In this presentation, I describe how I use Web 2.0 technologies to facilitate the development of a community of learners among graduate distant students and how students responded to the use of Web 2.0 tools and to what extent these tools assisted in developing a community of learners. Twitter, Skype, Google Documents, Blog, and Wiki were intentionally used in order to build online learning communities among students. An anonymous survey was used. The students indicated that using Google Documents, Twitter, Wiki, and blog gave them a sense of a learning community while using Skype did not give them a sense of a learning community. Google Documents and Wiki had the most impact on students’ sense of a learning community in the course.

1. Society for Information Technology and Teacher
Education International Conference 2014
Jacksonville, Florida, United States
March 17-21, 2014

2. Building Online Learning
Communities Using Web 2.0
Technologies
MariamAbdelmalak, Ph.D.
The New Valley College of Education
Assiut University

3. Agenda:
• Overview
• Why Is Building Online Learning Communities
Necessary?
• What is Web 2.0 technology?
• Web 2.0 technologies and Online Learning Communities
• A Practice for Building Online Learning Communities
• Students’ Perspectives

4. Face-to-Face Online Class

5. Why Is Building Online Learning Communities
Necessary?
• Positive learning outcomes (Sadera, Robertson, Song,
&Midon, 2009).
• Satisfaction with the learning experience (Rovai,
Wighting, & Lucking, 2004).
• Enhanced learning achievement (LaPadula, 2003).
• Sense of well being (Walker, Wasserman & Wellman,
1994; Wellman &Gulia, 1999).

6. What Is Web 2.0 Technology?
• The term Web 2.0 began to be used for the first time in
2004 and referred to a second generation of the Internet
(Schrum& Levin, 2009).
• Web 2.0 technologies allow users to add and change
content easily, to collaborate and communicate
instantaneously in order to share, develop, and distribute
information, new applications, and new ideas (Schrum&
Levin, 2009)

7. Web 2.0 Technologies & Online Learning
Communities:
• Web 2.0 technologies can play an important role in
the development of a learning community among
students in online courses (Kearns &Frey, 2010;
Palloff& Pratt, 2009; Gunawardena et al., 2009).
• The inclusion of a variety of Web 2.0 technologies
can serve to facilitate the development of
communities in an online course (Palloff& Pratt,
2009)

8. Twitter
Skype
Wikis
Blogs
Web 2.0
Technologies
Google
Documents

9. (www.twitter.com)
•Twitter is a form of a social networking space that allows
for very short micro-blog entries known as “tweets”
(Schrum& Levin, 2009).
•In 140 characters or less, people share ideas and resources,
ask and answer questions, and collaborate on problems of
practice.
•Twitter can enhance online learning communities (Dunlap
&Lowenthal, 2009).

10. http://www.skype.com
•Skype is an internet-based phone service that also allows
for conference calling, document sharing, and text
messaging (Palloff& Pratt, 2009).
•Skype to be a good tool for building rapport and social
presence among students and between students and faculty
(Parker, Boase-Jelinek, &Herrington, 2011).

11. (https://drive.google.com)
•Google Docs are free Web-based applications that allow
users to create word processing.
•Google Docs enable collaboration by editing a document
written by other students, and by suggesting modifications
through comment writing, without editing the document
itself (Conner, 2008).
•Google Docs can be excellent resources to overcome
students’ isolation (Reyna, 2010).

12. •A blog is a frequently updated online diary or journal; it
can be used for news, reviews, personal thoughts,
experiences, Web links, and photos (Schrum& Levin, 2009).
•Via blogs, students enjoy an opportunity to open the
windows of communication – reading their classmates’
postings and having classmates comment on their own
writing (Blackston, Spiri, &Naganuma, 2007; Windham,
2007).
Students who used the blogs did feel a greater satisfaction
with the community and engagement as a result of using the
blogs (Clake&Kinne, 2012) .

13. (http://www.pbworks.com), (https://www.wikispaces.com)
•A Wiki is a collection of Web pages designed to enable
anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content
(Dunlap &Lowenthal, 2009).
•A Wikis allows people to directly edit, update, modify or
delete. Wiki also allows multiple users from different
locations to collaborate in real-time.
•A Wiki environment is an effective technology for building
community (Lambert & Fisher, 2009; Scott & Liu, 2011).

14. A Practice for Building Online Learning
Communities

15. Getting Started Module
Skype
Google email
Twitter

29. Students’ Perceptions
• Students indicated that using Google
Documents, Wikis, Blogs, and Twitter gave
them a sense of a learning community while
using Skype did not give them this sense of
community.
• Google Documents and Wikis had the most
impact on students’ sense of a learning
community in the course.

30. Google Documents
The students expressed that Google Documents
facilitated collaboration through the ability to:
• edit documents written by other students from
anywhere and at any time,
• share idea and information, and
• suggest improvements by writing comments.

31. • Google Doc was a very useful tool for collaboration. Using
Google Doc to communicate with my group gave me a sense of a
learning community. We were able to work together while being
apart and it made collaboration possible and we did not have to
take time out of our lives to meet up in person somewhere but
work at times that were convenient for us.
• Using Google Docs was one of the primary ways the groups I
worked with communicated and collaborated. This technology
provided a great sense of a learning community through the ways
we used the Google Docs as an open forum. One group member
could pose an idea or question and the rest of the group could
add, edit or comment on the idea.
Sample of Students’ Perspectives

32. PBWorks Wiki
• The students expressed the Wiki project gave
them a sense of a learning community through
the ability to learn from each other, to share
ideas and information, and to exchange
comments.
• Some students explained that the commenting
feature in the PBworks was an obstacle to their
sense of a learning community

33. Sample of Students’ Perspectives
• Wiki made the project much more interesting and
fun. It definitely felt a sense of community with my
group. Wiki made it much easy to communicate even
with someone like me live in El Paso and my group
members living elsewhere.
• The commenting feature on the Wiki was a bit more
tedious to work through because people who wanted
to comment had to be added before they could do so.
Since the wiki was limited to just a selected few in the
class it didn’t give me the same sense of community
as some of the other activities.

34. Blogs
The students expressed that using blogs gave
them a sense of community through:
• using the commenting feature,
• receiving feedback about their work from
their classmates, and
• being able to see their classmates’ work.

35. Sample of Students’ Perspectives
• I found the commenting feature on the blog very easy
to use and I enjoyed the feedback directly on my
blog, which gave me a sense of a learning
community. Commenting on blogs was like social
media. I have never read a blog or written in a blog
but I realized while doing it that it was just like
MySpace or FaceBook. The learning community was
strong and made me realize I have been doing that
for my own pleasure numerous times just not for
academia.

36. Twitter
• The students expressed that using Twitter gave
them a sense of a learning community through the
ability to share ideas not only with their
classmates but also with others of the same
interest.
• Some students expressed that using Twitter did
not give them this sense of a learning community
because of the limited use of Twitter for only one
assignment or because of their preference to use
Twitter for personal purposes.

37. Sample of Students’ Perspectives
• By setting up a Twitter account I was able to get to know others
not only in our course but others in the same field as well. This
gave a great sense of a learning community. I had a Twitter
account previously but never used it for education purposes or
career purposes. Now I have "friends" that are in the same field
as I am and I get to see and hear about their experiences and
crafts that they use in their own classrooms.
• For Twitter, I didn’t really feel the sense of learning community.
It probably can be a useful tool but with Canvas and other Web
2.0 tools we used over the duration of the course I found it
unnecessary. Perhaps if we used it more in more than one
assignment it could be a useful collaborative tool.

38. Conclusion:
• Building and sustaining learning communities should
be an essential dynamic in virtual classrooms. Web
2.0 technologies can promote students’ sense of
learning communities in online classes. Yet, building
online learning communities is a difficult task.
However, doing so is an integral step for improving
learning and teaching in online environments, and
thus work in this area should continue.

39. References:
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(RELT), 6 (2), 1-19.Available
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Clake, L. &Kinne, L. (2012). More than words: Investigating the format of asynchronous
discussions as threaded discussions or blogs. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher
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presence. Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(2), 129-135.
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Lambert, J. & Fisher, J. (2009). Community Building in a Wiki-Based Distance Education
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40. References
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41. Q & A
Thank You