A community of learners can extend outside of the traditionally based environment and can easily achieve in the virtual world. Each person has an online personality that is shared with classmates to create comaraderie and support. In addition, even though a course meets online, support can be found from other means that are not part of the course.

If you ever participated in a chat room or a newsgroup, you have experiences the flavor of online communication and virtual communities. If you have not, you don’t know what you’re missing. Learning can be a social process among learners to gain support and reassurance of course content.

It is recommended to identify personalities, ideas, and interests of the people in your class to create a team of classmates that can increase the potential of high performance learning. Sometimes you want to work with people of the same background and perspectives and sometimes it is better that you diversify your groups. In any event, classroom community interaction provides for high quality learning.

Many times, community ends after a class ends, but that happens in the face-to-face courses too. Social learning is a way to test your knowledge, thinking, and conceptual ideas. Sometimes, the relationships are so positive and strong, they last beyond the confines of the course’s virtual walls.

For more information, see our frequently asked questions for approaches to online learning success.