Building community is a fast pace, accelerated program is very difficult. With limited time for study and participation, it seems that students would rather focus on content and not on getting to know each other better. Then comes a group project, and because they have minimal personal knowledge of each other, there is a lot of stress and tension among them. This is especially difficult when the group project is the last assignment in the course.
One alternative is to create the groups at the beginning of the session so students can start relating and building community. In many of my classes, although the group project is the last assignment, I’ll create groups in the small group area just for socializing and call it the “Study Roomâ€. The in the chat and announcements I’ll let them know the purpose of the Study Room, which is not the project (assignment) but a way to get to know each other so the small group resources don’t go to waste until we start the project the last week of class. In this Study room I encourage students to meet, greet, share, and study together using the small group resources (DB, chat, emails). Not all students participate actively in the Study Room, but I’ve found this helps both communications practices and establish personal connections that reduce the stresses and strains of the last week of class, especially in those students that want to socialize with others and use these connections to enhance their learning.
What I’m trying to argue is that it’s easier to manage community building and collaboration when there is a smaller group. Even when using MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), creating small groups can help preserve communication practices and community building. Does anyone have other ideas on collaboration and building communities in MOOCs?
