Search results for: Foster John

This article is based on the experience gained with an online learning community developed as part of a pilot project that followed a national research study of in-service career and technical education (CTE) administrators and teachers. The authors summarize the most salient points when designing a learning community website, the following features need to be in place to promote interaction: clarify the goals of the website, its function and limitations; ensure privacy from the outside and a psychologically safe environment; ensure that community members understand the features of the website; structure authentic learning tasks, dialog, and posting activity to match the goals of the course; a facilitator or moderator should encourage and reinforce the initial postings, especially from novices; encourage threaded discussion groups to form according to problem topic or academic area; and activities will need to have time limits.