How to Build Online Learning Communities for Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom

Virtual classrooms can be interactive and team-building.

Whether you're an online instructor or a virtual classroom administrator, it's your responsibility to ensure that your online classroom is as effective as possible. While online classes and coursework certainly helps students learn the material, students often miss out on the experience of working with their peers to create an environment of learning. Just because a classroom is online doesn't mean your students can't work together. Facilitating forums and arranging study groups helps foster a spirit of camaraderie while students learn through virtual means.

Instructions

1. Arrange for a forum dedicated to the class. If your education portal doesn't allow for online forums to be added, use any number of forum builders found online. By creating a space where your students can interact with each other concerning school and personal life, you help to facilitate a sense of community as your students learn to care for each other, much in the way face-to-face students might.

2. Arrange for a live chat for your class. Again, if the software or website that you use for your virtual classroom communications doesn't allow for live chat, build your own chat room and distribute the Web address so that all of your classmates and students can participate. Arrange for live chats regularly so classmates can have a chance to talk about schoolwork and other topics in real time.

3. Create a Facebook page for your class. Give it a simple title that can be found easily, such as "Geography 101: 2011 Spring Semester." Give the URL for the Facebook group to all of your students. The Facebook page helps to facilitate relationships outside of the virtual classroom, as well as providing a simple way for classmates to communicate with each other concerning ideas, brainstorming sessions or other class-related events.

4. Facilitate an online study group for your class members and arrange for classmates to "study" together virtually. A Facebook application called Mixable allows students to share documents online and organize themselves into study groups. Talk to class members about how they would best like to run study groups, whether it's studying at the same time, sharing study documents online or using video conferencing software such as Skype or ooVoo to share ideas face-to-face.

References

• Certification Magazine: The Virtual Classroom: Is It Effective?
• Campus Technology: Purdue Students Hook into Facebook for Study Groups