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Last week, I wrote about the need for social interaction in effective online learning. Now, a new report from the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching shows how these social communities can be formed for online graduate students. Here are the basics:

"Community building in online distance education is important to a successful learning experience because it alleviates feelings of isolation for both students and faculty members. Ruth E. Brown describes the process by which students become part of an online distance education community, identifying three stages: "making friends," "community conferment," and the development of "camaraderie" (Brown, 2001). The purpose of this article is to present concrete, specific, and practical pedagogical strategies to implement Ruth E. Brown' 3-stage theory of community building in online distance learning courses."

I have to admit that I'd be annoyed with mandatory get-to-know-you community building exercises in any online class. However, the strategies in the report have shown quite a bit of success.