You’ve been there, right? That moment when you find yourself milling about looking for a way out, praying for something to save you. You know- that awkward dinner party? Maybe you’re an introvert, maybe you just don’t like crowds, or maybe the event itself is just a bit odd.
Usually, this awkward feeling is cultivated by a lack of comfort, whatever may be the cause of that discomfort. Why are we uncomfortable around new people? We do not yet know them. We wonder whether they will judge us, chastise us, or like us. We are really wary of the unknown, but that manifests in social anxiety.
Not us.
Our group consists of Rena, Torri, Rachel, and me: we are all taking an online course together. But, we’re kinda friends already. I’ve been in online education all of my life. Cyber charter schools in K-12, online class at community college, same at undergraduate, and now fully online for graduate work. Plus, I work in the Office of Digital Learning – I create online education. Yet I’ve never had such a light-bulb moment about community as this. 
When our group met today via Appear.In to plan our upcoming project, there was no awkward. No one hesitated, no one held back. We got right into business, shared a few laughs, and wrestled through network disruptions like pros. We worked like a community that had worked together before. We worked well.
Why is this significant? Because, my friends, community is an essential component of learning and if we ignore it, we lose out on a huge opportunity. I know that online education is an opportunity for institutions to grow and to get a more diverse student body. However, online education really is a valid means of educating. It is a venue for learning and teaching. Many people think of online education as it was in the olden days: an extension of correspondence education. I send assignments out to some unknown source, that source grades it (maybe sends it back; maybe sends it back with feedback), I move on, and eventually I graduate.
Thankfully, online education is turning the corner towards social learning. My team and I have actually done meetings like this a number of times before. They were just more sporadic, sometimes asychronous, and without webcams. Using a chat product called Slack we have been meeting and collaborating all semester. So it really makes sense that when we came together on a webcam that no one flinched.
This to me is one among many examples of how community, social learning, and collaboration can all take place over a digital medium.
Online education is not dead.
WVHI
References & Tools:
Appear.In is a free, online conferencing tool. Appear.In works by going to their main website and creating a room or by simply appending your room title to the end of their main url (e.g. https://appear.in/room). The convenience is maximal, the start-up process is great. To note, it does not keep recordings or transcripts, so it is best used for pop-up meeting and more social experiences. Check them out at https://appear.in.
Wenger’s Community of Practice model details what a community can be. The value of this definition is how it applies to education, specifically, and how instructors can work to engage their learners in a community of practice in their learning venue. http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/
Garrison, Anderson, and Archer propose the Community of Inquiry model as one that should help us be aware of the different domains that learners engage throughout the learning experience. The instructor’s goal should be to present the best educatioanl experience they can, and so it is important to be aware of what areas the teacher can control and what areas they need to be aware of that the learners can impact. https://coi.athabascau.ca/coi-model/
Social Constructivism is the theory that learners collaborate to share, retain, and engender knowledge in their learning experiences. In this instance, we as a team engaged Social Constructivism by preparing for an upcoming group project by synthesizing evaluation criteria, reflecting on the application of Web 2.0 tools, and negotiating the parameters of our project. http://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guide-contents/learning-theory-research/social-constructivism/
Slack is an free, online chat program that allows for direct messaging, group messaging, and open channel messaging. The messaging itself can integrate with a number of tools that can maximize workflows, encourage healthy fun in conversation, and organize thought into threaded discussions. Check it out at https://slack.com.