Running Head: Reflection

Gillian Sudlow

Building Successful Learning Communities in a Blended Classroom: A Critical Reflection

ETEC 532 UBC MET Program Gillian Sudlow

Running Head: Reflection

Gillian Sudlow

Introduction to Community and Blended Learning

In online courses, students can feel isolated (Rovai and Jordan, 2004) and in face-to-face (f2f) courses students can become passive watchers, disconnected from their own learning (Kemp, 2008). Research demonstrates that building a learning community can positively impact student learning in any modality, but can be especially effective in a blended learning environment. A blended approach effectively doubles the opportunities to build a strong learning community as f2f and online learning environments can become a natural extension of the other (Rovai and Jordan, 2004). Still, successful learning communities do not just happen, especially in a blended context. They require a careful blend of f2f and online ingredients that are optimized for both teaching and learning, careful consideration of pedagogy and technology, and a variety of skills and strategies to build and maintain. This paper is a critical reflection of my own efforts to create an effective blend to build a successful community of learners in my own practice. Critical reflection, while essential to good teaching practice, can be difficult without examples of best practices from similar contexts to compare to. In the absence of comparables, one must look to current research and seek out best practices that can be adapted to suit ones context. As my approach is unique within my school, I assess my efforts with reference to the best practices, strategies and frameworks associated with blended learning and learning communities as suggested by the literature.

Background to Context
I am a Humanities and Language Arts instructor in a publicly funded adult education program designed for students to either complete unfinished high school credits or to upgrade existing credits. Adult education presents unique challenges in regards to classroom composition and course structure that can create barriers for the creation of a learning community. Classroom Composition An adult education classroom is likely one of the most diverse classrooms in terms of composition. The majority of students are non-native speakers who are either international students or recent immigrants who come from traditional schooling backgrounds where rote learning and transmission style teaching is the standard. Students often present with learning disabilities, but there are no resources available. The average age is 19-24, but students can range in age from 16 to 65+. Many students are working adults with families. 1

Running Head: Reflection

Gillian Sudlow

Course Structure Courses run on a nine week quarter system from September to June and a six week Summer session from July to August. Courses average 100 hours over the quarter either 2.25 hours 5 days a week or 3 hours 4 days a week. Because of disparities in language, ability and age coupled with the nine week structure it is often difficult to establish a sense of community among learners in my context. In the Humanities and Language Arts it is essential for students to interact with one another and the course content through critical discourse. However, in my experience, courses may reach the halfway point before any sense of community has developed for students to feel comfortable enough to actively engage in class or group discussion. In order to overcome some of these barriers, I use a blended approach in my courses. This approach affords students more time to engage in content and with one another as the online component effectively extends time and the learning community beyond classroom walls and into the virtual space of anytime, anywhere learning. In this space, students can continue to collaborate and engage with the course materials in a supportive, accessible online community.

Literature Review
Selection of Studies
Little research exists around the topic of learning communities in a blended context, and none within the context of adult secondary education. Nonetheless, the selected literature, reviewed briefly below, provides a variety of exemplar strategies and frameworks to reflect upon in reference to my own practice.

Blended Learning:
In his discussion of best practices for blended learning, Watson (2008), places nine different blended programs along a Blended Learning Continuum ranging from fully online courses with no f2f component to traditional f2f courses with little or no online components (Watson, 2008). He then gives a detailed overview of each blended program and how it successfully mixes online and f2f components.The continuum, in a general sense, is useful to situate ones own blend, but it must be noted that the exemplars along the continuum are specific to individual contexts.

Running Head: Reflection

Gillian Sudlow

In her short e-book, Debra Marsh (2012) identifies three essential factors to achieving an effective blend: complementarity of strategies, pedagogically sound learning materials and academic, affective and technical support (Marsh, 2012). Marsh describes the roles of teachers and students in a blended program and concludes with a blended design template for language learners that can be adapted for other contexts.

Learning Communities:
In a causal-comparative study, Rovai and Jordan (2004) examine how students sense of community differed across traditional f2f, online and blended courses. The result of the study proved the researchers hypothesis that a sense of community is strongest in the blended course as it combines the benefits of both online and f2f learning environments. While these results appear promising, several factors limit the generalizability of the findings. Using her own practice as a case study, Kemp (2010) demonstrates how a community approach to teaching in a blended course adds value to learning in a variety of ways including: the creation, sharing and collaborative building of new knowledge, the extension of community beyond the physical constraints of a traditional classroom and the nurturing of valuable workplace skills (Kemp, 2010). Kemp describes the stages that she uses to establish and maintain an active learning community. Passionate about the community approach, she encourages her readers to adapt her framework to their own context. The Educause unit Building Community and Collaboration compiled by Diaz and Strickland (2009) is a practical professional development tool for educators who wish to build effective learning communities in blended courses. The authors stress the importance of ensuring a close connection between interaction that occurs online and in the f2f classroom to maintain a community across both modalities. A variety of reflective activities is provided to aid participants in recognizing the value of community as well as practical strategies and an extensive list of multi-media resources to help them create and maintain effective learning communities.

Conclusion
Although the research above describes very specific teaching contexts, the authors provide a variety of best practices, strategies and frameworks that can be adapted for my context and serve as effective comparables for my reflection.

Running Head: Reflection

Gillian Sudlow

Reflection: A critical view of my practice

Situating the blend
Fig. 1: Blended Learning Continuum (adapted from Watson, 2008, p. 6)

FULLY ONLINE
Fully online curriculum with all learning done online and at a distance and no f2f component Fully online curriculum with options for f2f instruction, but not required Mostly or fully online curriculum with select days required in classroom or computer lab Mostly or fully online curriculum in computer lab or classroom where students meet every day Classroom instruction with significant, required online components that extend learning beyond the classroom and beyond the school day Classroom instruction integrating online resources, but limited or no requirements for students to be online Traditional f2f setting with few or no online resources or communication

TRADITIONAL F2F
The Blended Learning Continuum (see fig. 1) proposed by Watson (2008) classifies different blends based on their online and f2f components. In regards to my context, I would situate my courses to the right of centre: Classroom instruction with significant, required online components that extend learning beyond the classroom and beyond the school day (Watson, 2008, p. 6). While the term significant is vague, I do require students to complete online tasks on a regular basis. For example, in my English 12 course online tasks for an average week will include a discussion forum, a self-marking quiz and a blog post. I maintain that this is the optimal blend for my context as it provides a good balance of online and f2f components. With this blend, the f2f environment remains the basic building block of the learning experience which is enriched and enhanced by learning technologies (Marsh, 2012).

The ingredientsof the blend

It is not the blend itself that matters but whether the f2f and online components of the blend are optimized for both teaching and learning that will create a successful learning community in a blended context. 4

Running Head: Reflection

Gillian Sudlow

Watson (2008), Kemp (2010) and Marsh (2012) identify a Learning Management System (LMS) as a key component to facilitating a successful blend. To facilitate my blend, I use the Moodle LMS. Moodle has many Web 2.0 affordances that provide a secure, but interactive virtual learning environment. Web 2.0 tools and LMS progress reports can help teachers such as myself with diverse learners to isolate students who are struggling by offering the opportunity to provide support on different levels to students who often get overlooked in a busy f2f setting (Marsh, 2010). Of all the Web 2.0 tools an LMS can provide to support the learner community, researchers agree that the asynchronous discussion forum is a simple, yet powerful, interactive tool to engage students in content and encourage community (Diaz and Strickland, 2009; Marsh, 2012; Rovai and Jordan, 2004). Discussion forums can be used to introduce new content, to extend classroom discussion and to support a learning community. Using discussion forums to post open-ended questions before or after content is delivered f2f encourages students to draw on their own experience and relate it to course content, often building new knowledge (Diaz and Strickland, 2009). To ensure student engagement in forums, Diaz and Strickland (2009) insist that participation be assessed using a rubric that objectively establishes posting expectations. In my courses, online participation ranges from 10-20% of a students final grade. Each online activity has clear instructions as well as a rubric to establish expectations. For example, Figure 2 is a forum question (with rubric) I pose to my English 12 students prior to a unit on names and identity:

Fig. 2: Example Forum Question with Rubric

In this forum, post a brief (150 words or less) history/explanation of your name. Consider the following questions as you construct your post.

What is the meaning of your name? If you don't know, try this website. Do you know WHY your parents named you as they did? Are you named after someone (ie. relative, book character, celebrity)? Did you change your name? If so, how and why did you choose your name? How is your name connected to your identity?

Reply to at least 2 of your classmates posts.

Running Head: Reflection

Gillian Sudlow

Marsh (2010) gives several examples of how forums can support students and the learning community by establishing Help or Questions forums where students can post and answer questions about course content, thus supporting one another in their learning. Using forums for support also reinforces the idea that the teacher is not the source of all knowledge and creates a sense of community and peer support in general. (Marsh, 2012, p. 7) I have tried help forums in my courses, but I no longer include them as I find students do not use them, likely because they are not formally assessed. However, I do see how they would function to build community; perhaps they would be worth another try if I explain the benefits to students and encourage them to rely on one another. Hopefully then, as Marsh (2010) suggests, students will quickly see the value of sharing knowledge and helping each other this way (13) and participate regardless of marks.

Facilitating the blend to build community

Diaz and Strickland (2009) and Marsh (2012) caution that instructors of blended courses have a greater challenge of building and maintaining community because community has to exist in both modes. Courses have to be designed to ensure continuity or complementarity between modes so that what happens online contributes to the face-to-face experience and what happens during the face-toface learning experience contributes significantly to what happens online. (Dias and Strickland, 2009) In my English classes for example, I will have students discuss possible essay topics in an online forum prior to assigning one for an in-class essay. Doing so not only connects the online environment to the f2f 6

Running Head: Reflection

Gillian Sudlow

classroom, but it also encourages students to engage with the content and with one another to coconstruct knowledge in a learning community. It is important to begin building community right away. Cultivating a strong sense of community takes time the earlier it begins, the more effective the communities can be in accomplishing their common goal in the course. (Diaz and Strickland, 2009, np) Marsh (2012) has several Hints and tips to kick start a learning community such as: have students create online profiles at the beginning of the course and create support and social forums online. I have students create online profiles as well as have students participate in ice-breaker activities both in-class and online. Student buy in is essential to building a successful learning community in a blended context. If students do not understand the benefits, their efforts and their learning will be superficial. Kemp (2010) suggests explaining the benefits of a learning community and the roles of students and teachers in small stages early on and reinforcing them throughout as the course progresses. The community of learning will die if it is not constantly fed, so each classroom session needs to encourage the idea and practice of the community. (Kemp, 2010, p. 71) I believe that this is where I fall short in regards to my practice. While I often introduce the benefits of blended learning and learning communities, I do not reinforce them throughout the course. I also do not take the time to explain the roles of the teacher and the student in a learning community. This is a large misstep as many of my students are unfamiliar with a student-centred, community approach to learning which puts the construction of knowledge in the hands of the learner community and reduces the role of the teacher to facilitator rather than director. The literature suggests that learners may need time, coaching and support in regards to how to learn in this new environment (Dias and Strickland (2009); Kemp, 20101; Marsh, 2012). While I am a strong believer in teaching students how to learn rather than what to learn, I have failed to apply this belief to helping students adapt to learning in a blended environment that supports a community approach.

Conclusions Optimizing the blend

While it appears that I am already doing several things right, there is always room for improvement. I believe that I have achieved the appropriate blend for my context, balancing a f2f foundation with an enrichment of online components. It appears that I am using technology to its full potential by facilitating my courses through the Moodle LMS and taking full advantage of its many Web

Running Head: Reflection

Gillian Sudlow

2.0 tools, especially asynchronous forums. I have overcome the challenge of creating continuity between both modes by ensuring a close connection between online and f2f activities. However, improvement is needed in regards to student buy-in and support. It is important that I take the time throughout the course to explain the benefits of blended learning and the community approach. Highlighting instances of where and how learning is enhanced by the blended environment and/or the learning community as they happen could help to increase buy-in and strengthen the learning community. I will also need to make a greater effort to support students as they adapt to a new approach to learning and give them strategies to cope. As a result of this reflection, I have gained confidence in my ability to create a learning community in a blended context, but I also pinpointed areas where my practice is lacking. The best practices, strategies and frameworks presented in the literature will help me to improve my practice where it is wanting and also provide me with a variety of ideas to enhance it.

Running Head: Reflection

Gillian Sudlow

References:
Diaz, V. and Strickland, J. (2009).Unit3: Building Community and Collaboration [PDF document]. Educause Learning Initiative. Retrieved February from: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI80073, Kemp, L. (2010). Teaching & Learning for International Students in a "Learning Community": Creating, Sharing and Building Knowledge. Insight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching, 5, 63-74. Retrieved February 20, 2013, from http://www.insightjournal.net/Volume5/TeachingLearningInternationalStudenst.pdf Marsh, D. (2012) Blended Learning: Creating Learning Opportunities for Language Learner. New York: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved February 22, from http://www.cambridge.org/other_files/downloads/esl/booklets/Blended-Learning Combined.pdf Rovai, A., & Jordan, H. (2004). Blended Learning and Sense of Community: A Comparative Analysis with Traditional and Fully Online Graduate Courses. The International Review Of Research In Open And Distance Learning, 5(2). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/192/274 Watson, J. (2008) Blended Learning: The Convergence of Online and Face-to Face Education. [PDF] North American Council for Online Learning. Retrieved February 18, 2013 from: http://www.inacol.org/research/promisingpractices/NACOL_PP-BlendedLearning-lr.pdf