Wenger (1998) defines a community of practice as a group that is bound by a concept that is continually redefined, with functionality that binds the group together, and shared resources to enable the group to demonstrate its capability (Wenger, 1998). A community of practice is not governed by a traditional hierarchy, as might be found in many corporate, educational, or governmental organizations. Online communities may be described as a community of practice since participants are drawn together in a collegial process of learning. Online communities may be comprised of a discipline faculty member, a librarian, and a cohort of online learners (Orr, Appleton, & Wallin, 2001).
Students experience online community building activities such as icebreaker activities, group projects, posting biographies, and learning about classmates and instructors in the discussion forum. Instructors enhance student learning by using the suggestions of Palloff and Pratt to model the best practices of online communication for their students. These suggestions include group activity, personalizing the course, and facilitating student ownership of learning (“Building learning communities,” 2000). Each of these suggestions removes barriers that may isolate students and detract from online learning.
This article will examine community building activities in one community of practice, online learners who receive Web-based information literacy instruction to learn how to utilize an academic library’s electronic resources to perform research.
The Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (Association of College and Research Libraries [ACRL], 2000) define information literacy as the ability to recognize the need for information, retrieve the desired information efficiently and effectively, critically evaluate that information, and use information ethically and legally for the purpose intended (ACRL, 2000).
The Guidelines for Distance Learning Library Services (ACRL, 2004) state that the provision of library services to distant patrons should be equivalent to the resources and services provided to conventional patrons (ACRL, 2004).
Since many students routinely perform their research from outside the library, there is an increasing expectation that academic libraries should provide for the instructional needs of distant learners (ACRL, 2004; Edwards, 2000; Gutierrez & Wang, 2001).
Information literacy instruction has evolved over the past few years as more information has become available via the Internet (Dupris, 1999). Online information literacy instruction currently takes several forms including course-integrated bibliographic instruction, credit courses, tutorials, pathfinders, and text-based curriculum transferred from the traditional classroom to a Web-based format that includes hypertext links. To enhance the efficacy of online information literacy instruction, a sense of community must exist that embraces the students and facilitator.
Within an online community, students discuss issues related to the course content, collaborate on assignments, share resources, critically evaluate their classmate’s work, and express support and encouragement while interacting on a personal level (International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education [IASCE], 2001). Rules for behavior exist, roles are defined, and relationships have structure (Fu, 2004; Haythornthwaite, Kazmer, Robins, & Shoemaker, 2000).
Status differences are minimized in the discussion forum due to the nature of computer mediated communication (IASCE, 2001). The cybercafé also contributes to the effectiveness of the online community by providing participants with a safe place to discuss personal matters (IASCE, 2001).
To build a healthy online community, trust and social capital must be present. Trust enables members of a community to work together to realize shared goals and provide support (Fu, 2004; Haythornthwaite et al., 2000).
According to Lesser (as cited in Fu, 2004), social capital results from the positive interactions that occur between members of the community, and is based on trust (Fu, 2004). Each time a member of the community demonstrates that he or she can be counted upon to meet commitments, social capital is multiplied and trust is extended (Fu, 2004; Haythornthwaite et al., 2000).
A community also requires the flow of information to ensure social capital (Haythornthwaite et al., 2000; Putnam, n.d.; Rovai, 2002). Trust and social capital are not exclusive commodities. Instead, each commodity reinforces the other. Shared expectations, interests, and goals, supported by commitment and honesty, help members of a community find common ground (Fu, 2004; Haythornthwaite et al., 2000).
Several steps are recommended to build a thriving, diverse, and inclusive online community. Online instructors must define the community’s purpose, promote student contributions to the discussion, define the guidelines for appropriate postings using netiquette, and allow community members to resolve their own disputes before becoming involved (Buchanan, Xie, Brown, & Wolfram, 2001; IASCE, 2001).
In addition, online instructors guide students by establishing goals and defining outcomes, designing assignments that encourage collaboration, using icebreaking and team building activities to create a sense of community in the course, monitoring students’ learning and adjusting course requirements as necessary, and providing timely feedback on discussions and assignments (Buchanan et al., 2001; IASCE, 2001).
Discussion postings that present a combination of information, opinion, and synthesis engage the online community to a greater extent than postings that merely ask members of the online community to respond to prior inquiries, include social response, or ask questions to follow-up on their postings.
In the majority of cases, when a participant responds to an earlier posting with a social greeting, that same participant also answers a question that was raised in an earlier posting. Social response and response to question are integral to community building.
Postings that present information also include the participant’s opinion, as well as a synthesis of other information with the course curriculum. The information that is synthesized may be a Website that is relevant to the discussion topic, other articles on the same topic, or the participant’s educational or work experiences.
Asynchronous discussion postings provide richer communication than either synchronous chat, e-mail, or face to face classroom discussion (Buchanan et al., 2001). Community members have time to review previous postings, incorporate new research, and feel less self-conscious about sharing their opinions with the online community when posting in the discussion forum (Buchanan et al., 2001).
Discussions utilizing synchronous chat may be somewhat chaotic when multiple messages are posted at the same time. Students must refer back to the archived transcript to make sense of the chat, a process that is similar to reading the asynchronous discussion postings. In addition, there is an inadequate amount of time for contemplation and research in synchronous discussion due to the fixed amount of time in which all members of the community participate in the chat.
E-mail is usually seen by a limited number of recipients. A single e-mail message does not engage the entire community to the extent of a posting in the discussion forum that may be read by all members of the online community.
The asynchronous discussion forum promotes the building of community within an online course, as well as providing a means to share information with all members of the community. In the next section, the relationship between effective online information literacy instruction and community building will be discussed.
Several studies support the assertion that Web-based information literacy instruction is effective at enhancing the sense of online community among course participants. The use of active learning and varied methods of communication aid in the retention of concepts, as well as fostering an environment that encourages participation and equality (Dewald, Scholz-Crane, Booth, & Levine, 2000; Rovai, 2002).
When discipline faculty and librarians collaborate on the design and teaching of online information literacy instruction, it becomes more feasible for a librarian to build a positive relationship with students (Dewald et al., 2000). The librarian becomes an integral member of the online community. Information literate members of the online learning community actively think about information and critically evaluate information rather than passively receiving facts (Dewald et al., 2000).
At Rutgers University, the Spanish-Portuguese Department and the library collaborated on the Learning Links project (Kesselman, Khanna, & Vazquez, 2000). Students in undergraduate Spanish literature classes accessed library resources through the WebCT course module (Kesselman et al., 2000). An online learning community that includes librarians and graduate students was developed through the use of training sessions, e-mail consultation and communication, and threaded discussion (Kesselman et al., 2000). The online community was limited to those with an affiliation with the Spanish-Portuguese Department at Rutgers University. The goal of this project is to eventually expand the online community to include other libraries across the United States, as well as members of the Spanish-speaking world to broaden opportunities for resource sharing and distance learning (Kesselman et al., 2000).
The learning community at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is formed in an on-campus orientation as students begin the hybrid program. The initial cohort of learners evolves over time as students progress at a different pace (Haythornthwaite et al., 2000). The online community is built through the initial bonding process on campus, then reinforced in each course through instructor monitoring of participation, and the provision of multiple formats for communication, including e-mail and whisper chat (Haythornthwaite et al., 2000).
These studies support the concept that online information literacy instruction may be designed to promote community building among participants while meeting their needs for effective instruction in the process of recognizing, retrieving, evaluating, and using information (ACRL, 2000).
Online information literacy instruction encourages lifelong learning by helping students develop the skills they need to use information more effectively and efficiently while using the format in which they will actively search for course-related information (ACRL, 2000; Orr et al., 2001). Online information literacy instruction is a cost-effective way for students to gain information literacy skills for lifelong learning and professional pursuits (Farmer, 2003). Community building in online information literacy instruction is important to aid in the retention of students while raising their sense of well-being (Rovai, 2002).
The best practices of learning communities in online information literacy instruction increase knowledge of library resources, information literacy, and research skills in an environment that is supportive, collaborative, and cooperative (Donaldson, 2000; Rovai, 2002).
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