Sustaining Online Communities Beyond Course Completion
Teaching and taking professional development courses raises the question as to what happens after the completion of the course. This has always been a concern of mine as it seems obvious that the learning, support, and collaboration should not end upon completion of the course. I believe that the short course should just be the beginning of the journey, not the end. Creating a sustainable online community that extends beyond the completion of the course could provide great value to the participants of any course. I am committed to further research on this topic as I believe it is crucial to the professional development concept of developing a context for lifelong learning.
Many professionals are required to take a number of continuing education hours per year in order to stay up to date on current trends in their particular field. Such training often teaches a
skill or a methodology. Upon completion of the course, the individual is expected to return to the workplace and integrate the new learning. This is generally expected to occur without further support. It is my belief that ongoing support in the form of a sustainable online
community would provide great benefits to course participants as they continue to apply what they have learned. This goal of this article is to explore a variety of means to develop and maintain such an online community. Strategies of effective community management as well as potential challenges will be addressed.
This topic is particularly intriguing to me as I work in a school district with a comprehensive professional development program. The program, referred to as Staff College, offers a wide variety of face-to-face courses covering many areas related to current trends in education. Faculty members are required to complete a certain number of hours of Staff College each school year. For tenured staff, the required number of hours is six. Courses are generally three or six hours in length and meet for one or two sessions. I am planning to add an online component to our staff college program. Furthermore, I am interested in the possibility of developing a sustainable community that continues to exist after completion of the course. I see incredible value in the continued involvement in such a community as staff people begin to implement what is learned during the professional development courses.
“We further need a system, preferably web-based that educators can use to share information. What should that system be? What is the best way to build it? Ultimately, the online system could grow into an online community of interactions that will spur collaborations, foster creativity and make rich connections to further the field. How do we get to this end?†(Figueiredo, Eber, Jorge, 2004). This quote beautifully illustrates the vision of creating a community that provides a worthwhile resource for professionals that goes beyond the timeframe of a course. The article goes on to describe the idea of creating a structure for ongoing communication and sharing that would have incredible value. The ideas presented cover many essential considerations that exist in much of the literature. These ideas include identifying a target audience with a common goal and providing an organized structure for the sharing of information and ideas. The article focuses on community development for Computer Graphics Educators. The first decision in the process was to create a depository for participants to share resources. “In an attempt to build the community, we feel will foster growth in computer graphics education, we have launched the Computer Graphics Educational Materials Source (CGEMS), which is a system that will help educators share materials…Our system supports a way for educators to easily access quality course materials and for contributors to share and get recognition for their curricular innovations.†(Figueiredo, Eber, Jorge, 2004). These ideas are further supported by the C4P framework as described by Hoadley and Kindler. According to the framework, knowledge is created and shared among participants when there is goal-oriented conversation around content in a particular context. The C4P framework identifies five key knowledge building processes of a community: Content, Conversation, Connection, Context, and Purpose (Quan-Haase, 2004). This framework sets a solid foundation for developing a viable online community. It is essential that participants are willing to share information. If such a context is established, participants can benefit from the mutuality of sharing and receiving information and resources in addition to engaging in supportive conversation that furthers the educational process.
It is clear that online communities have their benefits. In addition to the benefits are challenges. It can be difficult to develop sustained participation as well as welcome newcomers to the learning community. These challenges can be overcome through careful planning and development of an infrastructure as well as ongoing support and facilitation by those instrumental in the organization of the online community. Research raises the point that resistance to participation in an online community is a concern that should be acknowledged. However, this element is addressed by the notion that the communities being promoted here are intended to be a continuation of an established learning community.
Dorine Andrews (2002) presents an approach to encouraging participation in online learning communities. She proposes the idea of building reputation through alliances (such as alumni associations). She goes on to promote the idea of delivering focused content related to the participants’ primary interests. I see great value in this with regard to maintaining community as people will want to utilize the community to access information and communicate related to their goal. If it is easy to find the information one is looking for, this can certainly be possible. Another idea presented is to ‘implement outreach transitional events.’ (Andrews, 2002) The idea here is to host events that can bring members of the community together face to face. I believe this can also be achieved through synchronous chat in that it brings people together in real time on occasion. Of course, if the community is regionally based, then the face to face meetings are entirely feasible. The example of my school district’s staff development program would certainly allow for such meetings that bring the community together on occasion in order to socialize and collaborate in person. Another strategy presented involves encouraging early online interaction by introducing “non-threatening and nurturing activities that allow visitors to test the online community waters†(Andrews, 2002). During the course this can include icebreaker activities and online introductions. In addition, during the transition from course to post-course discussion, it seems as though there would be great value in such activities in the spirit of reconnection as well as introducing newcomers to the online community.
It seems as though a strong argument is made for the benefits of a sustainable online community providing the infrastructure is well designed. This raises the important questions of the development of the infrastructure and the logistics behind such a community. It is important to consider how such a community will be maintained and governed. “Developers must simultaneously deal with communication, motivation, leadership, and technology. Since community activities are voluntary, certain leadership roles may be especially important in the community’s virtual environment. Given the voluntary social context, community leaders play an important role in developing the necessary social climate to generate community participation. Securing or developing effective community leaders is likely to be a crucial success factor for the sustainability of any virtual community.†(Kho, Kim, Butler, Bock, 2007) I believe this is entirely true. Leadership, as described, would be responsible for setting the tone of the community, managing the content (to some extent), and encouraging participation. A likely question would relate to who the leaders of such a community should be. The quote above refers to voluntary participation and leadership. I see this as valid as it would be difficult to expect instructors to continue to maintain responsibility for the content after the course is complete.
With regard to the infrastructure, it is important to consider the tools that would be used for such a community. My initial vision included either of the following ideas. One thought was to create a discussion board for each course that would be essentially open to students who have completed the course. In time, the number of participants would grow as more and more people completed the given courses. Another thought was to allow continued participation in the course area for any course after completion. If this were the case, areas for alumni would be specified, while all course resources would be available to past and present course participants. Upon deeper exploration and suggestions of classmates, it appears as though a separate community area should be developed for people who have completed the courses.
This brings me to think about the old saying, “If you build it, they will come.†Well, with regard to developing sustained online communities, it is not quite that simple. Rather, if you build it with the following key points in mind, a viable online community can thrive. First, you must identify a target audience and assess their needs. Next, it is crucial to develop an infrastructure that includes a wealth of content and resources of great value. Additionally, it is important to carefully integrate a variety of effective collaboration tools. Another important component is to plan for activities that bring participants together in real time. Finally, it is necessary to develop a strong base of volunteers to manage the discussions as well as the content, and provide a system that allows for newcomers to enter the community. If you build it based on the ideas presented and carefully nurture the community and provide a means to bring users back to the community, then perhaps they will come (and hopefully come again, and again.â€
References:
Figueiredo, F.C., Eber, D.E., & Jorge, J.A. (2004). Building the World-Wide Communityof Graphic Educators. (pp. 12-13). New York, NY: ACM press. Retrieved July 23, 2007 from: http://portal.acm.org.bob.csueastbay.edu/ft_gateway.cfm?id=1186120&type=pdf&coll=Portal&dl=GUIDE&CFID=29358468&CFTOKEN=89876551
Quan-Haase, A (January, 2005). Trends in Online Learning Communities. ACM SIGGROUP Bulletin: Special Issue on Online Learning Communities, 25, 1, Retrieved July 23, 2007, from http://delivery.acm.org.bob.csueastbay.edu/10.1145/1070000/1067700/p2-quan-haase.pdf?key1=1067700&key2=6013925811&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=29500344&CFTOKEN=16749359
Andrews, D.C. (April 2002). Audience-specific online community design. Communications of the ACM, 45, Retrieved July 23, 2007, from http://delivery.acm.org.bob.csueastbay.edu/10.1145/510000/505275/p64-andrews.pdf?key1=505275&key2=0046545811&coll=Portal&dl=GUIDE&CFID=24982237&CFTOKEN=37062458
Kho, J, Kim, Y, Butler, B, & Bock, G (2007). Encouraging Participation in Virtual Communities. Communications of the ACM, 50, RetrievedJuly 23, 2007, from http://doi.acm.org.bob.csueastbay.edu/10.1145/1216016.1216023.
Lock, J. (2006). A new image: Online communities to facilitate teacher professional development. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 14, Retrieved July 24, 2007, from InterLibrary Loan (via email)
By Steven R. Isaacs
EDU 6707
Professor Datta Kaur Khalsa