Building Online Learning Communities further explores the development of virtual classroom environments that foster a sense of community and empower students to take charge of their learning to successfully achieve learning outcomes. This is the second edition of the groundbreaking book by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt and has been completely updated and expanded to include the most current information on effective online course development and delivery. A practical, hands-on guide, this resource is filled with illustrative case studies, vignettes, and examples from a wide variety of successful online courses. The authors offer proven strategies for handling challenges that include: Engaging students in the formation of an online learning community. Establishing a sense of presence online. Maximizing participation. Developing effective courses that include collaboration and reflection. Assessing student performance. Written for faculty in any distance learning environment, this revised edition is based on the authors many years of work in faculty development for online teaching as well as their extensive personal experience as faculty in online distance education. Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt share insights designed to guide readers through the steps of online course design and delivery.

·What are the characteristics of a successful learning community? ·How are successful communities facilitated and maintained? ·What lessons can be learnt from existing learning communities? ·What type of learning community will suit your organisation or situation? This user-friendly guide is written to help managers, professionals and learners, planning, facilitating or participating in online learning communities, as part of a structured learning programme, as an approach to continuous professional development, as a means of improving performance at work or as a dynamic approach to innovation and collaborative working. The book is relevant to senior mangers with a responsibility for strategic planning and change management. This can include new work practices involving working in multi-professional teams across traditional boundaries. It aims to engage readers in identifying key issues in relation to their own work situation and prompts readers to find their own solutions. Virtual Learning Communities provides practical guidance and includes extensive examples, case studies and activities. It is key reading for those involved in e-learning courses, professional trainers and staff developers with a responsibility for CPD, and professionals involved in facilitating new approaches to group work.

Written for faculty, instructors, and trainers in any distance learning environment, Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace shows how to create a virtual classroom environment that helps students excel academically, while fostering a sense of community. This practical, hands-on guide is filled with illustrative case studies, vignettes, and examples from a wide variety of successful online courses.

Virtual teaming and virtual learning have been practiced for decades but never to the level required today. As the educational landscape continues to evolve, ensure your PLC evolves right along with it. With this resource from Paul C. Farmer and Dennis King as your guide, you'll explore an abundance of tools and tips for maintaining your PLC structures along with proven best practices to help instruction and learning thrive beyond the four walls of your school. A book on implementing online professional learning communities for teachers and administrators: Receive an overview of the PLC process and understand how all educators fit into it. Learn how to implement each step of the PLC process virtually. Address the four pillars of a PLC--mission, vision, values, and goals--in a virtual context. Develop and maintain an ideal school culture in a virtual environment with online teacher communities. Acquire strategies to strengthen every student's virtual or blended learning experience with the PLC process.

More than just a plan book, this fresh new resource brim with tips, activities, and 40 weeks of planning pages to guide you through a positive, productive year. This new addition to the PLC family is more than a plan book with space for EIGHT class periods. It also helps educators implement critical PLC issues as they collaborate with other school staff members to improve student learning.

How can we design networked e-learning courses to ensure students participate in them and engage in quality learning outcomes? What happens in an e-learning course that is designed to foster group work and a sense of ‘community’? How can we research e-learning practice in ways that will enhance the processes of learning and teaching? This book outlines approaches to networked e-learning course design that are underpinned by a belief that students learn best in these contexts when they are organised in groups and communities. As such, the book is one of the first to provide a detailed analysis of what goes on in e-learning groups and communities. But how do students react to working in e-learning groups and communities? What determines their willingness to adopt new forms of learning in order to participate in these new courses? What actually happens in an e-learning community, and what impact does this have on students and tutors? This book examines these key questions through a variety of research approaches aimed at exploring the experience of e-learners as they participate in successful e-groups and communities. It also offers ways in which learning outcomes may be achieved in these communities and outlines the specific skills that students would develop through e-learning. E-learning Groups and Communities is essential reading for teachers, trainers, managers, researchers and students involved in e-learning courses as well as people interested in improving the quality of the learning experience.

Building Online Learning Communities further explores the development of virtual classroom environments that foster a sense of community and empower students to take charge of their learning to successfully achieve learning outcomes. This is the second edition of the groundbreaking book by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt and has been completely updated and expanded to include the most current information on effective online course development and delivery. A practical, hands-on guide, this resource is filled with illustrative case studies, vignettes, and examples from a wide variety of successful online courses. The authors offer proven strategies for handling challenges that include: Engaging students in the formation of an online learning community. Establishing a sense of presence online. Maximizing participation. Developing effective courses that include collaboration and reflection. Assessing student performance. Written for faculty in any distance learning environment, this revised edition is based on the authors many years of work in faculty development for online teaching as well as their extensive personal experience as faculty in online distance education. Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt share insights designed to guide readers through the steps of online course design and delivery.