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Guidelines for facilitating the development of learning communities in online courses
Author(s) -
Yuan J.,
Kim C.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of computer assisted learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.583
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2729
pISSN - 0266-4909
DOI - 10.1111/jcal.12042
Subject(s) - feeling , isolation (microbiology) , online learning , learning community , dropout (neural networks) , online community , educational technology , synchronous learning , experiential learning , learning environment , computer science , psychology , mathematics education , cooperative learning , teaching method , multimedia , world wide web , social psychology , machine learning , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
Online learning has grown exponentially in recent years; however, dropout problem remains challenging for some online programmes. The dropout problem can be attributed to a number of reasons, with a lack of interaction between learners and the instructor constituting one of the main reasons. The lack of interaction also leads to learners' feeling of isolation. Learning communities can provide learners with an environment conducive to increased interactions and alleviate their feeling of isolation. Unfortunately, there are no clear rules that instructors can follow to help learners create learning communities. In this paper, we propose guidelines for online instructors to facilitate the development of learning communities in online courses. We first review the definition of a learning community, importance of a learning community and factors affecting the development of a learning community. Afterwards, based on a review of the existing guidelines and other relevant literature, we propose guidelines for facilitating the development of learning communities in online courses.