Building community

A learning community is a group of individuals who share a common space and purpose for learning. This can include students, educators, and any other staff members who are involved in the educational process. The community functions as a collaborative and supportive environment in which members can learn from one another, share ideas, and work together to achieve common goals.

Building strong relationships between students, and with educators, is foundational to creating a community in which members feel that they are safe, valued and supported. Building community also involves establishing shared norms, values, and expectations for behaviour, as well as fostering a sense of belonging and inclusivity (McGill et al., 2021).

Creating a sense of community takes time, and requires the active involvement of all members, including students, faculty and staff. Creating a sense of belonging for every student is complex and may require different approaches for different students, depending on their background, experiences and needs. In all cases, cultivating and reinforcing positive interactions among all members is an essential component of building vibrant digital and classroom communities.

Benefits of building community View

Ways to build community View

When planning your units, think about designing experiences beyond a one way content-learner interaction and build in opportunities for students to connect with each other and with their educators. These include:

Relationships play a significant role in a student's higher education experience and they contribute to their sense of belonging to university (Healey & Frances, 2022). Including peer activities and group work in class will allow students to build relationships through their studies.
Educators are the primary point of contact for students and play a crucial role in building a sense of belonging to a learning community. Being approachable and taking the time to connect through actively facilitating discussions and providing prompt feedback on students’ contributions and assessment tasks, will assure students that you are supportive of their learning.
Setting clear expectations between yourself and your students builds trust and a shared understanding of the requirements for participation, behaviours and goals. Inviting students to co-create these expectations can also help build a sense of community in which students will feel more invested in the class and more likely to take responsibility for their own learning.
By using language and practices that are inclusive of all students, regardless of their background or identity, educators can create a sense of belonging and acceptance in the classroom. Explore Inclusive Teaching Practices for strategies and opportunities on how to achieve an inclusive learning experience for your students.
Encourage collaboration and teamwork by designing activities and assignments that require students to work together in small groups or pairs. Make your way through Group and Peer Assessment for some strategies you can use for creating collaborative group assessments.

Feedback in action

Make your way through Incorporating Student Feedback and Enhancing Student Experience to learn how Monash University academics have used student feedback to amplify students’ voices and enhance their learning experience - these case studies demonstrate how actionable feedback can transform teaching and create a more responsive learning environment.

Education Performance Standards

You can use the tabs on the left-hand side menu to navigate between the sections or click on the links below:
- The How-to section provides you with instructions and/or strategies to implement in your teaching.
- The Supporting your students section provides you with key strategies for creating a good learning experience and a list of resources to share.
- The Related resources section provides you with additional resources
Berry, S. (2019). Teaching to Connect: Community-Building Strategies for the Virtual Classroom. Online Learning, 23(1), 164-183.
Bettez, S. (2020) Creating Community Commitments in the Higher Education Classroom. About Campus, 25 (1), pp.14-18.
Bramley, G. Campbell-Pilling, K. and Simmons, C. (2020) Don't feedback in anger : enhancing student experience of feedback. In: 6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20). Sixth International Conference on Higher Education Advances, 02-05 Jun 2020, Valencia, Spain. Universitat Politècnica de València , pp. 1147-1154
Fisher, A. T., Sonn, C. C., & Bishop, B. J. (2002). Psychological sense of community: Research, applications, and implications. New York Kluwer
Gravett, K., Kinchin, I.M., & Winstone, N.E. (2020). ‘More than customers’: conceptions of students as partners held by students, staff, and institutional leaders. Studies in Higher Education, 45(12), 2574-2587. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2019.1623769
Henderson, M., Ryan, T., Boud, D., Dawson, P., Phillips, M., Molloy, E., & Mahoney, P. (2021). The usefulness of feedback. Active Learning in Higher Education, 22(3), 229–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787419872393
Henderson, M. & Phillips, M. (2014). Technology enhanced feedback on assessment. Paper presented at the Australian Computers in Education Conference 2014, Adelaide, SA. http://acec2014.acce.edu.au/session/technology-enhanced-feedback-assessment
McGill, B. M., Foster, M. J., Pruitt, A. N., Thomas, S. G., Arsenault, E. R., Hanschu, J. & Burgin, A. J. (2021). You are welcome here: A practical guide to diversity, equity, and inclusion for undergraduates embarking on an ecological research experience. Ecology and Evolution, 11(8), 3636-3645.
Parsons, J., & Taylor, L. (2011). Improving student engagement. Current issues in education, 14(1).
Peacock, S., Cowan, J., Irvine, L., & Williams, J. (2020). An Exploration Into the Importance of a Sense of Belonging for Online Learners. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 21(2), 18-35 https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v20i5.4539
Rovai, A. P. (2002). Sense of community, perceived cognitive learning, and persistence in asynchronous learning networks. The Internet and Higher Education, 5(4), 319-332.
Ryan, T., Henderson, M., & Phillips, M. (2019). Feedback modes matter: Comparing student perceptions of digital and non-digital feedback modes in higher education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(3), 1507–1523. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12749
Stone, C., Springer, M. (2019) Interactivity, connectedness and ‘Teacher-presence': Engaging and retaining students online Australian Journal of Adult Learning 59(2) https://doi.org/10.3316/aeipt.224048
Walker-Gleaves, C. (2019). Is caring pedagogy really so progressive? Exploring the conceptual and practical impediments to operationalizing care in higher education. In P. Gibbs & A. Peterson (Eds.), Higher education and hope: Institutional, pedagogical and personal possibilities Palgrave Macmillan pp. 93-112

Your feedback matters

Let us know how we can improve this resource.

Global Classrooms in Higher Education

Supported by the Monash-Warwick Alliance and created by students and staff through shared pedagogies, resources, ideas, and experiences, this website is designed to be used by staff as an internationalisation resource to inspire new practice.

Inclusive teaching

Through several case studies of inclusive teaching practice across the university, this module examines some of the ways educators can modify learning activities and improve communication with students to embed the principles of inclusive teaching.

Designing hybrid collaborative activities

Watch Ari Seligmann explain how hybrid collaborative activities were developed in an architecture class to integrate offshore and remote students into this very interactive unit.

Digital me in online learning

Digital me is the identity created by a student’s connections with educators, peers, external community and curriculum.

Keeping large student cohorts engaged online

Through in-class polling, weekly choice polls and mid-semester surveys, we continuously modified our teaching practice based on the formative feedback we received to keep students engaged throughout the semester.

	Increased participation A sense of belonging to a community helps students to feel comfortable participating in class discussions and sharing their ideas, as well as asking for help.
	Higher aspirations Belonging to a group can extend students by connecting them to goals that may be above their individual aspirations. Extending individual student insights and innovation potential is a powerful outcome of belonging to a learning community; with community comes diversity and opportunity through new shared experiences.
	Increased responsibility for learning When students feel a sense of belonging in the classroom community, they are more likely to take responsibility for their own learning as active and responsible members of the community.
	Lower dropout rates Feelings of isolation and lack of support contribute to attrition rates. Students who feel a sense of belonging to community are less likely to drop out of an academic program (Rovai, 2002).

The Education Performance Standards identify the expectations of education practice at Monash – See the Education Performance Standards for more details.
Impact on student learning				Impact on educational knowledge		Impact on educational environment
Effective teaching and learning	Responsive program design	Student- centred orientation	Professional learning engagement	Pedagogical content knowledge	Education research performance	Education innovation	Education leadership
✓		✓				✓
You could address these Practice Elements by providing evidence of how you: Develop expectations collaboratively with your students using a class and teaching team contract. Facilitate an inclusive and welcoming learning environment. Create opportunities for students to foster positive peer relationships in the classroom.

Learning and Teaching: Teach HQ