Students today have the opportunity to take traditional classes or online courses. In both courses community is established from the very beginning of class. Each class has an introductory phase. In online course, student’s first assignment is to post an introduction with a picture. Students in the class are able to get to know their fellow students through these posts. I am currently enrolled in my first two online classes. In each of the classes, I had to post an introduction about myself professionally and personally. I also went through each of the students posts in order to put a face with the name of my students. In a traditional course, community is established through some type of ice breaker. In the majority of my college classes, the first class was spent by having each student introduce themselves by stating a couple of facts about themselves.
However, the communities are also different at the same time in terms of social presence. In a traditional classroom (face-to-face), a student assumes presence by being enrolled in the class. The student has the opportunity to listen to the class discussions and comment if necessary. Also the student can form relationships with the students in the class and further discuss topics during breaks in the class. When students see each other it is assumed that they are present in the class (Palloff 30). In an online course presence is more important. It may happen instantly with a group or the instructor may have to encourage the presence more. When the students are actively participating there is a high social presence. There is also a greater possibility for students to be lost. The student could lose contact which in turn will result in isolation.
I have only experienced the online community recently and I’ve been able to see elements that were present. In the class, there has been active communication between the students, as well as students and instructor. I’ve also experienced the sharing of resources among students. When I was working on a lesson, I had multiple students email me about the tool I was using. They told me its pros and cons and even offered help should I need it.
Beginning 1 | Developing 2 | Accomplished 3 | Score | ||
Discussion Topics | Student did not post answer to discussion question | Student posted the answers to the questions but left out required elements | Student answered each question and included required elements | 3 | |
Discussion participation | Student responded to none of the discussion questions | Student responded to some discussion questions | Student responded to all discussion questions | 3 | |
Assessment Criteria | Student did not compare and contrast communities | Student compared or contrasted communities but not both. | Student compared and contrasted communities | 3 | |
Assessment Grammar | Assessment was not on topic, unclear and contained many errors | Assessment was on topic but contained some errors | Assessment was clear and on topic. | 3 | |
Assessment Question 1 | Student did not answer question 1 | Student answered question 1 but did not incorporate it into the compare and contrast | Student answered question 1 and incorporated the answer into the essay | 3 | |
Assessment Question 2 | Student did not answer question 2 | Student answered question 2 but did not incorporate it into the compare and contrast | Student answered question 2 and incorporated the answer into the essay | 3 | |
Final Score | 18/18= 100% | ||||
Comments: This student did an awesome job comparing the two communities. In addition, I thought the added information at the beginning was very insightful. The essay was clear and lacked any grammatical errors. | |||||
