In an interesting twist this week, the seminar facilitators opted to use a more traditional style learning management system to present their course materials and activities, and intentionally set the seminar up in a way to make the learners feel a greater sense of isolation during two of the three activities. I thought this was quite a clever design as is showed each of us what is feels like to be on the end of course design that does not take into consideration so many of the positive online communication strategies and community building elements that we have been learning about and experiencing over the previous weeks. The effects of this were quickly visible as only about half of the cohort members participated in the initial Zoom session used to discuss our own experiences with being supported by others as a stepping off point for our week’s investigations. I definitely felt the impact of this isolating design, as I shared with the seminar facilitators in their feedback thread.
“Over the past 6 months our cohort has worked hard (and our instructors have worked hard) to develop a strong sense of community, and I have found this to be a valuable aspect of my own learning in the program so far. I found it interesting this week to see how little time it can take for that sense of community to drop off when it's not being carefully nurtured. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that this is week 6, and there have been snow days, and the long weekend is ahead, but this week I have found myself wanting to simply check items off the to-do list.” I did however find that without the draw to interact with my fellow cohort members, I became more fully immersed in the research on my academic write topic of supporting online learners through attending to strategies to develop learners’ self-regulation skills. This again brought the idea of the need for balance to the forefront of my mind, as collaboration and community building are clearly valuable to online learners, and so too is the affordance of time discover, contemplate and synthesize their learning. One of the primary challenges that I think may arise when putting the community building strategies into practice, will be finding that sense of balance where learners are given the independent processing time that they need, while still ensuring that they are on track and maintaining a connection to the greater learning community, especially given the variables of course and learner needs that exist and change over time.
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