by Marcy Bauman
Writing Program, University of Michigan-Dearborn
marcyb@umich.edu

• INTRODUCTION
• STUDENTS' NEEDS
• THE ROLE OF OBSERVED INTERACTION
• CHALLENGES POSED IN CREATING COMMUNITIES ONLINE
• DIFFICULTIES FACED BY STUDENTS
• DIFFICULTIES FACED BY INSTRUCTORS
• GUIDELINES FOR CREATING COMMUNITIES WITHIN INDIVIDUAL CLASSES
• GUIDELINES FOR CREATING LEARNING COMMUNITIES OUTSIDE OF CLASS
• CONCLUSION

My presentation at this conference is premised on the notion that higher education consists of more than skills training; that no matter how pragmatic its intent, education beyond the high school level, particularly in the humanities, should at least prompt people to think critically about their lives and their futures, and to examine their received assumptions about the world and their place in it. Students need skills, to be sure, but they also need the predispositions and habits of mind that will enable them to be creative, flexible learners throughout their lifetimes, not just during the years when they are in school.

When we offer students instruction via Distance Education, then, we need to offer them more than a technologically advanced version of correspondence school -- we need to give them more than discrete lessons which they complete on their own, send to some faceless instructor or grader, and receive back with comments or corrections. We need to offer them the opportunity to interact with other students and with their instructors in online learning communities -- places where they can test assumptions, try out new ideas, and ask difficult questions in the company of other learners who are doing the same. Online learning communities mirror the kinds of learning communities we find on college campuses where an effort is made to enrich students' experience beyond the classroom walls, via support services such as the library, writing centers and other tutoring help; via cultural enrichment such as programs which invite outside speakers to campus, film programs, concerts and the like; and via the common spaces which exist on any physical campus -- the student union, the cafeteria, a commons at the center of campus, or the library, to name a few possibilities.

Learning communities of these kinds start in the classroom, but the classroom in such communities is supported by efforts by others all across campus. In this presentation, I would like to consider the creation of online learning communities both on the level of the individual class and the level of the campus as a whole. Before I offer suggestions, though, I would like to discuss the needs of students and instructors which are met on a physical campus simply by dint of their having face- to-face contact, and then continue the discussion by considering the ways in which those needs can be met online.

STUDENTS' NEEDS

Students have a variety of needs when they come to a college classroom, many of which have little or nothing to do with the content of the subjects that they are studying. We know, for example, that students' academic success is in some way dependent on their being able to become integrated into the academic community, at least to the degree that they understand its expectations and the ways in which it operates. We know that students have social needs when they come to college: they need to be able to find a group of like-minded people with whom they can form friendships. We know that social factors can be as powerfully motivating as can be intellectual ones in keeping students in school.

And yet, comparatively little attention has been paid to how to create and foster the sort of social climate online that will contribute to student success. When we think of planning online classes or programs, we think primarily about the intellectual content of the course or program, and we tend to forget that the other factors are important.

THE ROLE OF OBSERVED INTERACTION

In part, this neglect occurs because many of the meaningful social interactions take place outside of class time, or they happen on the periphery of the class period, and so as instructors we either tend not to pay conscious attention to those moments, or we think of them only in terms of the information value of the actual exchange. In reality, though, each interaction we have with students (and each interaction students have with other students) is multilayered in that it conveys several different kinds of meanings. Individual interactions work iteratively to create the classroom climate, to convey instructor and student expectations, and to develop attitudes about the course, the material being covered, the instructor, and the university as a whole.

As an illustration, consider a common occurrence in a face to face class -- students and instructor arrive a few moments before the class is scheduled to begin. In the five minutes before class, important interactions take place. The instructor may talk to a group of students. Students may talk among themselves. A certain percentage of that talk will involve matters pertinent to the classroom. Say, for example, that a student asks another student a question about an upcoming assignment. If the second student can't answer the question, both students may then ask the teacher, who might answer in the hearing of other students, some of whom may have had the same question, or who may not yet have had the question, but would have later, when it was not so easily answered.

Aside from the information value of the exchange (which may potentially answer several students'questions although only one person asked the question), students gain a great deal of affective information as well. The first student, who asks the second student, not only gains the benefit of the second student's understanding of the assignment, but the first student also discovers whether the question she has posed might be held by others as well. She will learn a bit about whether the second student knows the material and pays attention in class. In fact, she will likely have already made a hypothesis about those matters, and her hypothesis may have led her to question that particular student instead of another. In other words, the first student's decision about who to ask is dependent on her observed knowledge of the second student, knowledge gained by observing that person's demeanor and other interactions.

Similarly, both students potentially learn important information about their instructor as well, partly by the answer the instructor gives and partly through paralinguistic cues. They see how the instructor handles the question. Does the instructor think it was a dumb question? Should the student have already known the answer? Does the instructor treat the question with respect? With attention? Is the answer curt? By their attitudes towards questions and questioners, instructors betray a great deal about the expectations they have of the class.

Additionally, other students learn about the instructor and her expectations by overhearing the question and answer. Students make determinations about the appropriateness of the question and the response, and, by extension, about the questioner and the instructor. After several questions and answers, of interactions of this type, students start to betray, through paralinguistic cues such as body language and decisions about their choice of seats in the room, for example, their developing attitudes about the course, the material, the instructor, and their classmates. It is the accretion of small moments like this one, along with the formal interactions that comprise what we usually think of as "class time," that create the atmosphere in the classroom.

There are numerous difficulties involved with creating online learning communities, and many of those difficulties arise because once we move to an online environment, we no longer have the benefit of the sorts of casual interactions described above to help us create the classroom community. Because those sorts of interactions occur naturally and inevitably as a result of the people in a class seeing each other face to face at a specified time and in a specified place, thinking and planning for those kinds of experiences is not part of our repertoire as instructors at all. Furthermore, many of the interaction strategies both we and our students use face to face simply will not work online.

Online instruction requires a much more active role on the part of students than face to face instruction does, and because it is such an uncommon method of taking courses, students often do not have the skills necessary to survive in an online class or program. Students need to be persistent, they need to have the ability to analyze a difficulty and figure out where to get help, they need to be able to phrase questions in such a way that they can get answers, and they need to be predisposed to read written material in such a way that they can get information from it which they can then use. Thes points deserve further elaboration.

• Persistence. In a face-to-face class, students learn a great deal by overhearing, as I have illustrated above. If a student does not understand a concept or idea, that person cn, to a certain extent, depend on others to ask questions. Students can go along for several class periods not particularly grasping an idea, and still eventually come to understand it. Also, if the student does ask a question, it may take several conversational turns -- several back-and-forth exchanges with the instructor -- before the confusion is clarified. In the online environment, students need to be willing to write back and forth, rather than speaking back and forth, in order to get their questions answered. Furthermore, they need to be particularly alert to those moments when they sense that they're not comprehending something, and be willing to ask immediately if they are confused.

• The ability to analyze a difficulty and phrase questions so as to get answers. In a face-to-face class, it is possible to ask very unspecific questions in order to elicit specific answers because the context of the question is clear from the fact that students and instructor share the same lived-through experience of the class period. So, for instance, a student can say, "Could you go over that again?" and receive a perfectly understandable, clear answer to a question. Online, though, it is necessary for questioners to be considerably more specific if they are to receive useful answers. Students will have to create the context, and identify the specific passage or moment when they became confused. Then, they will need to spell out their confusion as precisely as they can; the time delay between asking a question and receiving an answer over e-mail means that it is inefficient for students to engage in back-and-forth exchanges with instructors as they might face-to-face.

• The predisposition to read for information which they then use. In face-to-face classes, it is rare for students to be put in the position of having to rely solely on the written word in order to perform the work of the course. Instructions, even if delivered on paper, are almost always accompanied by verbal explanation. Even if a student has a question about an instruction on a test, for example, that student can ask the instructor for clarification. Similarly, although students are assigned readings in some classes, often the instructor will go over the main points of the reading assignments, or class discussion about the readings may take place. Except in rare circumstances, student who does very little of the reading for a course will likely still be able to pass it.

  Such is not the case online, however. When all the information comes to students via texts, they need to become proficient in reading those texts for meaning, and in order to be able to use the information they read in another context. This kind of reading is demanding in a different way than the kinds of reading students usually do in their classes; it requires considerably more effort and commitment than students may be used to giving to their reading.

Not much in the traditional classroom prepares students for such active learning. It is rare, for instance, for a syllabus to come unaccompanied by explanation; typically, the first class period in any semester is taken up at least partly by instructors going over the syllabus and assignments, and answering questions students have about the material. Even if a student's question is not answered then, instructors usually answer questions about assignments as the assignments draw near. In the face-to-face classroom, there is a redundancy of information and a number of opportunities to obtain it. It is not necessary to pay close attention to information the first time it is given, and it is rarely necessary to pay attention to information given in print rather than orally.

But information presented online, in print, is a different matter. In a printed document, redundancies occur at the sentence level (because all languages are redundant), but information and concepts are usually introduced only once. And it is to the instructor's benefit to have students understand material the first time around; answering questions over one-to-one e-mail is time- consuming and inefficient.

Students are not the only ones at a loss in the new environment. Instructors, too, sometimes find the transition to teaching via distance ed a hard one to make. We, too, no longer have the verbal and visual cues which we typically use to gauge students' engagement with and understanding of the material we present. We may not be skilled in writing assignments and syllabi that do not require additional verbal elaboration; some of us may not provide assignment sheets at all, for example. We may not have had much practice in answering questions at the level of specificity that online instruction demands. Furthermore, we may not be accustomed to taking inititative in contacting our students in the ways that online instruction makes advisable or necessary, and we may even have prejudices against making such contact.

• Lack of verbal and visual cues. When people first think about teaching online, the lack of paralinguistic cues usually comes to mind as the most serious limitation of the online environment. And it is a limitation: In a face-to-face class we can easily see what students may not tell us. They may be bored, they may be confused, or they may be entertained; we typically adjust our presentation of material in response to the cues we sense from students. Although we do not typically talk about student attitudes -- we don't, for example, usually ask people if we're boring them -- we monitor those attitudes fairly carefully.

  Online, we need to monitor those attitudes also. We need to ask -- explicitly and frequently -- whether people understand the material or the directions. We need to make clear the fact that we are receptive to questions, and we need to answer those questions promptly, clearly, and in such a manner that people feel comfortable asking further questions.

• Lack of experience in writing assignment sheets and syllabi. While some instructors are in the practice of writing detailed syllabi and assignment sheets, others are not. None of us is really accustomed to writing documents of this type which require no further verbal elaboration. Additionally, longstanding, ingrained attitudes about these documents -- that because they were written by the person in power in the classroom, they are assumed to be (or had better be) clear -- make it difficult for students to question them and for instructors to admit when they are unclear. We are used to thinking of the language of such documents, which are generally regarded in the academy as having the weight of legal contracts, as fixed and unchangeable. We are not used to thinking of them as being provisional and subject to change.

  Granted, there are certain aspects of a syllabus or an assignment that instructors cannot change -- but we need to understand that a student's request for clarification or our own need to go back and rephrase something confusing do not mean that we have failed in our communicative efforts. We need to understand that misunderstanding and repair play vital roles in communicating our expectations online particularly because we do not have the verbal and visual contexts in which such repair might take place in a face-to-face classroom.

• Lack of experience in answering questions. Our students are not the only ones who rely on the back-and-forth of conversation to help build meaning. We, too, sometimes answer questions by offering as little information as we think necessary -- or we may offer far more elaboration than students need at a given moment, trusting that students will filter out what they don't need or ask about what they still do not understand. Online, because it takes so much effort to answer questions, it behooves us to find ways of answering questions efficiently, and to learn to sense what further questions might lie behind the questions that students are asking.

  It takes practice to learn how to answer questions thoroughly, yet succinctly. If the question is a technical one, requiring a how-to answer, we need to remember, for example, to spell out every step in a process clearly and concisely -- a kind of writing not many of us are called upon to do in our professional lives. It takes some time to get a feel for the questions which might lie behind questions about the content of the course.

• Lack of experience with the level of contact required online. In a face-to-face class, if a student does not show up for class and does not do the class work, we presume that there are some sort of extenuating circumstances, about which the student may or may not tell us. In any case, our responsibilities are clear: We go to class, we hold class and office hours, and if students do not contact us, we have no further obligation to contact them. In fact, we may feel that additional contact in such circumstances is intrusive or belittling to our students, who presumably are adults and capable of making their own decisions. But because online classes do not meet in a physical location at a specified time, it is easier for a student to fall behind (either because she does not understand the material or because of circumstances beyond her control), neglect to ask for help in time, begin to feel guilty, and stop participating in class by turning in assignments or contributing to online discussions. Additionally, asking for help may be seen by some students as needing remediation, and they may be doubly unlikely to seek such help in an online environment. This problem is compunded by the fact that a student's "absence" is harder to notice online, where the focus is exclusively on the people who participate regularly. Online, nobody "sees" someone who does not participate.

  For those reasons, it is imperative that instructors maintain regular contact with students, carefully monitor student participation, and actively seek out students who seem to be falling by the wayside, at least until the instructor is satisified that such students understand the expectations of the class and the technology they are using to participate in it.

1. Communicate frequently with the class.

It is important for students to have regular contact with the instructor and with each other even though there are no face-to- face meetings. Additionally, it is important for that contact to be comprised of more than just getting feedback from instructors (or others) on assignments.

I increase the bandwidth of class communication by sending regular e-mail to my classes via a class discussion list. In addition to telling people about upcoming assignments, I make general reference to items I have read on the class discussion web pages, and to events or news items about which people have written on the class list. I also occasionally forward pertinent posts from listserv lists to which I subscribe. All of these strategies serve as ways to let students know that I am paying attention to the content of what they say on the class discussion pages, not just the form. (To see sample e-mail messages from my Winter, 1997 composition classes, follow this link to the webbed e- mail archive.)

2. Make as much interaction public as possible.

Remember the example of one student overhearing another; engineer online spaces for that sort of "overhearing" to happen online. One way to do this is to create a public forum where people can ask questions, possibly by using a web-based discussion tool. (For an example of how this might work, see my Comp 106 Questions Pages.)

Creating a public forum, however, will not do the trick unless people actually use it. I have found that students are sometimes reluctant to pose questions there, preferring to e-mail me directly instead. Unless the question is very specific or potentially embarrassing to the student, I ask the student for permission to re-post the question to the class question pages, or I ask permission to forward the post to the whole class via the class distribution list.

3. Create a space for non-classroom-related interaction.

I find that it helps the class atmosphere to become congenial and collegial if students can interact with each other about more than simply the class material and assignments. I create online spaces where students can discuss other experiences. For example, my Winter, 1997 composition classes have been able to tell each other what they did over spring break via a discussion page developed for that purpose.

4. Understand the limitations and strengths of the technology you're using in terms of fostering interaction.

Insofar as it is possible, use technology with which you are comfortable, and which you use for other purposes besides teaching your classes. One of the reasons that the world wide web is such a powerful medium for instruction is that people use it for other reasons as well; students (and instructors) are not put in the position of learning a specific tool for a specific reason, and having both the tool and reason be temporary. Most of our students already use the web for entertainment; learning to do a task like completing a form online requires nearly no learning curve, because it uses a technology with which they are already familiar.

It follows, too, that you should use the simplest tool you can for the purpose you want to achieve. Proprietary, site-based software may not be the best choice for a distance education course or program; students may not have adequate access to the software to become familiar enough with its use in other contexts (assuming there are other contexts) to become comfortable learning to use it on their own with the sorts of support available online.

5. Ask questions often, and interact with students in the forum you have devised for class interaction.

It is important that students see that you are available and intellectually engaged in the work of the course. Even though you may have written the entire web site on which their class is based, student will not readily see that you are present in those words; they will see that you are present in the specific interactions you have with them. And students online, just as students in a face-to-face classroom, need to feel that their instructor cares about what they say and how they do in class. Additionally, instructor participation in online discussion forums provides models of appropriate interaction in those forums.

The learning community does not stop outside the walls of a conventional brick-and-mortar classroom; nor should it stop beyond the "walls" of an online class. Everyone in the university needs to consider ways to extend and support students' classroom-based learning. Here are a few guidelines to consider in those efforts.

1. Think carefully about the support services that will be needed for your class or program. Almost every course in the university is supported for some students at some times by people other than instructors. Students in writing classes on our campus (the classes I know best) are asked to use the library, for example, and are able to avail themselves of the services of the tutors at the Writing Center. How will similar kinds of support be provided for students online?

Many possibilities exist for providing such support. In my own classes, library instruction is made available by having a librarian read our class web pages and offer advice or information where needed. The librarian is also included in the class discussion list, so she receives the posts I send out to all members of the class. In many ways, this type of library support is superior to traditional campus-based interventions because the librarian can see the whole context of the class -- she knows as much as the students do about the assignments and the expectations I have for students -- and her responses are given directly in response to a specific question asked by a specific student.

It would be possible to augment this kind of intensive support by making help text of various kinds available on the web. It is important to remember, though, that such help text will not completely alleviate the need for students to ask questions (even questions about the material covered by the help text).

In addition to providing support via the web, universities might consider setting up MOOs to offer real-time help. For example, Athabasca University, in northern British Columbia, offers a MOO (staffed by student volunteers) to provide tutoring for students enrolled in its online Engineering class.

2. Think about ways to provide opportunities for cultural and intellectual enrichment online.

Part of what makes a university a university is that it offers various sorts of cultural experiences designed to enrich the life of the campus community. Although some experiences -- real-time conferences or dramatic performances, for example -- are now difficult to offer online, there do exist other models for cultural enrichment.

It would be possible, for example, to sponsor a speaker series by means of a web page and a MOO. The speakers could "present" either by posting a text on a web page, or by creating slides at a MOO. A real-time discussion could be held via a MOO, and transcripts of the discussion could be posted on a web site.

Similarly, web pages and discussion lists could be set up to foster conversation about real-time cultural events held in the wider community from which the college's students are drawn. Listserv lists or web pages could be set up to discuss recently-released films, or plays being produced locally, or exhibits at local art museums and galleries. A web page could be devised that would link to online museums (the Louvre, say) -- perhaps to a different museum each month, for instance -- and discussion could take place regarding that museum's exhibits.

Online courses and degree programs exist for the convenience of students who, for one reason or another, cannot physically come to the college campus to complete their coursework. But this convenience need not be bought at the expense of other, less tangible outcomes of attending a college or university. The creation of online learning communities can assure that students do not miss out on the affective, social, and extracurricular cognitive opportunities generally afforded by institutions of higher education. It is incumbent upon us to provide those opportunities to our online students, so that a college degree does not become merely the completion of a set number of courses, and so that college remains the place where people encounter new ideas, and challenges, and develop the habits of mind that are the hallmarks of education.