RESEARCH IN ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY.docVIP

RESEARCH IN ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY Chih-Hsiung Tu, Ph.D.Assistant ProfessorandMichael CorryAssistant Professor The George Washington University2134 G Street, N.W.Washington, DC 20152 Email: ctu@ Email: mcorry@ Abstract Online learning community has been considered as one of the most important learning concepts in technology-based instructions. Yet online learning community has not been well-defined or well-examined. The social learning process has been suggested as the fundamental factor to examine in an online learning community to ensure online participants and the community will grow and evolve in terms of their knowledge acquisition. Four basic elements and four theoretical constructs in online learning community suggest an ideal theoretical framework for future research. The purpose of this paper is to examine current literature and current research concerning online learning community, to discuss the impacts of online learning communities on human learning, and to propose a theoretical construct for future development of online learning communities. Introduction The importance of online learning communities has been emphasized by recent studies (Office of Learning Technologies, 1998; Tu McIsaac, 2001; Hiltz, 1998). The definition of an online learning community is still evolving and remains obscure (Office of Learning Technologies, 1998). In fact, little conceptual framework has been developed regarding this new learning environment. From a social learning aspect, learning community is defined as a common place where people learn through group activity to define problems affecting them, to decide upon a solution, and to act to achieve the solution. As they progress, they gain new knowledge and skills (MacNeil, 1997). All of these activities and interactions occur in an online environment, called Online Learning Community (OLC), or online learning network (Hiltz, 1998). OLC has been applied widely in online education. People learn online, and thus a