Hi Paul!
Thanks for joining us. Your work is very interesting and various departments have been chatting about non-academic communities for learners at SFU. For example, Student Life and Residence and the Student Learning Commons have been thinking about what a community for learners would entail.
I have one example to share; The TechOne program at SFU Surrey created an online community (closed access) for its TechOne students (~600). It was launched last fall and its purpose is to provide opportunities for social networking and support their academic learning. For example, there are links to their courses and team information in the Course Management System, online personal planning tools (task lists, calendar), discussion forums, and profiles with tagging capabilities.
We're in the midst of tweaking the community and launching it earlier to the next group of students. (TechOne is a generally a one-year program, but students could take longer). One of the challenges we faced was perhaps in the timeliness of its launch. It wasn't until the second month of classes when students had access. So, the students may not have seen the potential benefits of the community or had little inclination or time to visit it.
The next launch will be in late June, right before students have to register for their courses. Students accepted into the TechOne program will have access to the site which will also have registration information. After registration, links to their courses will appear. The intention is to get students into the community earlier and to connect their orientation activities to the online community, thereby making it a resource and place for interaction with others.
The community serves the needs of the TechOne student, so that can vary from one to two years. However, there is discussion about how to involve TechOne alumni in the community. Not sure about that yet.
Are there more examples? Paul, where is your project at and what are your successes, challenges and after-thoughts?
Stephanie Chu
Posts made by Stephanie Chu
Thanks for your messages to-date. A thread I'm picking up is to clarify student learning communities and communities of practice or communities for professionals.
I agree that there is some overlap, but what differentiates a student learning community from a community of practice? Wenger's work focuses on the latter and Bruce and Derek have started to discuss similiarities and differences.
A notable difference is the background of the member groups. Working professionals or members of a community of practice have an area of interest that binds them. The individual members have experience and in some cases expertise to draw upon to contribute towards the community. On the other hand, if we're looking at student learning communities, students don't necessarily have the experience and expertise to draw upon. The learning community may be a vehicle to develop experience in a discipline or field, together.
A second thought is differences in self-regulated learning. As working professionals, we gauge our own levels of understanding and experience and participate in dialogue to expand and continue learning. Our motivation is likely more intrinsic.
Students in some cases are still "learning how to learn". Is it a purpose of a student learning community such as one created by an instructor or at a program level such as the Co-op community, to provide some initial scaffolds for students? For example, starting with extrinsic motivators such as required/strongly encouraged participation and helping students to see the benefits of being an active member of the community such as through a rich exchange of knowledge and knowledge-building? Is a goal, in the long run, to enable students to direct or "own" the community themselves? In other words, are student learning communities to help students with self-regulated learning in a community-environment and assist with the transition from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
I agree that there is some overlap, but what differentiates a student learning community from a community of practice? Wenger's work focuses on the latter and Bruce and Derek have started to discuss similiarities and differences.
A notable difference is the background of the member groups. Working professionals or members of a community of practice have an area of interest that binds them. The individual members have experience and in some cases expertise to draw upon to contribute towards the community. On the other hand, if we're looking at student learning communities, students don't necessarily have the experience and expertise to draw upon. The learning community may be a vehicle to develop experience in a discipline or field, together.
A second thought is differences in self-regulated learning. As working professionals, we gauge our own levels of understanding and experience and participate in dialogue to expand and continue learning. Our motivation is likely more intrinsic.
Students in some cases are still "learning how to learn". Is it a purpose of a student learning community such as one created by an instructor or at a program level such as the Co-op community, to provide some initial scaffolds for students? For example, starting with extrinsic motivators such as required/strongly encouraged participation and helping students to see the benefits of being an active member of the community such as through a rich exchange of knowledge and knowledge-building? Is a goal, in the long run, to enable students to direct or "own" the community themselves? In other words, are student learning communities to help students with self-regulated learning in a community-environment and assist with the transition from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Hello Bruce, and welcome. Thank you for sharing your experience and research findings with us.
You raise interesting points, in particular, you've noted the need for, "meaningful connection on both a personal level and philisophical/intellectual/academic level as well", which requires an effective communal communication effort. From my experience, these are factors which make grassroots communities thrive. I'm curious about your thoughts and of others, on how we, as designers or creators of student learning community spaces and activities can facilitate a communal communication effort that does not result in "artificial" interactions and where students/members exchange meaningful content?
To what extent does an academic community scaffold the development of community among learners?
I agree that initial structuring of activities and interactions such as in an academic community focuses on extrinsic motivation, and identified expectations for involvement and communication. How do we enable students to move from this to become more intrinsically motived and interact and communicate voluntarily?
You raise interesting points, in particular, you've noted the need for, "meaningful connection on both a personal level and philisophical/intellectual/academic level as well", which requires an effective communal communication effort. From my experience, these are factors which make grassroots communities thrive. I'm curious about your thoughts and of others, on how we, as designers or creators of student learning community spaces and activities can facilitate a communal communication effort that does not result in "artificial" interactions and where students/members exchange meaningful content?
To what extent does an academic community scaffold the development of community among learners?
I agree that initial structuring of activities and interactions such as in an academic community focuses on extrinsic motivation, and identified expectations for involvement and communication. How do we enable students to move from this to become more intrinsically motived and interact and communicate voluntarily?
Thank you for helping us to define student learning communities and providing some references. What strikes me when reading the posts-to-date, including Bruce's study, are questions about the level of interaction in a student learning community and how we "encourage" interaction and participation, such as through non-voluntary versus voluntary communities. How do we determine when the level of interaction is indicative of a student learning community? Are there other elements which are necessary? For example, the sense of belonging or students' seeing themselves as members?
Welcome John and thank you for sharing the Co-op community and your definition of student learning community. From what I understand, the Co-op online community provides opportunities for "interconnections" between members. In Barb's definition based on Garrison and Anderson's (2003) conceptual framework of a community of inquiry, she defined cognitive presence, social presence and teaching presence. Can you elaborate on how the Co-op community addresses the teaching (or facilitation) presence or if you have some plans in the works? Perhaps there are linkages between the f2f components of Co-operative Education and the online learning community?