Virtual Learning and Online Community Forums

Whether we label them virtual classrooms, online courses, or e-learning, the number of Web-based education communities is exploding. From Khan Academy, whose mission is “to provide free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere,” to Harvard University, long known for schooling a privileged few, the Web has been a boon to information and communication technology in education.

Nowhere has the “distance learning” craze taken off more than in industry, however. Small businesses such as coaches and consultants, as well as medium-sized companies and large corporations, have all tapped into the extensive array of Internet resources for training and educating their clients and personnel.

YouTube was the platform that launched Salman Khan’s non-profit empire back in the day (2006). Today there are many apps, tools and online resources available to teachers, educators and trainers alike, including, Google Hangouts, Skype and FaceTime. And yet as versatile and simple to use as these resources are, online community forums have the advantage of combining video and image capability with discussion, feedback, Q & A, and article forums, making them a superior way of organizing classes and assignments.

Like any online community, a virtual academic or work training community can indeed be an effective and efficient way to present class material to employee or student populations that are geographically or organizationally remote. One advantage for companies is that many are already using community forum platforms for their market research, social media and employee relations.

Below are some examples of adapting standard online community forums as platforms for education communities:
 

• A bank with branch locations in the Midwest is conducting a leadership/innovation course for their managers. Instructors post reading assignments in the community, and then require participants to reply both with their own assessments on the assignment, as well as to others’ posts. These bank managers are learning through the reading curriculum, while using the online community to collaborate and brainstorm about how to improve their business. Even though they are in different geographic locations, this virtual learning environment provides a central place for everyone to interact and build upon one another's ideas.
   
• A community college instructor is teaching a remote online English course in the school’s distance education department. The instructor posts reading assignments in the community and the students receive credit by posting their responses directly in the forum. Functioning much like a virtual classroom, students interact both with the instructor and the other students through the discussion threads. The advantage is that individual students benefit from easily and efficiently reading one another's work and being able to respond without the time constraints of a live classroom.
   
• A consulting/coaching group offers “resilience training” for corporate and individual clients working with physical and mental stress. They use the online community forum to post weekly assignments of topics to consider. Trainees reply with their thoughts on the topic, while sharing their experiences with the other community members. This efficient delivery method allows small companies to offer wider arrays of topics at better cost to their clients.