Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Chapter 2 discusses community building in online classroom environments.Extending their analogy, Walden is our community, our specializations are our neighborhoods, and our specific class / courses are the blocks on which we live for the duration of those courses. Your thoughts, colleagues?
Funny thing about that-when they dump the underdesirables in a blended or totally online course, the success rate of said undesirables goes through the roof, making them very desirable students. What is the greater lesson here? Are we listening?
I wrote on a pyramid of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs which "hat" a manager wear's for employees at the different levels. For the bottom, I didn't think any hat applied, since those are basic survival, met by having a job in the first place. Employees operating at the safety level need managers wearing the "leader" hat. Employees operating at the belonging stage need managers wearing the "counselor" hat. Employees operating at the esteem level need managers wearing the "coach" and "motivator" hats. Employees operating at the self-actualization level need managers wearing "developer" and "risk-taker" hats. What do you think?