Is this any good? Creating Active Virtual Learning Communities in Asynchronous Online College Courses: Why it Matters and Ideas to Try
Answer
Faculty Focus has great content so there is value in what they discuss. As for Active Learning Communities I feel like the article misses the whole idea of a "learning community" and especially an active community. The article shares suggestions for teaching an online course and providing a range of learning opportunities for students, but it's mostly from the perspective of what the professor can do for the student. For example: Get to Know Your Students - the majority of online students will either complete their information and never look at other the student information or look at the photos of students and view the information for a couple of students that look interesting to them. Now they might look at all students' info if you tell them they need to pick several students to be in their group for a project. But, I don't think this activity creates a community. Active and Personal Communication discussed also misses the mark for creating community. The article focuses on creating engaging communication with the instructor and not a consistent way for all students to communicate with each other (yes, discussion boards but only if you are grading them). I'm not going to go through the whole article but creating community goes beyond what this article mentions. There are components of a good learning community mentioned but there needs to be a more comprehensive strategy and intention for the community. Start with identifying the main reason you want students to engage in a learning community. What would the behaviors of the students in your ideal community be doing and look like in order for the community to accomplish their goal? What tools or strategies do you need to keep the community connected and active? What's in it for students? The community must be providing a value to each student that they don't want to miss.
Keep in mind the best planned community can fail because it still comes down to the students wanting to engage (or able because home and work demands may be too much) and be a member of the community (some online students do not - they just want their course credit). And, what worked one semester may not work the next semester.
Hopefully, my thoughts are useful in some way. I would start with the goal and the value the community will provide students and then go from there. I've even seen a "radio station" format work to build a community for students in a MOOC course. It kept students engaged after they completed the course and created an ongoing community of support for new students. It was mostly student run to which is magical! I have no idea how the instructor made that happen.