With online learning growing at such a high rate, it is now something that is impossible to be ignored in education.

This growth means that “33% of higher education students took at least one online course” (Blayone, Van Oostveen, Barber, DiGiuseppe, & Childs, 2016) in the United States with thousands of online courses also being offered in Canada.

Through these readings, I was able to further understand the differences in the types of online learning available and the differences in those communities. For me the biggest learning came from understanding the definitions of blended/hybrid vs the idea of a “Fully Online Learning Community” (FLOC) (Blayone, Van Oostveen, Barber, DiGiuseppe, & Childs, 2016).

Blended or hybrid gives the opportunity for the learner to attend campus while supplementing or potentially participating in most of the learning through online methods. This allows for building both a physical community as well as a digital one.

When moving to the FLOC styles of online delivery, it changes in that all community building will be digital which adds the opportunity (or challenge) of choosing what technology to use.

This building of digital communities was explored thoroughly in “Teaching Crowds: Learning and Social Media” by Jon Dron and Terry Anderson.  In this work they discuss the many ways that social media can be a help or hinderance to both educators and learners. I found that the exploration of the two was refreshing as they were able to look at the tools from a neutral viewpoint to gain insight into their uses.

I look forward to further discovering and using these tools in education but also using caution when introducing a new technology.

Blayone, T., Van Oostveen, R., Barber, W., DiGiuseppe, M., & Childs, E. (2016). New conceptions for digital technology sandboxes: Developing a Fully Online Learning Communities (FOLC) model. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Dron, J., & Anderson, T. (2014). Teaching crowds: Learning and social media. Edmonton: Athabasca University Press.