Designing and Facilitating an Online Course: Developing a Learning Community

There is consensus that online facilitation is an increasingly important teaching mode of the future; however the way that this role is performed has not been sufficiently researched. In this empirical research an online course was chosen as a case study to investigate the tutoring presence and the way students experienced it through course design and learning strategies in higher education settings. The results identified the course characteristics and indicate that it had successfully engaged the participants within an online learning community. This research has made a significant contribution to the process of identifying and modelling key variables of online teaching and learning and towards the development of theory in this field. The comprehensive research design approach of this study has also contributed to the methodological issues of studying online teaching and learning. This work will be of great value for teachers, trainers, managers, researchers and students involved in e-learning courses as well as anybody interested in improving the quality of the learning experience.