Developing a Digital Learning Community

Norwegian universities cancelled all campus activity as a response to a nationwide increase in Covid-19 cases. Lectures were moved to online platforms. The pandemic regulations forced us to redesign our teaching for a group of adult learners at the vocational lecturer education. Moving away from traditional lectures and discussion seminars, we designed new collaborative ‘work packages’ accompanied with various practical tasks. Our analysis is based on our teaching material, written student feedback and in-depth interviews. A combination of asynchronous teaching, collaborative groups and online meetings with supervisors created a confidence-building learning community and a safe learning environment. The study shows how students mastered the situation during a national lockdown and took responsibility for their own progress in the course. In the discussion, we highlight how an active two-way communication can foster an online learning community that has a positive impact on students’ learning experiences, and how our strategies led to student empowerment.