Book Review of Palloff and Pratt's Building Online Learning Communities

[Britt Watwood]

We live in a wired world. You easily move from the physical to the virtual every time you use email for asynchronous communication, and our students enter campus armed with cellphones, Facebook accounts, and virtual friends. This suggests that new skills are needed to effectively teach the modern student.

In 1999, Palloff and Pratt published Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace, winning the University Continuing Education Association's 1999 Philip E. Frandson Award for Literature in Continuing Higher Education. Eight years later, they have now published a second edition. However, the world of learning has evolved to the point where a new title was required for their book. In 1999, teaching online was new and on the fringe – today online education is an established method of delivering learning. Studies such as Making the Grade (SLOAN-C, 2006) note that:

• Nearly 3.2 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2005 term, a substantial increase over the 2.3 million reported the previous year (and it has increased in the past two years).
• The proportion of institutions with fully online programs rises steadily as institutional size increases, and about two-thirds of the very largest institutions have fully online programs, compared to only about one-sixth of the smallest institutions.
• Only 4.6 percent of Chief Academic Officers agreed that there are no significant barriers to widespread adoption of online learning.
• Online students, like the overall student body, are overwhelmingly undergraduates.

I would suggest that it is not just online instruction that has changed, face-to-face instruction has also evolved. As Palloff and Pratt note, many teachers find they are better classroom teachers after teaching online. Most classes today have a web component, and many campus classes require online work. This book therefore is relevant to our instruction, whether it be face-to-face, hybrid, or totally online. Yet, this is not a technology book. It is first and foremost a book about effective teaching and learning. As Palloff and Pratt note (p. 23):

“The development of community as a part of the learning process helps create a learning experience that is empowering and rich…Without it, we are simply recreating our tried and true educational model and calling it ‘innovative’, without fully exploring the potential the online medium holds.”

Using the web for learning is not new, but what is new is an entire generation of students raised in an interactive virtual world. Learning online is not passive – it requires active connections and quality participation. Palloff and Pratt illustrate how community is at the heart of an interactive learning environment. There are definite linkages between social presence online and both achievement of student outcomes and student satisfaction.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part lays a theoretical base for building learning communities online. They have provided extensive material on the concept of social presence online, including psychological aspects of belonging and group dynamics. I have remarked to faculty in my workshops that I get to know the souls of my online students. Palloff and Pratt would concur. Their material is interspersed with comments by both faculty and students, giving flesh to these conceptual ideas. They also discuss the roles of both faculty and students, the problems with technology (something I am sure you have never had!), and logistical issues with working in an online environment.

With this background provided in the first part, they then move in the second part to presenting a practical guide to creating online learning communities. Topics include course design/redesign, collaborative learning, reflective processes, and assessment of both students and the course.

Just as learning is no longer just face-to-face, learning will also never be purely virtual. There is a place for physical classes and online classes. Yet the online environment can be used for a rich and collaborative learning process and this book gives faculty excellent tips when moving learning opportunities online. It also suggests new approaches for faculty development. They note (p. 237):

“Too often, faculty training involves an introduction to the hardware and software being used to deliver classes, with no emphasis on process. Just as the technology used to deliver an online class should become transparent in the learning process, so should it be transparent in faculty training.”

Palloff and Pratt wrap up their book by offering six elements they feel are critical to success when teaching students online: honesty, responsiveness, relevance, respect, openness, and empowerment. As I looked at these six, I found myself thinking – True, but the same is true in face-to-face environments. This to a degree is the point. Chickering and Gamson’s Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (1986) hold up just as well in online learning. Palloff and Pratt’s book is ultimately about building learning communities…they just happen to be doing so in an online environment. Research has shown that student success is correlated with building connections, and therefore steps we can take to develop learning communities – both face-to-face and online – potentially will lead to improved retention, improved success, and better students. As such, I think that this book is relevant to all faculty and I highly recommend it.

Britt Watwood, Ed.D. Online Learning Specialist

Center for Teaching Excellence

[Steve Mackenzie]

Hi Britt,

Many thanks for this post. I think your point about

"It is first and foremost a book about effective teaching and learning"

is great.

I'd like to think that anyone unsure, scared or sceptical about e-learning may just think it is worth taking a closer look after reading your comments and subsequently be interested to go get the book.

I've used the RSS feed to circulate your post to a wider audience at my University.

cheers, Steve