Discussion 01 Online community in distance education Week 1

OMDE610 Teaching & Learning in Online Distance Education

Explore what the range of what community means in the field of online teaching and
learning. What are the characteristics of the idea of community from the teachers
perspective? What about the students perspective?
How do we bring these possibly disparate views together in an online educational
experience? Or can we?

The perspectives presented by (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2010) examines elements
of an online community that utilizes a social, cognitive, and teaching presence. I gather that
from the teachers perspective the development of a social and cognitive presence should be the
goal of higher education in the field of online teaching and learning. The community of inquiry
model by (Garrison, et al., (2010) demonstrates that the communication medium is a broad
framework that includes all elements of an educational experience and is the main method by
which teachers in higher education must provide for a beneficial online teaching process.
(Garrison, et.al., (2010) p. 7) explains that teaching presence in the form of designing
learning activities should require solutions, provide facilitation and if directed properly this
would ensure sufficient student learning.
Characteristics of the idea of community from the students perspective overlaps explains
(Garrison, et al., (2010) p. 7) social presence is very important for the student. In order for
students to be included in the overall process of the online learning experience, building an
open communication system or a cohesiveness must be implemented into the online teaching
and learning process.
(Garrison et al., 2010) states that students should be able to identify with their online
community, and trust their environment in order to develop interpersonal relationships in an
online learning process.
The desire is to bring all of the dimensions of the community framework model into the
teaching and learning perspectives of the teacher and student from what was called the traditional
DE perspective, when students worked alone. In this new era of DE all elements must exist in
order to reach the ultimate goals that higher education wants to offer the online learning
community.
: Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2010). The first decade of the community of inquiry
framework: A retrospective. Internet and Higher Education 13 p. 5-9.
http://learn.umuc.edu/d21/le/content/57056/viewcontent/2590874/view/