RSA4: Skepticism to Success: Meeting Critical Workforce Needs through Innovation and Collaboration

Resource Online: http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ909884.pdf

In this week’s reading, the overall experience of online learning with meeting course goals and objectives is fostered by having meaningful collaboration communities. Palloff and Pratt state, “The more that participants can relate their life experience and what they already know to the context of the online classroom , the deeper their understanding will be of what they learn” (Palloff and Pratt 2007). The authors suggest that having online learners relate as much of their own experiences and background into the course will provide a more meaningful experience for the student.

New technologies and teaching modalities are shaping the lives of students and instructors in higher educa­tion. One thing is recognized for sure and that is the enrollment of online courses continues to increase among college students as well as high school offerings. With the increased need of online classes, schools must make sure that they have staff that is able to provide an online learning experience that still addresses collaboration among staff and students.

Anderson, Maier, and Shepard identify indicators that students have a sense of community include “active interaction, collaborative learning, socially constructed meaning, sharing of resources, and expressions of support and encouragement” (2006).  Being able to feel that you are still connected to the instructor with an online learning class is most important to keep students motivated and keep students feeling as if someone is still present to help assist when struggling.  

References
Anderson, M.,  Maier,  L., and M. Shepard. Skepticism to Success: Meeting Critical                            Workforce Needs Through Innovation and Collaboration. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 14( 3) 2006.

        

         Palloff, R. & Pratt, K. (2007). Building Online Learning Communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom, (2nd ed.). San Franciso: Jossey-Bass.