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).
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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)
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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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