The influence of students and facilitators on collaboration and the responsibility to build and maintain a collaborative community.

Students and facilitators both play a collaborative role in the online community. Facilitators set the stage and the expectations for the collaboration, while the student contributes his or her own knowledge and experience. The combination of these two efforts in turn produces a dialogue amongst other classmates.  Students in this type of setting read posts by fellow students in the course and post additional thoughts to the discussion. The instructor continues to monitor and prompt the discussion with questions that engage students in further discussions. The type of learning that occurs becomes more of a shared experience amongst the members of the class.

In a traditional classroom setting, the instructor produces the goals, expectations, and the course lectures. However, in an online setting, the lecture piece of the class is non-existent. Students are expected to be self-motivated learners by completing class readings, contributing to discussions, and completing both team and individual assignments. As students work through the course content the sharing of the learning as well as prior knowledge and experience becomes an organic product of the learning environment.

In order to maintain this type of learning environment, students and facilitators must contribute knowledge on a regular basis. Students must be ready to work with all types of learners and be ready to share his or her own expertise. Instructors should motivate students through positive praise, engaging questions, and assignments that help students grow as team members and individual learners.