Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
communities
Community of inquiry
Communities are a highly important part of learning. Pierce and Dewey's model below explains the variety of areas required in order to build a successful online learning community.
Under the teaching presence, the Community of Inquiry ensures that the content is designed in a way that facilitates cognitive and social processes to enhance learning - defining, initiating and focusing discussion, sharing and demonstrating personal meaning and application.
In social presence, learners must be able to present themselves as 'real people' by bringing their personal characteristics into the community and facilitating open communication and group cohesion, and in the cognitive presence learners are then able to construct meaning through sustained communication with peers and the tutors, such as information exchange, connecting ideas, and applying new ideas
There are several ways to create communities for online learners: via MyBeckett, via synchronous conferencing tools and via social media.
On MyBeckett, as well as creating learning that invites discussion, you can promote icebreakers, getting to know you activities - and perhaps including images on your profile.
In synchronous conferencing, allowing students to talk, to take the reigns, or perhaps to break out into discussions of their own.
You could use Facebook, Twitter or other platforms to provide a social community for your students.
You may also want to have a social media course or module community. We have some courses that use just one Community for the whole course, and others that use a combination of Course and Module communities to promote interaction and sharing.
