Encouraging participation

Philosophy of the progrmmme should continualy reflect participation and collaboration. Technical barriers are usuaoly short term and ultimately resolved.

Activitiesi should bebased on a published timetable reflecting the academic year

Inductions process for online learners - how to be an elearner, activities around the online environment

Have an area for inofrmal chat- tutor should joint in to help relationships build

Encoiurage non contributors using back channels - email and phone

Ensure contintuity of design

Tutors should model the behaviour they seek actively contributing

Real tasks to be used drawing on learners experience

Tutors have different roles online - coaching and learning, challening learners to thin

summarise as converstaion progresses starting new threads and closing others - signifiying new topic

Impertiave to give feedback on postings

Many students have passive mode to online learning activities lurking without realising how kuch more theuy would understand if they contributed. Contirbuting input requires the student to comprehend what is being done to create ideas of topic in hand organize thinking and express that thinking.

Lurking is a bad learning style habit? (Is this always true?). oNe hallmark of good education (or good design?) is ability to mobilize a variety of learning styles.

Require particiaption - making a portion of the grade relating to particiaiotn online even getting the tutor to grade on quality of postings

Form learning teams

Make the activity relevant to the learner experiences - choice of topic within an activity

Dont settle for opinions - opinion s should be supported with data and rational discourse and re examined in light of what others in group say

Structure activities - guides to help them think of things to say that are academically meaningful. Debates requiring student ot post to a position to which others respond with pro or con arguments

Require a deliverable - student learn best when they have to integrate, sunthesise and apply info by creating a deliverable

Tutors should know hwat quality work is and intervene as work is being developed to ensure correct direction

Peer grading - students are asked to grade the input of others on the course.

Online facilitation tips

Achieve authentic conversations from the head, heart and gut

Achieve a place where everybody builds social capital individually by improving each others knowledge collaboratively

The host is an authority

Host models the behaviour they want others to emulate

Intervention has to be ground up not top down

establish rules early and keep to as few as possible

Natural hosts emerge and existing hosts should scout and mentor them

Add a time delay to your emotional postings
(Rheingold)


Have clear objectives as participantsmust believe thier online interactions is time well spent

Encourage participation through design 0 single group discussions, debates etc

Be objective - consider tone and content, knowledge and attributges

Weave strands of conversation together to prompt people to pursue topic further

Present conflicting opinions to encourage debate

Use open-ended remarks , examples and weaving to elcit comment

Acknowledge lurkers or latecomers

Praise and model behaviour you seek

Distribute list of participants so private messages can be addressed to individuals#

Instructors should contribute one quarter to one half of online material

Clarify topic and expectations throughout conference proceedings

Develop a study guide addressing content and technical probelms

Provide time to learn new software or become accustomed to learning environment

Buddy experienced peers with novices
(Berge)

Essential ingredients for online community

For me the three essential ingredients for a successful online community would be purpose, motivation and trust.
Taking them in the order statedPurpose behind the existence of the community is essential as it affects so many other elements within the community. It helps determine the tools for use, how they are applied and the time, information and expertise used to support the community (White,N ). Too many times technology is implemented with no purpose and is then labelled as a solution looking for a problem.

Motivation is an absolutely pivotal point as it gets community members through the early stages of use of hardware and software where problems can occur.(Salmon) during the first year of study with the OU online difficulties with the incompatibility of my laptop and their CD Rom I almost drop kicked the laptop out the window through frustration and would cheerfully have given up such were the problems. It was sheer motivation and determination to success with the course that ensured I continued to contribute online. I was forced to look for local resolutions to such issues namely being nice to a techie friend of mine and also to being open to learning about how to solve problems myself. Reynolds et al point out the same indicating that positive motivation can lead to self driven, self directed efforts to solve problems, master new skills and contribute ideas to colleagues.

Trust
Online participation can feel like a solitary experience especially if it involves distance learning. The element that removes that feeling of isolation is the help and support received from others within the online community. To provide comment and to support others online requires trust (Bradshaw et al). The tacit cues we use to determine anothers propensity to be trustworthy such as tone of voice, body language and visual contact are denied (in the most part) online. Commiting your thoughts and learing processes to text where others can view it normally feels uncomfortable unless you trust the community to behave in a professional manner. that is not to say that all must agree with all points raised indeed it is the socratic dialogue entered into between participants that leads to co-construction of knowledge.

2nd October

Logged into the community to see what is happening, print off a few articles and read the comments of others in particular the facilitators. There seem to be a few of us missing from the community still - I would guess that as the facilitator you would be implementing some strategies to find out where they are and encouraging them back in.

I notice there is one comment on the age of one of the articles and I agree it does seem dated. But whose role is it to find another? surely it is part of the role of the community to bring resources for the benefit of all in the community?

I still feel a sense of unease about the course and have been trying to work out why. I think its because there are no rules, behavioural norms or roles identified other than that of the facilitator? Few of us are happy in any environment where we dont know who is responsible for what or how we are expected to behave? Perhaps what as participants are expected to do is to apply the reading within the context of our course and for us to define the parameters and the roles.

End of Day 1

Well I have read some of the articles and managed to give a comment on one of them so perhaps not doing so badly. Some of my previous course managed to kick on from the depths which makes me think I should probably go back and reread some of it.


I know there was quite a lot of useful info on online communities particularly communities of practice. Still seem to be quite a lot of people missing from the group but heh its still day one.
Why do people assume that working online and creating an online community should be easy and necessarily comfortable? It probably is if you are an eight year old but not necessarily if you are older.

Want to get as much as I can out of this course so will try to put as much time into it as I can and pursue some of the additional links. Isnt it strange how well intended comments when written down appear very condescending! Wonder what the answer to this is..................

Landed

Well if you are reading this then I have managed to create my blog. My intention is to use this to record my learning during the course with Ultralab.

I have managed to work my way through three articles in Unit 1 and during this time I remembered the verbal illustration that Kevin used during our face to face unit. His son works with multiple information channels open simultaneously. When I studied for school exams I always worked in complete silence as I was unable to work any other way.

Today I was accessing the articles online with the portable tv on, digital radio channelled through the computer. Maybe the greater the exposure to technology the more we adapt to the interfaces available. Sarah Greenfield a neuroscientist suggests in her research " Tomorrows People" that our neural pathways adapt and that technology fundamentally changes the way our brains are wired!

When I get a bit more adventurous with this blog I will add photos but they are not something I like much so it may take time. Anyway back to the reading.................