For my learning journal this week I will touch on lurking and contributing relating it to my contributions this week, and developing community in online environments.
I have found it difficult to participate in the course in a coherent way this week. I have had a number of pressing projects, family responsibilities as we all do. But with this lack of time I have still been able to lurk. This lurking has involved reading email updates from all of the participant, going over course resources and reflecting on the content and structure of the course. I do not see lurking as bad thing, it is a form of “legitimate peripheral participation” A way to get to know the environment and take part in the community. A community with only lurkers would not be very engaging but how can we structure our online courses to support the diversity of different ways that people contribute online.
When facilitating online courses I have done this in a couple different ways: providing different learning pathways within the course and as a facilitator, monitoring the online environment. Different learning pathways can allow for learners with different interests and approaches to extend their learning experience and explore content in different ways. In online courses I have taught I have tried to ensure that the learning tasks are open allowing learners to explore them in different ways depending on their preferences. It seems important in online courses to have facilitators who actively monitor participation and enhance learners presence by sharing contributions. In the past I have used course reports to figure out which students were not accessing the course and students who were participating as lurkers and completing the reading but slower to add to discussion boards etc.
In this course the use of email notifications, reminder emails and different learning activities has allowed me the flexibility to participate in my own way but to still be a member of the online learning community that is developing.
