MSTU 4020: Personal learning environment/online community

OC: to be or not to be?

"The Internet is generally considered to enhance participation by encouraging and enabling more people to voice their opinion. However, not only users benefit from online participation..." (Sanna Malinen, 2015)

        As most of you could guess, if I were to choose between a personal learning environment (PLE) and an online community (OC), I would build an online community without any hesitation. I have numerous objective reasons on the top of my head, but I would like to share some of my personal experience first.

        If you have read my previous blog post, I am sure you remember my computer science background and my peculiar experience with Github. A quick run-through: Github is an online platform in which users can share codes, and perform basic task management and collaboration. If you prefer the nerdy version: it is a Git repository hosting service that offers distributed version control and source code management functions of Git (the first gif is supposed to be Github's contribution visualization function.) Check out mine if you're still confused: https://github.com/Tigerybr

        I mentioned the beauty of Github was that the online platform provided no chatroom which reduced the toxicity of the whole environment. The wonderful and magical moment of Github will happen after you learn to navigate through the whole thing; you can access your repository on the Github by typing a few lines inside the computer terminal. 
        Github inspired me in many ways when I was thinking about my creation. I wanted to create an online academic platform for the U.S undergraduate students and instructors. Since it's only an online community, the least I would like to have is a website. I think websites allow easier access than software. Cloud spaces will be needed in order to save posts and media.

Do students really need it? 

        A lot of students are having a hard time connecting with and seeking help from their instructors for academic problems. This may because of the lack of office hours. These problems include both individuals learning and group projects. This lack of support within or outside of the class may be one of the core issues for students failing for the courses. 

        We have to notice that there are also problems that students can solve by themselves with help from their peers who have similar academic backgrounds. For instance, a student who is currently studying Calculus 2 can assist students who are studying Calculus 1. The student from Calculus might even have more insights into helping peers to learn than the instructors.
        
        In my point of view, we may need to divide the platform into areas based on subjects or majors. This is because different majors will have different expectations when accessing the platform. For example, a math major student will prefer more formulas than an English major student.

        Because the basic chat function will still be necessary in my case, instructors will have the authority to monitor the platform to ensure the cleanness and to observe if anyone is committing plagiarism. In other words: to maximize the meaningful effect of the online learning platform for students who are struggling with academic problems, it is essential for both students and instructors to guide the students to acquire knowledge through the online community. 

        I have used a similar product during my undergraduate study. Piazza is an online Q&A platform for both students and instructors. The downside of Piazza is the effectiveness for a given period of time. For example, when a professor opened a class on Piazza, only the students who were in that section can access the same page. And the Piazza class will be unavailable to access after the semester is over.

        There can be many ways to grow the community, but the limitation of scale is also necessary. For example, I think while I would like every student to have access to the academic platform, I would not want every undergraduate in the U.S to join the same area. That means I want to set specific boundaries from schools to schools. This will be for the sake of academic integrity and avoiding interference in an individual's study.