Buling community and collaboration in small groups
Building community is a fast pace, accelerated program is very difficult. With limited time for study and participation, it seems that students would rather focus on content and not on getting to know each other better. Then comes a group project, and because they have minimal personal knowledge of each other, there is a lot of stress and tension among them. This is especially difficult when the group project is the last assignment in the course.
One alternative is to create the groups at the beginning of the session so students can start relating and building community. In many of my classes, although the group project is the last assignment, I’ll create groups in the small group area just for socializing and call it the “Study Roomâ€. The in the chat and announcements I’ll let them know the purpose of the Study Room, which is not the project (assignment) but a way to get to know each other so the small group resources don’t go to waste until we start the project the last week of class. In this Study room I encourage students to meet, greet, share, and study together using the small group resources (DB, chat, emails). Not all students participate actively in the Study Room, but I’ve found this helps both communications practices and establish personal connections that reduce the stresses and strains of the last week of class, especially in those students that want to socialize with others and use these connections to enhance their learning.
What I’m trying to argue is that it’s easier to manage community building and collaboration when there is a smaller group. Even when using MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), creating small groups can help preserve communication practices and community building. Does anyone have other ideas on collaboration and building communities in MOOCs?
Ron,
The length of a course definitely limits how much you can do to promote community, but do your students progress from one course to another? For example, would the same students who take COURSE 101 take COURSE 102? If so, you can build community from course to course. Thanks for your input. Nice job.
I agree; one thing that seems to work is associating students to their campus and in the general education courses to their programs.
Lilia,
That makes sense. They already have something in common when you group them like this. They will have something to talk about. Nice job.
In this fast-paced world of the 21st century, communities, and go like the wind and the weather. What I am saying is that communities have this characteristic of virtual mass that ensures a temporary existence. I believe that communities, unless they have existed for a very long period of time, such as cities, towns, and villages, are more like flash mobs whose sole purpose is to sing a song, dance in the street, and then dissipate as if nothing had happened. The point of the flash mob is the song in the dance, and that is what I think virtual communities are like in an online environment.
Donald,
I agree that online communities can come and go. However, there are students who may take many courses together within a certain program. Then, they can carry on the community from course to course. So, keep trying to build community in all courses because you may not know what happens after your course. Thanks!
