Monday, May 20, 2019

Learning in communities-networked collaborative learning

In psychology we believe that human being is a social being, meaning that need to interact with other people as struggle to find his/her well being. The same applies in academia especially in the environment with a computer mediated technologies accompanied with skilled people to exploit such resources to enable collaborative learning or learning communities. Therefore the concept of community learning reflects how human being depend from each other in a learning process, need interaction and collaboration with other others in a well networked environment and this is whap have been happen in my trip with this course.
To ensure effective community learning, the group involved should share common academic goals and attitudes and should have access to key infrastructures to enhance collaboration. During the course design it is very important to make sure that the course is not going to frustrate the learners but rather making it both inspirational and practical, connect people, organizations and systems that will be eager to learn and work across boundaries with a focus to a common agenda, metrics and deliverables.
Well established learning communities enable participants to share results and learn from each other, thereby improving their ability to achieve rapid yet significant progress. (Bennett, 2015)
Frustration in networked collaborative learning
It should be noted that sometimes community learning in a networked environment is not smooth; it is accompanied with some frustration among the community/learners.  There should be taken into consideration from the course development stage and make sure the online collaborative course to be designed have all the key features of interesting and exciting course to the learners/community instead of frustrating.
Sources of frustrations among students involved in online collaborative learning experiences
  • Perception of an asymmetric collaboration among the teammates (most important) 
  • Lack of shared goals among the team members
  • Imbalance in the level of commitment
  • Difficulties in communication 
  • Lack of instructor’s support/orientation 
  • Problems in reaching consensus (Capdeferro, N., & Romero, M., 2012).
Thus, reacting to the above challenges, learners should be supplied with learning environments that facilitate social interaction, collaboration, effective support in technology and should be provide with enough information about the online learning models in general in order to allow them to adjust their expectations, preferences and decision making concerning their enrollment in online learning
Emotion words listed by academic writers; word size is proportionate to frequency (n=1223).
Students’ satisfaction in online course
There are many determinants for an online course to be either enjoyable or frustrating to the learners. Some of these may include the following as stipulated by Bolliger, D.U. (2004):
·         Access to reliable technology and equipment. Students should have access to the reliable equipment and must be familiar with the technology used.  Students with limited online access are at a considerable disadvantage to learners who have unlimited access
·         Course management. Administrative support is instrumental for students pursuing online courses. Contact person and access to other resources such as course textbooks, libraries, technical support, and a toll-free number to reach the university are also important. Students without technical support may experience high levels of frustration in the online environment
·         Course website. Easy navigation of the course website is an important factor in the online environment. Learning should be meaningful, relevant, and interesting. Good course web sites present information in a logical order and their design must be attractive and consistent.
·         Communication. Under this context there are three types of interaction in online learning environment; learner-content, learner-instructor, and learner-learner. Instructors should facilitate all types of interactions in their distance learning courses when possible and appropriate. If such kind of commitment between different parties misses, learners are likely to experience feelings of isolation, and high levels of frustration and anxiety
·         Interactivity. Learning environments in which social interaction and collaboration is allowed and encouraged lead to positive learning outcomes. Collaborative learning tools can improve student satisfaction in the online learning environment.


The research model for blended e-learning systems learning satisfaction
(Wu, Tennyson and Hsia, 2010)
Magnitude of student’s participation in networked learning communities
Therefore, it should be noted that leaning community has been marked as a key feature of the 21st century in schools especially in higher learning institutions. Lichtenste and Watkins in (2005) pointed significant outcomes of student’s participation in learning communities such as higher retention rates, integration of academic and social experiences, higher intrinsic motivation, lower risk of academic withdrawal, increased cognitive skills and abilities, gains in multiple areas of skill and overall satisfaction with the college experience
References
Bennett, J. M. (2015) ‘Learning Communities’, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Intercultural Competence.
Bolliger, D.U. (2004). Key Factors for Determining Student Satisfaction in Online Courses. International Journal on E-Learning, 3(1), 61-67.  https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/2226/

Capdeferro, N., & Romero, M. (2012). Are online learners frustrated with collaborative learning experiences? The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13(2), 26-44.
Lichtenstein, M. (2005). The importance of classroom environments in the assessment of learning community outcomes. Journal of College Student Development, 46(4), 341–356.
Watkins, C. (2005). Classrooms as learning communities: A review of research. London Review of Education, 3(1), 47–6
Wu, J. H., Tennyson, R. D. and Hsia, T. L. (2010) ‘A study of student satisfaction in a blended e-learning system environment’, Computers and Education. Elsevier Ltd, 55(1), pp. 155–164.

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