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Wednesday, 14 July 2004: 9:30 AM-10:30 AM | |||
Northern A-1 (Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel) | |||
F-9: Searching for a Sense of Community: Online Challenges and Strategies | |||
| Detailed Description: | Nurturing community in our classrooms, online or otherwise, has been shown to improve student satisfaction and perceived cognitive learning. Myriad articles and texts provide strategies and suggestions for facilitating sense of community in online courses. Are faculty implementing these strategies to solve problems and address conflict in their online courses? In this session, the presenter will describe her research on the challenging situations faculty face in their online courses, and how they address those challenges. | ||
| Presentation Format: | Paper | ||
| Topic: | Enabling learning: Effective instructional practices and flexible design models | ||
| Target Audience: | Course Designers, Faculty and Other Instructors | ||
| Appropriate Audience Level: | Beginning or new users of WebCT, Experienced WebCT users | ||
| Abstract Text: | Online courses have become very popular in higher education distance learning. The results of the 2002 Annual Campus Computing Survey show more than 60% of U.S. institutions surveyed reported offering fully online courses, up from less than 50% in 1999. Quantity does not mean quality, however. Faculty members and course participants rate only some of their online courses as successful. Research shows that sense of community is a key component in the success of online courses. Students report that online courses with more student-to-student interaction and student-to-teacher interaction, both of which are necessary for sense of community, are more satisfying and more effective than those with less interaction. When asked, faculty members tend to agree that sense of community is important. As they learn the methods to foster feelings of community, faculty members adapt their praxis to include various new tools and activities. There are many guidebooks and prescriptive texts available on community building for faculty members to consult when they are teaching online, but there is very little empirical research including faculty perspectives on the challenges they face when building and sustaining community in their online courses. In this session, the presenter will describe her research on the challenging situations faculty face in their online courses, and how they address those challenges. The session will include a brief review of the literature regarding developing community online, with a focus on primarily asynchronous courses. Next, the presenter will describe the progress of her qualitative study, including the methods and initial findings. Finally, attendees will have the opportunity to share their perspectives and comments on the research. | ||
| Session Leader: | Sherry Clouser Clark The University of Georgia | ||
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