kaplan has is to create a Buddy
System. Students are put into pairs or groups to work together on projects or
discussions. Buddies could be responsible for ensuring their partner is not
feeling isolated within the course. The partner then always has someone in that
class to turn to with questions or concerns.
“Initially
ten students posted introductions to the group, but one disappeared immediately
thereafter” (Palloff & Pratt, 2007). The authors go on to explain that this
student’s absence was due to the fact that no one had commented on her
introductory post. She had shared quite a bit of herself, but had the feeling
that no one else really cared what she had to say. If the course had used the
Buddy System idea that Soren Kaplan had proposed, this student may not have felt
so alone because she would have had at least one student in the course
guaranteed to comment on her posting. Both Palloff & Pratt and Kaplan focus
on creating a collaborative community in order to foster learning in the online
classroom.
References
Palloff,
R.M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building
online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom.
San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Kaplan, S. (2009) Strategies for collaborative learning: Building eLearning
and blended learning communities. Accessed at http://www.icohere.com/collaborativeLearning.htm
on December 8, 2012.