The Importance of Building Online Learning Communities

An organisation needs to create an environment for its learners that motivates them. This is achievable as they bond together with a common goal and similar interests. Hence, they are able to work with each other and achieve far greater things as compared to the ones who work independently.

Now, let’s learn more about online learning communities and their benefits.

What are online learning communities?

As the name suggests, it is a group of people who help each other in attaining common professional goals. Corporate trainers and professional instructors organise and head these communities of learners. They follow formal methods that are beneficial to the students and train the group in a social setting.

Online communities keep students engaged in reciprocal learning activities and help them develop new ideas. Learners need to understand that only theoretical knowledge cannot be helpful. You must invest in creating experiences that help you grow and share your opinions with fellow group members.

Benefits of online learning communities –

The reason why online learning community is gaining popularity is that they promote education by engaging students in a creative manner. Here are a few advantages of joining an online community:

1. Healthy discussions on diverse topics are common in online communities. It also polishes an individual’s public speaking skills.
2. They reflect one’s strong and weak areas. This provides great scope for improvement.
3. Assignments and projects are mostly group activities. Collaborative teamwork helps them clear their doubts and work as a team.
4. Inspiration is a rather common emotion seen in individuals of a learning community. As a result, students tend to work harder.
5. Online education gives students a fair chance to learn through different mediums. It breaks the monotonous routine of attending classes and writing exams. Learning communities imbibe social learning skills in candidates.
6. When you enrol in an online course or join a learning community, you learn topics that are beyond the scope of your curriculum. Since your peers might be from different professions, they too are a source of information for you.
7. Online communities offer you the opportunity to make more connections outside your domain. You can connect with your peers on social networking sites or mail them in case you have a question or two.

How to build an online community?

• Find people online who share common interests and are willing to learn together.
• The platform you choose to build your community matters a lot. For example, a group of professionals would be more active on LinkedIn rather than on Facebook.
• Invest in building a suitable environment for learners. They should feel welcomed and appreciated. Try to keep them engaged and provide regular feedback to them.
• Keep updating your group members about new learning techniques that they can adopt. Motivate them to share their opinions and take part in every activity.

Even though learners of an online community are do not meet each other, they are well connected through their determination to learn and share knowledge. This is the primary motive of every online community that promotes learning and transforms an individual both, academically and personally.