Building a
sense of community in an online environment is beneficial for students that
want to feel connected to other learners. When students feel they are part of a
community they interact with each other and feel connected to other
participants which helps them form a sense of identity to their work, products,
or each other. Research by Maxwell and Shackelford (2012) study which online activities
within a classroom builds a sense of community.
An online
sense of community can be defined as, “a
feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one
another and to the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met
through their commitment to be together” (McMillan & Chavis, 1986, p.
9). Students feel a sense of identity
and often share similarities in goals.
Engaged
students have something called cognitive presence. Cognitive presence develops
when people have sustained communication and they can collaborate to explore,
construct, confirm, understand and resolve content (Garrison, 2007). They are
actively engaged in working together to understand a problem, its parts, and
solutions.
Students
will also need social presence. Social presence is “the ability of participants in a community of inquiry to project
themselves socially and emotionally, as ‘real’ people, through the medium of
communication being used” (Garrison, et. al., 2000, p. 94). The tools
should allow for them to reflect their identity into the online classroom.
The researchers
obtained 381 surveys through the courses of 110 professors to obtain their
data. They found that certain activities offered higher levels of community
building. This includes introductions, collaborative group projects,
contributing personal experiences, entire class online discussions and
exchanging resources. The order starts with the most beneficial. Students
appear to need to know each other, work with each other, and share with each
other.
Garrison,
et. al. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment. Computer Conference in Higher Education,
2.
Garrison, D.
(2007). Online community of inquiry review: Social, cognitive, and teaching
presence issues. Journal of Asynchronous
Learning networks, 11 (1).
Maxwell, M.
& Shackelford, J. (2012). Sense of community in graduate online education:
contribution of learner to learner interaction. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance
Learning, 13 (4).
McMillian,
D. & Chavis, D. (1986). Sense of community: a definition and theory. Journal of Community Psychology,
Psychological Sense of Community, I: Theory and Concepts, 14 (1).
