The most essential responsibilities of the members in a learning community in my opinion comprise of participation, interaction, and motivation. Swan (2004) describes the interactions in online learning environments in the following categories; interaction with peers (social presence), interaction with content (cognitive presence), and teaching presence (interaction with instructors). Palloff & Pratt (2007) discuss the technological changes that have taken place in society and the need for recontextualizing community and distance education "…attention need so t be paid to the developing sense of community within the group of participants in order for the learning process to be successful (p. 40). The tools for collaboration in an online course according to Palloff & Pratt (2005) are explanation of teams, setting guidelines and expectations, team agreements, and buy-in. I believe that the most important to all of these tools and responsibilities is buy-in. If the student buys in to the online learning experience, then s/he is intrinsically motivated to complete the responsibilities of the online course and utilize the collaboration tools that are implemented in the classroom.
In reference to the "fair and equitable assessment" of learning it makes sense to use a rubric to measure learning tasks. Collaboration should be defined in rubrics and expectations must be set at the beginning of the learning module. For example in order to get full credit for the discussion forum and interacting with your peers every week you must write your posting and respond to at least two other students with substantive comments or questions. Collaboration in this learning task is defined and quantified and thus can be used to assess in a fair and equitable manner. Collaboration on web 2.0 tools such as wikis, blogs, and GoogleDocs, etc… for assignments can be done by tracking the editing history of the assignment or other technological innovations that allow for tracking of individuals as they collaborate to complete the learning task together. As long as it is based on a rubric, expectations are set at the beginning of the learning module, and the learning tasks are quantified than "fair and equitable assessment" can be attained.
Guidelines for successful online communities include flexibility, patience, experience, openness, understanding and communication. Students in distance learning education have chosen this unique learning option for many reasons which may include family and professional responsibilities, work schedules, etc…All of these qualities must be internalized and used if an online community is to be created, maintained, and enhanced. Members of the online learning community have different times of availability, may be international, and have local and regional calendars to follow that can be very different from others in the online communities. Due to these unique circumstances if a member is not participating up to the expectations for the online community then communication must take place to inform the member of these perceptions in a way that is appropriate for the context. That is part of the communication and experience of the learner in an online community.
References:
Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Swan, K. (2004). Relationships between interactions and learning in online environments. The Sloan Consortium.
