Nazeel's+Heuristics


 * // Creating and maintaining e- learning communities across the globe //**

Online learning technologies have globalised our classrooms. The internet and use of digital media has made our learning robust and more dynamic. Rapid rise in the internet based learning has profound impact on how we structure our learning environment. They are great advantages in using online or internet based learning strategies but it comes with costs and pedagogical changes in our teaching strategies. One of the sticking point for online training compared to face to face learning is facilitating social interaction between the learner’s, “where they are able to project themselves within the medium”( Fakhraie & Hewitt; 2010, pg 33346. ). This can be avoided through designing instructional materials which includes social interaction, group discussion, emails, chatting and blogging. These strategies will assist in generating social presences, cognitive presences and teaching presences in facilitating learning ( Fakhraie & Hewitt; 2010, pg 33346. ). As a facilitator we need to scaffold learning in a manner which will build communities. These may involve group activities, students critiquing each other’s work, using of wiki’s and collaborating with the learning groups on content discussion or issues. These strategies will further promote the “student-student and student-instructor” communication, this by encouraging learners to continually be in constant contact with their peers and the facilitator. The issue is how to will maintain and sustain such social integration among the learners? Fakhraie and Hewitt (2008) states that instruction could include students to add pictures and biography on the medium they are using and have informal discussion and chatting with their peers and instructors. The students should be able to post comments and videos via technology they are using and take part in asynchronous chatting. This will intellectually stimulate the learners and promotes deep understanding of the content area they are studying.

There are a number of implementation problem associated with online learning. The three main stakeholders involved in this process which is learners, facilitators and designers who all play an important role in achieving desired outcome. These stakeholders have profound impact on social integration and learning through different strategies. Learners will face “less personal and social presence” if the barrier of distance is maintained and not eliminated. It depends on how the facilitator structures their learning environment. Many times the learners are searching for “affiliation, support and affirmation” when studying online. They tend to find “isolated and distracted” from their learning environment especially while undertaking from alternative settings. To create social belonging, the facilitator needs employ multiple strategies to encourage learners to participate on forums and discussions in an endeavour to eliminate the barrier of isolation. Facilitators as teachers should be actively present in all discussions and forums. They need to give prompt feedback and set directions for the outcomes they expect to achieve and where a learner my need help they should be able to give cues. The worst feeling on an online based lesson is when leaner’s are withdrawing and not actively participating. To “always maintain a “sense of community”, the facilitators need to give some positive reinforcement to the learners to reignite their once belongingness. Teachers need to fully equip themselves with a level of expertise of strategies and new technologies in the industry. Due to “disconnectedness feeling” and less support level the “drop outs in distance education program” is higher ( Fakhraie & Hewitt; 2010, pg 33346. ). This can be avoided through proper planning and scaffolding of our instruction and content. Graham et al (2001) stipulates that that even though facilitators try to promote online communication there is always apprehension for overwhelmed with e-mails messages or posting. As a facilitator we should articulate clear instructions to students regarding the time frame for responses and discussion, otherwise the learners may feel neglected, unmotivated or disfranchised.

The online delivery method allows “for flexibility of access, from anywhere and usually anytime, but the learning must use sound instructional design principles” (Anderson; 2008). The discussions and resources used should be in a meaningful way in generating cooperation among the diverse ability of students. A clear deadline for projects and feedback needs to be decided beforehand. Apart from the deadlines, regular communication with students needs to be established. This can be achieved through proper scaffolding and clear expectation communicated with the learners. These simple strategies are similar to face-face instruction that help’s create of social interaction between teacher and students. The designers of the online training play the integral role they need to evolve with time when authenticating new approaches. In the 21st century Digital Media plays an important part in defining our learners. They are easily bored and when they have less intrinsic motivation they lose interest and conviction. The 21st Century digital media has made the lives of the learners intriguing and dynamic using interactive means of engagement. The “traditional norms” of face to face teachers has radically transformed, due to “physical isolation of trainers”. ( Fakhraie & Hewitt; 2010, pg 33346. ). The dilemma is how we can support the individual needs of the learners and create an effective learning environment. Normally, the failure to achieve the objective is with social rather then technical issues with learners as stated by Fakhraie & Hewitt (2010). The use of a variety of strategies including multimedia elements and social networking sites has made it possible to connect socially with peers. The emergence of Facebook, YouTube and MySpace gives new paradigms to our learning. Anderson (2010) states that most appropriate instructional strategies, catering the diverse needs of the users. The designer must use a selection of different strategies which should “motivate learners, facilitate deep processing, build the whole person, cater to individual differences, promote meaningful learning, encourage interaction, provide relevant feedback, facilitate” (Anderson; 2010, pg 18). For instance, the Janison gateway portal being used in higher education institutions provides the opportunity for students to communicate using multiple collaborative features such as asynchronous chatting with peers and the instructor and discussion forums, uploading assignments and giving feedback system. Recently, students were required to upload pictures and a biography, however only few students did uploaded the pictures which indicates the barrier’s are still there. The confidence and social skills differ amongst the learners and further diminishes when the learning environment is not stimulated with opportunities to eliminate these barriers. It also comes with limitations when once the learner completes the unit, all the contacts and discussion evaporates. The designers of this system need to address these issues overtime and make the online system more dynamic and robust. One of the shortcomings with any technology is that users are from different platforms and the environment they are in differs from each other. Online learning has great potential but it will always have shortcomings’ in the short term and in the long-term the new technologies will evolve and enter in our learning space. The issue is how prepared we are to accept it in our teaching and learning in a meaningful way.
 * Reference**

Anderson, T. (Ed). (2008). The Theory and practice of online learning. The book is available online. A link is provided for you in ** Readings ** under ** Theory & Principles **. Fakhraie, N. & Hewitt, J. (2010). Facilitating Social Interaction in Online Learning Environments: New Tools and Approaches. In Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2010 (pp. 3345-3349). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. (Accessible via UOW Library databases: Ed/ITLib Digital library) Graham, C., Cagiltay, K., Lim, B-R., Craner, J., & Duffy, T. M. (2001). Seven principles of effective teaching: A practical lens for evaluating online courses. The Technology Source Archives at the University of North Carolina: []