Social Capital on the Online Community

Constructivism (learning theory)
Collaboration among learners

Learners with different skills and backgrounds should collaborate in tasks and discussions in order to arrive at a shared understanding of the truth in a specific field (Duffy and Jonassen 1992). Most social constructivist models, such as that proposed by Duffy and Jonassen (1992), also stress the need for collaboration among learners, in direct contradiction to traditional competitive approaches. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(learning_theory)#Learning_is_an_active.2C_social_process


The online environment may be more conducive to creating and building social capital as it relates to learning than in some face to face class settings (f2f). In the asynchronous environment participants may feel more comfortable making a contribution than in f2f. Every student has an opportunity to be heard in the online setting. My experience in the traditional f2f lecture type classes is that a few students tend to dominate (interject their opinions and seemingly love to hear themselves talk); it’s difficult to control and to create an environment that allows everyone to participate.


The online environment can be more conducive to collaboration, the interaction between students required by the course assignments, and later viewed by the instructor, allows for the unlimited moment of Candlepower (power point presentation).

In the course of earning an undergraduate degree, I took many classes in a variety of institutions from a junior college in my hometown of Boston; completing an AA degree 13 years later at Santa Monica Community College; finishing a BS in an early distance program through the University of Redlands in the 80s. As an older student, my motivator was the desire to be equipped with a skill set to succeed and provide my family with a better life. I didn’t need the student community to be motivated but I regret giving it up when I dropped out of college at 18 to ski bum in Aspen.


In the article Building Sense of Community at a Distance (Roval), the sixth factor teaching style and learning stage suggests that the self directed learner “may rebel against low level demands”. This was my experience while working on a masters degree on line; I dropped out of the program for a year because of a class that was highly structured with much busy work. Every time I’ve gone back to taking online classes the methods and technology have advance in a way that has improved the learning experience.