Building a Virtual Teaching/Learning
Community
Andrew W. Davis
Art Sandler
Emily E. Thompson
Bruce Umbaugh
Keith E. Welsh
Webster University
Council of Independent Colleges
National Conference
Saint Louis
June 3, 1999
http://www.webster.edu/~bumbaugh/net/
A Good Host
- is like a host at a party, an authority, an exemplar
(Howard Rheingold)
- also wants to achieve
- civil discourse
- authentic conversations
- group ownership, creativity
- is an "online inkeeper" (John Coate)
- has three basic purposes (Cliff Figallo)
- Sharing Enthusiasm
- Facilitating Productive Conversation
- Linking Users and Management
In asynchronous fora, hosts:
- manage the pace of conversations
- clarify topics
- resolve conflicts
- build trust
- encourage relationships
- work backchannels
- provide resources
(Cliff Figallo, Hosting Web Communities)
Building a teaching/learning community requires
more than online instruction.
In the College of Arts and Sciences at Webster, we are not only
involve teaching in relatively private spaces but also building
community in more public spaces to make them analogous to a
campus coffee shop, student union, or dorm lounge.
In this session we will tell about:
- what failed
- what worked
- the effort consumed in trying to do it right
- building a community of instructors
- barriers, challenges, issues to be resolved
Faculty preparation has included:
- sitting in on an online course
- participation in faculty seminar on "Teaching
in Cyberspace"
This presentation is an effort to verbalize some
of what we have learned in that process.
Goals for the next hour-and-a-quarter
- Mimic orally and face-to-face some of the character of
class conducted online.
- Draw Y O U into the discussion, as would a good host
online.
- Cover content
- contrast with traditional classroom instruction
- contrast with other computer-mediated communication
- community and the role of Commons
- "instructor" versus "host"
- resource and support issues
- faculty recruitment and preparation
http://www.webster.edu/~bumbaugh/net/