IT899, Spring 2009, Spurgin Client Movie, "Community Outside the Online Classroom"

Community Outside the Online Classroom:
University and Departmental Community

In the world of face-to-face university education, departmental and university community is easily identified. Walk into a department office located in a brick and mortar building and one finds department members (teachers, staff, students, etc.) interacting via voice and other cues. Notice all the people wearing clothes emblazoned with university slogans and one has identified university community.

In the face-to-face world community interaction is guaranteed outside the classroom. Even the most isolated face-to-face community member must walk through a university campus to get to their classroom. As they make this walk theyre affected by the interactions of other community members. Perhaps they see a student group advertising a cause at a nearby folding table, or maybe they hear students conversing in the hallway as they wait for a previous class to finish.

In contrast, online students and teachers are able to bypass the university and departmental interactions described above and transport themselves directly into their virtual classrooms. This suggests that university and departmental community functions differently in the online world than in the face-to-face world. The comparison between online and face-to-face modes of instruction is not intended to suggest that one mode should emulate the other. Instead face-to-face community is mentioned to help us better understand what community outside the online classroom is, what it is not, and what it might be.


A Client Report
Presented to
The Department of Instructional Design and Technology
EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY
In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science

By
Daniel G. Spurgin
May 2009

Dr. Harvey Foyle, Instructor
Dr. Marcus Childress, Advisor

2009 All Rights Reserved

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Emporia
• State
• University
• ESU
• Instructional
• Design
• IDT
• Online
• eLearning
• Community