Theory and Practice of Online Learning Community s Creation and Application by Means of QQ Group Software

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1 Theory and Practice of Online Learning Community s Creation and Application by Means of QQ Group Software WEI Li Department of Elementary Courses, Liaoning Police Academy, Dalian, , China Abstract Online learning community, as the innovative evolvement of learning community, refers to the combined social group on the basis of regional and common character. The Growing-up English QQ Group created and supervised by the author is an interactive English learning cyberspace as an integral supplement of the formal English class, focusing on the improvement of students English practical skills in cross-cultural communication, language proficiency, policing English, and students basic cultural awareness and attainment as well. By means of rich and colorful activities, through diverse and valuable interaction among community members, Growing-up has created a complete English language learning space, integrating knowledge and interests, removing the boundaries of time and space. After one term of the positive influence on the community members, most of them improve their English levels in different aspects appreciably, such as, in writing, reading, discussing and thinking. They have naturally formed English thinking when entering Growing-up and our English class. This updated English learning and interaction pattern is bound to be applied and developed by more and more English instructors and learners. Keywords Learning community, online learning community, Growing-up English QQ Group I. INTRODUCTION We are living in an unprecedented society in which the information transmits as quickly as the velocity of light, the knowledge proliferates to a maximum extent. This is a network era. Online learning, thanks to its element of surpassing the time and space confines, has more and more become the mostly welcomed learning approach by the upto-date college students. To create online learning community on the basis of the common learning goals and by means of learning companions and collaborative conversation is a very unique and effective solution to fulfill the objective of knowledge construction. In view of the approaches of each student to obtain the knowledge sources are diversified, and the processes of knowledge construction are varied, the students basis and capacity differ from that of others in a thousand and one ways. Therefore, if we adopt in the same step class pattern to teach lessons, it cannot meet the requirements of individuation and diversification in developing students capacity. The negative result of that class pattern is the unitary knowledge and skills, the uniform process of learning exploration, hindering the development of potentiality and creativity. [1] To make use of online learning community can solve this problem very effectively. But how to create learning community environment on the basis of network, and how to build a platform to stimulate the student passion for knowledge and enhance the interaction levels among different learning subjects? These questions are to be answered in the following details. II. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION OF ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY A. Definition of online learning community The term of community, deriving from sociology at the outset, refers to the combined social group on the basis of regional and common character. When this term was introduced into the educational field, the new concept of learning community came into being. With the unexpected development of computer and network, online learning community breaking through the time and space confines commenced to grow up. Recently, this newly-invented community has attracted the wide attention of educational researchers home and abroad, which has positive significance in promoting social knowledge construction, enhancing online teaching quality, and developing students creative capacity and team spirit. Online learning community, though there hasn t been a commonly recognized definition till now, mainly refers to the community created by the learners, the learning assistants (including teachers, experts, and tutors) with the definite learning goals on the virtual network environment. [2] The essence of online learning community is the community members communicate with each other frequently, sharing various learning resources, experiences and results under the network environment for the purpose of fulfilling the common learning goals and building a kind of interactive interpersonal relationship. 42

2 B. Functions of online learning community[3] The functions of online learning community are chiefly manifested in the following three areas: (1) cognitive information support. The community members can obtain knowledge information from other members and massive online resources contributing to solving learners doubtfulness; moreover, members can promote their reflection and reconstruct their train of thought by means of sharing, communicating with other members the solution to the problem and learning experiences. (2) interpersonal support. The learning community members can form an interactive interpersonal relationship in which members are aware of their importance and responsibility for the community, on the other hand, when the members come across the hardship, they can be helped and directed by other members. The sense of belonging and recognition can be met, which helps arouse learners passion for study and increase the extent of learners involvement in learning. [4] (3) common development. The learning community members discuss, collaborate, communicate and interact together revolving around learning subjects and tasks to handle learning difficulties and share various resources and learning experiences, which leads to learning from each other and developing together. III. CREATION AND APPLICATION OF ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY: AN EXAMPLE OF GROWING-UP ENGLISH QQ GROUP Tencent QQ software, as the first instant communication tool in China, has won the heated welcome from the teenager students thanks to its various advantages, such as its simple operation, convenient communication, friendly interface, and freedom from maintenance and expenses. It has grown into the most popular chatting device among the young students and also other people of different age groups. Based upon the QQ s functions and advantages, Growing-up English QQ Group was created with the purpose of building an English public platform to carry out instant communication and interactive instruction. A. Design of online learning community environment According to the present teaching tasks, the author created an English QQ group with the name Growing-up in three classes. The group number is Her students in these three classes can apply to join Growing-up voluntarily and anonymously. Meanwhile, her colleagues or peers in English teaching of the same or other colleges are invited to join this group as the learning assistants also anonymously. The author is the leader and supervisor of the group being in charge of the usual routine of the group, such as, verifying the new group member, changing the group bulletin, issuing the fresh news, uploading various learning resources, discussing with the active members and answering their questions. On the basis of the harmonious cooperation and positive interaction, the English teacher, the students, the learning assistants and Tencent QQ group software establish an online learning community environment. B. Components and organization of online learning community The main body: The project Construction of Seamless Foreign Language Learning and Interactive Cyberspace via Tencent Software (The Twelfth Five-year Plan for Educational Science project of Liaoning Province (2012) No. JG12EB082J) is undertaken among the students whose majors are investigation study (80 students) and public security administration (33 students). These students are encouraged to join Growing-up, but without compelling force. Growing-up was formally created on April 10 th, At the beginning, only 8 students joined the group, but with the author s promotion and gradual cultivation of the group, it grew to 64 members a month later. Under this online learning environment, the students is the main body, the vital subject who can realize self-study and team-study here, and they can also achieve the group discussion and resource sharing. The assisting part: This part is the group organizer and supervisor including the English teachers, English experts, foreign scholars and students. The author serves as the group leader taking the responsibility of daily operation including uploading various kinds of learning resources, the latest English news and information extracted from yahoo website, designing and announcing the topics for Group Forum and English Hour (the regular evening English group chatting generally from 8 pm to 9 pm, organizing group activities online or offline. Apart from the group leader s major tasks, the author particularly invited English teachers and experts in other universities, such as Liaoning Normal University, Taiyuan Technological University, Sichuan University, Chuxiong Normal University, Weifang University, who excel in different fields including Canadian studies, multicultural education, cross-cultural communication, translation, Sino-US relations, and so on, to join Growing-up as the assistants in helping students solving problems in English learning, answering their questions and doubtfulness, enhancing their cross-cultural capacity communication skills. 43

3 Moreover, the leader also invited an American scholar who hold four degrees in psychology, journalism, anthropology, and religious studies, now working in Liaoning Normal University-Missouri State University, to work as a foreign assistant to provide not only multi-field research resources, but also first-hand cross-cultural communication experiences through English Hour, Group Forum, or On-line communication. It will offer great benefits to the students who have least opportunity to communicate with the true foreigners in their formal English class. C. The general goals and main activities of Growing-up QQ Group There are three general goals that Growing-up determines to attain. (1) English language learning goal. The students in Growing-up should master the language points learnt in formal class proficiently, the English learning techniques and methods, and some skills for taking part in English exams in different levels in order to grasp general strategies of English learning and pass the exams successfully. (2) English communication goal. After the practice and training in written and oral English, the students should master the basic theories and the practical skills applied to cross-cultural communication with foreign teachers and students, English teachers and other students in English. They should learn to express their opinions in exact English forms including vocabularies, sentence structures and rhetoric. (3) Cultural immersion goal. This QQ group will encourage all the members learn more about the general knowledge in English humanities, the culture in broad and narrow sense (mass culture and elite culture). By means of cultural edification and immersion, the students will grow to understand the rich connotation and constant charm of English language. The Growing-up is composed of the following learning and entertaining activities: (1) Sharing of excellent educational resources uploaded by the leader of group, the learning assistants and the student members. (2) English Discussion on the hot issues, such as the College Life, A Virtual Life, My Hobbies, Green World, How to make a policeman, and so on. The discussed topics collected through questionnaire survey or interview among the students are uploaded by the leader every other day (3) Creation of various study groups according to students individual interests and features, for example, Elite English Study Group, Cross-cultural communication Study Group, English Literature Group, Movie Appreciation Group. The leader will arrange different learning assistants to serve as the organizer and director of different study groups. (4) Interactive communication activities for the learning assistants online or offline to answer the students questions and doubtfulness about English learning or cultural issues. (5) Promotion of video communication activities among learning assistants, foreigners and students. D. Operation of Growing-up English QQ group and its developing procedure: experiences and lessons Pre-creation: The author did preparatory work for creating Growing-up. She carried out a questionnaire survey before she took to the creation of Growing-up English QQ community. Nine questions are to be answered anonymously and most of them are open-ended. [5]Owing to the collection of the students real and open responses, the author got the beneficial first-hand materials. After the preparatory research the author obtained the most valuable and reliable data from the main body of the learning community, forming the basic structure about how to design the developing procedure and how to create active and effective community via cyber-interaction. The chief objective of Growing-up is to build an after-class English interactive platform attaining the perfect combination of knowledge and interest, establishing a delightful and active English learning environment totally different from the formal serious classroom. Under this relaxed learning space, the students anxiety and boredom in learning English can be reduced to a degree, while their English learning passion and inspiration can be aroused to an utmost degree Present operation: Till now, Growing-up has been operated for five months. It has achieved its basic goal of helping students form English thinking way while entering QQ space, and promote their zest for English learning and involvement. The group leader uploaded 60 group sharing materials including video and audio lectures, meaningful essays, English news, academic papers, English presentations. The students uploaded 10 writing assignments and a lot of photos of playing the drama. The author dealt with the regular work of the whole group, taking in uploading learning tasks and resources, checking excellent compositions, reports uploaded by the students, releasing daily topics to discuss in English Hour (from 8:00 to 9:00 pm every other evening), news report and current affairs downloaded from Yahoo English website. Besides these tasks, the author was also assisting in supervising regular English conversation in the evening by written words on the screen. The author listened to the voices from the members through interviews, questionnaires, and feedbacks to change and improve her strategies so as to promote its further progress. 44

4 On balance, the author conducted countless English Hour discussing various topics from College Life to Information Era. The learning assistants answered many questions put forward by different students who were interested in different areas. The students from other universities were also very active in our English Hour, providing points of views in particular perspective. All community members are establishing a harmonious and friendly learning and entertaining environment helping and benefiting each other. Figure 1 and Figure 2 will offer us the real operation of Growing-up in September. Figure 1 offers us the total number of Growing-up members (64) and the real online number in English Hour (32), while Figure 2 offers us the uploaded materials by the author and other members and also the written communication recordings between the group leader and the active members in English Hour. Figure 1: 32 members online are taking part in English Hour on May 11 th, Figure 2: The uploaded learning materials and written communication recording between teacher and community member Promising prospect: In the second-staged development of the group, all the members involved in the project including one foreigner and other four English instructors are required to be active in different activities with divided labor. Prof. Wang is in charge of CET 4 instruction, uploading updated materials in writing, reading and listening techniques, answering online or offline questions concerning CET 4. According to the students requirements, Prof. Wang puts emphasis on how to improve the reading skills in fast reading and careful reading. 45 Instructor Liu is in charge of uploading latest English news, humors, and stories with detailed notes and explanation two times each week. Instructors Guo and Zhang take charge of holding English Hour on Wednesdays and Fridays, coming up with various topics to discuss. Prof. Wei, the group leader, will take part in all these learning activities, supervising the smooth and successful running of the group routine work, checking out the effects and feedbacks on the student members. Growing-up is primarily intended to build a platform on which every group member can enjoy the delights of English communication and knowledge sharing, every learning assistant can provide assistance through regular transmission and instant response. Consequently, Growingup QQ Group has evolved to a common English home among instructors and students. IV. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS The project Construction of Seamless Foreign Language Learning and Interactive Cyberspace via Tencent Software is a triumphant attempt to combine after-class English review and self-learning with Tencent QQ group software. Through a period of operation and interaction, all the group members firmly believe that they have been deeply attracted by this QQ group, their aspiration for English appreciation have been whetted enormously, their enthusiasm for English sharing have been aroused unexpectedly. All in all, an English QQ group not only constructs a seamless English learning cyberspace, but also establishes the rich atmosphere of loving every minute of English, which totally change the previous dreary and ineffective English learning in and after class. A particular interest can arouse a special inspiration, and a special inspiration can build a unique world. It is just because of a beneficial attempt that can generate an extraordinary learning space which contributes to the students excellent performance in English and other subjects. Although the project has achieved many better outcomes than we had any right to expect, the project itself also has some opportunities and potentialities to improve further. The group leader and learning assistants have to think seriously about the following issues: 1. How to attract more distinguished experts, foreign instructors and students to join our QQ group and actively take part in our English learning activities in order to provide the students with all aspects of learning materials and diverse strategies in English learning, the most standard English expressions and the most authentic experience of cross-cultural communication?

5 2. How to come up with the better solutions to encourage those inactive members to become the central members without being only the observers? 3. How to connect with the formal English class to constitute a beneficial circulatory system between inclass language learning and after-class language practice, building a completely real seamless English learning space? 4. How to design and make perfect network learning courses including College English Assisting Network course, Cross-cultural Communication Network course, English for Elite Police Network course which should be uploaded to the group sharing? 5. How to establish and improve the scientific evaluation system in QQ group which combines with in-class evaluation system in order to attract more students to join the group and take part in learning activities? All these problems and difficult points are what we have to face up to and consider cautiously while running our group. The group leader will work together with other learning assistants and all student members through positive network interaction and usual serious reflection to resolve the problems gradually. Acknowledgment The author wishes to thank the experts and judges of the Education Department of Liaoning Province for their support of The Twelfth Five-year Plan for Educational Science project of Liaoning Province (2012) No. JG12EB082J: Construction of Seamless Foreign Language Learning and Interactive Cyberspace via Tencent Software. REFERENCES [1] Zeng Xiaohong. Collaborative Learning Pattern and Application on the Basis of BLOG [J]. China Educational Technology, 2010, (10): [2] Zhang Jianwei On-line learning community [DB/DL] [3] WEI Li. Construction of Seamless English Language Learning Cyberspace via Interactive Text Messaging Tool. [J] Theory and Practice in Language Studies. Vol. 2, No. 8, August 2012, [4] Kuang Shanyun Creation of Online Learning Community [J]. Open Education Research, 2005, (4): [5] WEI Li. Construction of Seamless English Language Learning Cyberspace via Interactive Text Messaging Tool. 2012, WEI Li: Born in Feb in Liaoyang, China. BA of English, Liaoning Normal University, 1993, Master of English, Liaoning Normal University, She is an associate professor in Liaoning Police Academy, the author of three EI indexed papers. She has published more than 40 papers in Chinese academic journals including World Ethno-national Studies, Shandong Social Sciences, Social Sciences in Xinjiang, Academy, and four international papers published in international conference proceedings. Her concentration centers around the Multicultural education, the Canadian Studies and network assisted Foreign Language Teaching. Professor Wei is a candidate for the Police Liaison Officers of the Public Security Ministry of China. 46