Strategies for Creating and Supporting a Community of Learners

The shift from traditional classroom education to computer-mediated distance learning poses enormous challenges to instructors and learners. The concept of the classroom where students meet to interact with other learners and the instructor no longer exists. Learners lack a natural social outlet to engage with other learners thus leading to feelings of isolation. This paper presents strategies and rationales for implementing certain instructional techniques to move a class from cohort to community. The context is the new Distance Master's program in Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University. The paper gives suggestions for instructional and non-instructional strategies that have students interacting at the levels of discussion, cooperation and collaboration. These strategies are cross-indicated with their intended outcomes, that is, strengthening the feeling of community as defined by a set of characteristics, which are adopted from Schwier (in press) . Suggestions for evaluation techniques are also presented, as are questions for further research. (Contains 35 references.) (Author/AEF) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. 1 Strategies for Creating and Supporting a Community of Learners PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY