K20 LEARN | Fostering a Classroom Community in a Virtual Platform

Summary

Forging a path of strong community in an online classroom can be a challenge. Teachers and students are separated and maintaining a sense of community relies on some of the same practices we use in the in-person classroom. However, when coupled with uniquely designed virtual materials, authentic teaching strategies will ultimately open the doors of inquiry-based collaborative learning for your students.

Essential Questions

How do you foster a classroom community in a virtual classroom?

Learning Goals

Participants explore research regarding the importance of building community as it pertains to learning.
Participants analyze interactive strategies to determine their potential effectiveness in addressing challenges to building a classroom community in a virtual environment.

Materials List

Computer, tablet, or personal device
Internet or WiFi
Best Practices: Blended Learning—Fostering a Classroom Community in a Virtual Platform (attached; 1 per participant)
Best Practices: Interaction in Online Classrooms—Fostering a Classroom Community in a Virtual Platform (attached; 1 per participant)
Instructional Strategy Note Sheet—Fostering a Classroom Community in a Virtual Platform (attached; 1 per participant)
T-Chart- Fostering a Classroom Community in a Virtual Platform (attached; 1 per participant, or use Googledoc)
Presentation Slides—Fostering a Classroom Community in a Virtual Platform (attached)

Engage

Facilitator's Note: Setting Up

Prior to the session, you need to ensure you complete the following in order to be properly set-up:

Engage: Padlet. Set up a Padlet activity for the Engage portion of the session. Include the question, "Are you currently teaching or working in a virtual or blended environment?" Once you have set up your Padlet, copy the QR code, and create a TinyURL to put on slide 7. Make sure you also include the complete link in the slide notes for your producer so that they can drop it in the chat for your participants when the time comes.
Explain: Zoom Poll. Set up a Zoom Poll for a Virtual Four Corners activity on slide 29.
Extend: T-Chart Google Doc. In the attachments is a Word document that you can upload into Google Docs. Make sure prior to sharing the Google Doc with your participants that you change the share settings on the document to "Anyone with the link," and "Editor."
Evaluate: Padlet. Set up a Padlet activity for the Evaluate portion of the session. Include the question, "How does Social Presence in a virtual platform contribute to fostering a classroom community?" Once you have set up your Padlet, copy the QR code, and create a TinyURL to put on slide 33. Make sure you also include the complete link in the slide notes for your producer so that they can drop it in the chat for your participants when the time comes.

Begin by having the title slide displayed. Introduce yourself and welcome your participants.

Display the appropriate slide to review your grant goals with participants (slides 3-5).

GEAR UP for the FUTURE (slide 3)
GEAR UP OKC (slide 4)
GEAR UP for MY SUCCESS (slide 5)

Display slide 6. Begin with the Icebreaker activity with participants in order to get to know each other a little bit better. Instruct them to find the three dots next to their image and select "Rename." Have them rename themselves with their first name and school district. Take a moment to point out the example: Stephanie, Norman PS.

Make sure to welcome participants as they are renaming themselves.

Next, using the chat function, instruct participants to choose an animal that best represents them as an educator. Encourage them to explain why they chose that animal. Make sure to give shout-outs regarding responses. Let participants know that you enjoyed their responses and hope that through the remainder of this session you can get to know each other a bit more during the collaboration time.

Transition Phrase: "Now that we have had the opportunity to get to know each other, we will dive into our next activity and engage in a collaborative discussion."

Display slide 7. Inform participants that for the next activity, you will be modeling Social Presence, which is one of our main topics of discussion today. This activity includes using Padlet, a virtual collaboration tool. Ask participants to use the reactions tool in Zoom and give you a thumbs up if they have used Padlet before.

Point out the QR code and TinyURL on slide 7. Instruct participants to access the Padlet activity that you have set up. Take a moment to drop the complete URL into the chat for participants to access the activity this way as well.

Make sure to put participants at ease if they are not able to access Padlet comfortably due to internet access, device capability, etc. Inform them that they can just play along and participate in whatever way they can. Everyone will still benefit from the discussion/experiences of other participants, and they may use the chat feature to submit their responses.

Display the Padlet screen where participants will be posting.

Once participants have access to Padlet, instruct them to click the "+" button to create their posts using the following K20 Learn Strategy "How am I feeling? What am I thinking?" on the following question: Are you currently teaching or working in a virtual or blended environment?

Ask them to add their name to their post. Ask them to take time to read other responses and reflect on what others have to say when they have posted their own response. Some participants may experience the same challenges and successes. Take a moment to talk about creating a virtual collaborative and interactive environment through Social Presence. Respond to some of the participant comments.

Transition Phrase: "Thank you for your comments. I hope that Padlet enabled you to actively visualize this collaborative tool. Let's begin reviewing and discussing a "Community of Inquiry."

Display slide 8. Inform participants that the session is meant to be a collaborative one. They should feel free to engage and take chances of sharing out. Remind them that they are all in the session to learn from one another. Review the Essential Question.

Transition Phrase: "Isn't this the question of the day? This topic is on the minds of many educators today given that more of us are switching to a virtual environment."

Display slide 9. Inform participants that the Learning Objectives support answering the Essential Question. Introduce the idea that they are going to explore research regarding the importance of building community. Review the Learning Objectives.

Transition Phrase: "We are going to look at the challenges faced when building a Community of Inquiry (CoI) in a virtual space. We will explore and analyze what strategies can be used to support building that CoI."

Explore

Display slide 10. Inform participants that you are going to explore the three Presences that make up a CoI. Participants may know a lot or a little about these. Research supports that these three Presences are what make up an effective virtual classroom.

Transition Phrase: "The Presences are Cognitive Presence, Teaching Presence, Social Presence."

Display slide 11. Inform participants that you are going to take this information and access their prior knowledge. They will participate in a modified version of a strategy called Honeycomb Harvest. Over the next few slides, there will be statements related to one of the three Presences of Community of Inquiry (Cognitive, Teaching, or Social). After reading each statement, the participants will decide which Presence is being represented. They will read the statement, and based on their choice, have them place a 1 for Cognitive Presence, 2 for Teaching Presence, or a 3 for Social Presence in the Chat function.

Transition Phrase: "If you have paper and a pen handy, number 1 to 5. Jot down the answer that you put for each of these statements. We are going to come back to it later for reference. Please note that there is more than one correct answer."

Participants are kept on task and engaged in productive dialogue. (Slide 12)
I feel comfortable disagreeing with course participants while still maintaining a sense of trust. (Slide 13)
It is clear how to participate in learning activities. Timeframes and due dates are communicated. (Slide 14)
Combining new information helps me answer questions raised in course activities. (Slide 15)
I feel as if my point of view is acknowledged by other course participants. (Slide 16)
I feel encouraged to explore new concepts. (Slide 17)

Transition Phrase: "Let's take a deeper look into these three Presences we just explored."

Explain

Display slide 18. Inform participants that you want to take a couple of minutes and talk about research. Say, "I know you are probably thrilled to hear that. We won't spend a long time talking about the specifics of it, but it is important that what we do in our classrooms is backed by research." Share with them that many of these ideas and research came from the book E-Learning in the 21st Century: A Community of Inquiry Framework for Research and Practice by D. Randy Garrison.

The framework that is displayed on this slide is the theoretical backbone of a lot of e-learning. A Community of Inquiry framework was formed around three main ideas, and then is broken into three different Presences. These ideas are:

The experience of living alongside students in a classroom
The concept of developing a community of learners
The idea that interaction alone does not develop engaged students

These ideas are encapsulated within the Presences and how those Presences interact together creates a Community of Inquiry (CoI).

Transition Phrase: "Where the three Presences intersect, we get the educational experience that students have in classrooms."

Display slide 19. Inform participants that these three Presences are interdependent (thus the representation by a Venn diagram).

The following three transitions will display a basic definition of each Presence on the slide:

Transition 1: Social Presence is the ability of participants to identify with the community (e.g. course of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting environment, and develop interpersonal relationships by way of projecting their individual personalities. According to Garrison, one of the biggest shortcomings of traditional distance learning is the implicit denial of community. There can be that sense of community in a virtual environment.
Transition 2: Cognitive Presence is the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse. This includes encouraging students to have substantive conversations leading to deeper understanding. Additionally, this is the context of critical thinking and scientific inquiry.
Transition 3: Teaching Presence is the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes. The teacher and the learner are not in separate roles. Sometimes the student assumes the role of the teacher. These aren't fixed states.

Transition Phrase: "This was a brief explanation of the three Presences, but today we really want to focus on Social Presence."

Display slide 20. Share with the group the official definition of Social Presence, according to Garrison.

Transition once the definition has been shared.

Display slide 21. Share that the main topic and focus today includes Social Presence:

"What is Social Presence? Social Presence is the master conductor that synchronizes the instructor, students, norms, academic content, instructional strategies, and outcomes within a learning experience. The more students develop their social presence and improve engagement, the greater control they have over their own learning."

Share with participants that there are three aspects of Social Presence you would like to share with them today.

First is an Affective experience: This includes taking the opportunity to express emotion. We can do this through the use of humor, which conveys goodwill. Strategies include the use of emojis, using the rename feature, or changing virtual backgrounds to foster emotional connections or climate. The greater the connection, the more we encourage an environment of trust in terms of academic discourse.
The second aspect is Cohesive experience: Cohesive communication begins with Social Presence and simple behavior such as addressing others by name. Taking it a step further, using inclusive pronouns such as "we" and "our" fosters a cohesive group environment and Community of Inquiry, resulting in meaningful collaboration.
Lastly, an Interactive experience: Keeping learners involved sparks interest and a desire to participate. This refers to learners who compliment or agree with other learners, disagree with other learners, and/or ask questions of other learners and/or the teacher. It is not easy for students to engage in critical discourse, but creating a Community of Inquiry based on a strong Social Presence will cultivate a collaborative environment over time.

Transition Phrase: "Previously, we asked you to activate prior knowledge and answer questions regarding a Community of Inquiry. Let's look at those questions again."

Display slide 22. Inform participants that for this next activity, they are going to complete another modified Honeycomb Harvest. Based on the discussions of creating a Community of Inquiry through Social Presence, participants may want to re-evaluate their previous answers.

The next few slides will have statements related to one of the Presences in the Community of Inquiry. In the same way as the earlier activity, participants will place a 1 for Cognitive Presence, 2 for Teaching Presence, or a 3 for Social Presence in the chat function. Say, "As we review the statements, we will be asking for some audience participation, so please be ready to share out."

Transition Phrase: "You may want to refer to the answers you noted for our first Honeycomb Harvest activity."

Display slide 23. Participants are kept on task and engage in productive dialogue.