Developing online community: where does teacher practices fit in?

Abstract

Developing communities is one of the main emphases tertiary institutions have due to the potentials of community. Its potentials in the academic domain or professional domain have been established by Brindley, et al. (2009), Gratton and Erickson (2007) and Palloff and Pratt (2005). Other researchers have also indicated that community can enhance quality of interaction (Salmon, 2004) because it enhances “the flow of information among all learners, the availability of support, commitment to group goals, cooperation among members, and satisfaction with group efforts” (Rovai, 2001:33). Picciano (2002) has also pointed out it affects academic performance and coursework completion. The professional domains also capitalise on community diversity in terms of knowledge and experience to realise workplace’ initiatives (Adler and Heckscher, 2006). With the provision of online learning environment (OLE) at tertiary institutions, developing a community is becoming more viable because teachers are able to plan and orchestrate instructional experience, assess and make changes in situ to support the development of online community so that interaction among students are promoted and students.