Online learning communities are important for keeping students engaged and motivated in remote learning environments. They allow students to collaborate with one another to build understanding and solve problems in an interactive way. The key elements that define effective online communities are social presence, which facilitates engagement and interaction, and cognitive presence, which determines how well learning concepts are understood. Common types of online communities include interest-based communities, information-sharing communities, and professional communities. Benefits of online learning communities include building connections, developing a strong brand, earning customer loyalty, and gaining organic feedback.

1. Online Communities of Learning
Why Online Communities Are Important?

2. What is an Online
Learning
Community?

3. With the rise of remote learning,
many found that their learning
performance got worse, and they
lost motivation. There is no doubt
that solitary education via a
computer screen can be off-
putting. However, given the
extraordinary times, online
learning has become the new
norm. This is why educationists
and course creators have come
up with Online learning
communities

4. •What is an Online
Learning Community?
•These are unique and
specialized spaces where
learners and experts come
together to discuss
something...anything. The
communities are usually
focused around a central
idea or theme but can
move away from it every
now and then to
accommodate the queries
of the participants.

5. Importance of Online
Communities
When it comes to creating an effective online learning
environment, online communities are critical for
learning. This is one of the reasons that they’re so
popular, particularly in higher education. In distance
learning, community members collaborate to build an
interactive canvas of reactions and comments from a
variety of perspectives. They discover methods to
explore, think, invent, build skills, and seek
conceptual understanding—things that they would not
have been able to accomplish on their own otherwise.
Instilling a feeling of connection and fellowship in
online learners helps to keep them interested and

7. Apparently, studies trace the history of
educational/informational communities
back to constructivism. This means
that true learning stems from the
collaboration of learners and their
interaction with their surroundings. In
addition, the idea is an extension of
social learning.
Essentially, these communities have
specific goals; academic, professional,
social, etc. Accordingly, members
come together in a collaborative
environment to achieve these goals. In
a way, these communities are rather
similar to online cohorts but with
better engagement tools.

8. Types of learning communities
1. Interest-based communities: As
the name suggests, such kinds of
communities focus on specific
interests or goals. People come
together to discuss
these ideas and seek
collective responses
to concerning
questions.

9. Types of learning communities
2. Shop-talk communities: They focus on
accomplishing a talk i.e how to do that or where
to find such and such. Since these communities
act as quick spaces for seeking answers, they
do not have longstanding members. Once
people get their solutions, they usually end their
engagement. However, such communities are
central to running
businesses.
Entrepreneurs can use these
spaces as an alternate
solution to customer support
services. WebMD is a great
example of shop-talk
communities.

10. Types of learning communities
3. Action-based communities:
Members is this particular
community type strive to achieve
some sort of actional change. These
can
be social
movements, activist
groups, fundraisers, or
even your college
student groups
working for a
particular cause.

11. Types of learning communities
4. Information dissemination
communities: Such communities
are highly paternalistic. The
content and community activity
are tightly
controlled by the
hosts. Hence they
tend to lack driving
engagement.

12. Types of learning communities
5. Profession-based
communities: These communities
are especially for professional
development. Young professionals
and seasoned
experts collaborate
on enabling the
members in skill-
learning for
furthering

13. Purpose of online a learning
community
•Fosters shared learning amongst
members. Participants find solutions to
problems collaboratively, give feedback to
each other, and learn from each others'
experiences.
•Supports distributive leadership i.e.
creates a horizontal
structure for a
healthy exchange of
ideas. It

14. Purpose of online a learning
community
•Builds lasting connections. When people get
together and learn from each other on such a one-on-
one level, they tend to build deeper emotional
connections. Hence, such people stick together for
longer durations.
•Measures collective progress. Additionally, these
communities can also act as a tool for measuring the
effectiveness of your
online courses. You can see
from the engagement how
well the learners have
grasped the concepts
and how well they are applying

15. Purpose of online a learning
community
•Provides support to the
participants. Not only
academic or professional
but also
emotional in
times of
need.

16. The online learning community
model
If you go around looking for a learning model for
your community, you will stumble upon several.
This might lead to confusion and deter you from
even beginning with your space. Essentially, all
of the models are derivatives of each other in
some ways. One of the most prominent models
is the community
of inquiry model' by
Randy Garrison, Terry
Anderson, and Walter

17. FOLC -Fully Online Learning community

18. •Primary elements of FOLC
•The FOLC model focuses on
two central ideas:
•Social presence - This is
one's ability to project
themselves emotionally and
socially onto others. It
includes communication,
cohesiveness, and
collaboration.
•Cognitive presence - This is
one's learning and
comprehending ability.

19. These two elements are necessary to
illustrate the effectiveness of a community.
Firstly, social presence is what drives
member engagement. It is primarily the basis
of how people behave in a social setting that
determines the quality of interaction.
Secondly, cognitive presence determines
how well things are being understood within
a community.
Although, it is tough to get a close-knit
community online wherein people can be
themselves fully. The virtual distance can
disrupt things. However, thanks to
technological breakthroughs, we now have
ample remedies to improve learner
engagement. A great way of reducing this
distance is by improving communication

20. Benefits of online learning
communities
• Build reliable connections - grow
your network by engaging with
students - old and new. Moreover,
you can get experts to connect with
newcomers and build a space for
professional interaction.
Simultaneously, these connections
also work as a great way of seeking
organic leads. In this way, your
community members can be your
course marketeers.

21. Benefits of online learning
communities
• Develops brand identity -
having a strong community
can make your work and
courses appear authentic.
When new members
participate, they can perceive
a deeper image concerning
your work and on the basis
create a brand identity.

22. Benefits of online learning
communities
• Earns client loyalty - a
close-knit community
ensures client retention.
It also improves client
satisfaction as people
can resolve their
concerns within the
community and do not
have to look elsewhere

23. Benefits of online learning
communities
•Organic feedback -
with a trusted
community, you can
receive authentic
constructive feedback
and measure progress
effectively. Additionally,
you can also use the
community space for
beta launching any new