How do you make an online student hub feel like a home?
When I think of a student hub and what I want to feel like, I picture a house or a whare. Somewhere that students feel comfortable to be. A space that welcomes them in and feels inviting. There are areas we use to connect and gain sustenance and other spaces where we might spend some time fossicking through bookshelves and media. Within the home, there is the often messy personal space which is organised to the occupants’ liking.
We all have an idea of what this looks like in a physical classroom. I personally spend a lot of time thinking about how I organise the furniture and walls to communicate ideals to students and make them feel acknowledged, welcomed and connected.
What might this look like in an online hub? How do you get them through the front door and help them to feel welcome and comfortable enough to ‘kick their shoes off’ and sit down? How do you break the ice so that students from different schools and often different communities and world views feel like they can chat in the living room? And how do you acknowledge the different knowledge and worldviews students bring to class? The student hub should be a place where students feel at home, and comfortable chatting over the metaphorical cup of tea or showing off the things that really matter to them.
It is important to keep in mind that whakawhanaungatanga, the process of establishing relationships (māoridictionary.co.nz) is an ongoing process. This is something that you will return to and reiterate over the year. I find it help to weave things through our usual class routines that reinforce and foster that building of connections and community.
For me, the starting point is to look at points of connection. What might this look like?
The banner for the student hub would probably contain an image that reflected ideas important to my class – in the past, I have used Raphael’s The School of Athens as a metaphor for a forum of art philosophers and the value of sharing knowledge.
In previous years I have used Padlet to set up an icebreaker discussion – this is a fun low key way of drawing out commonalities between students. What’s more, it starts to establish a safe space for students to share ideas and take risks. Highlighting geographical links is another go-to activity at the start of each year.
Creating this safe space can happen at all kinds of levels. A favourite of mine given I am an art history teacher is for students to share an artwork and why it is of interest to them.
This is a great way of getting to know students and developing discussion. I’m sure you can think of an equivalent in your subject area. Students might share photos of pets, favourite bands, holiday spots. Try to encourage this as much as possible, it will make the world of difference and help your students to feel that they are a part of a class.
If you want your class to be a warm community, you can set the tone as a teacher. It all boils down to the central purpose of a student hub. In my view, it is not just a space for the teacher to push out information. At least, it shouldn’t be.The hub is the place where students get a sense that they are a part of a class, that reflects and acknowledges the people within it, and creates opportunities as much as possible for connection to happen. To my mind, Google Spaces and Mattermost are the two platforms that best facilitate this. Google Spaces allows the quick and seamless discussion that we want to naturally occur in class. Students can jump from their Gmail to google Spaces without opening a new email or leaving their inbox. Google Spaces also makes sharing files and tasks with students so much easier. Whereas Mattermost facilitates the in-depth dialogue really well and is fully customisable for the student, which brings to life the personal space aspect of the house/whare metaphor. They can create a ‘skin’ for their Mattermost view by customing colours for every element. They can even create custom categories and groups of the channels within Mattermost.
I have found that the teacher plays an important role in setting the tone and fostering this sense of belonging and community and drawing out those discussions that make a class come to life. Sometimes the discussion will be a little more formal and metacognitive
and at other times it is that spontaneous sharing that happens in the moment and is not easily replicated.
However, the trick is how to create the type of environment that allows students to feel comfortable, relaxed and safe enough to share in that way. This is something that really needs to be developed over time until it becomes an engrained ‘this is how we do things here’.
However, the effort that goes into designing for connection and community makes for a richer experience for all involved “Without building community, learning online can be a sterile, lonely experience which will only appeal to a very small number of learners. It is important for well-being that both teacher and ākonga feel a strong sense of connection to each other and a place to feel at home.” (Networked Learning : Stronger Together, 2021)
