We spent two weeks on the topic ‘learning in communities’.  For the last three days I was debating what
to put in my blog.  To my surprise, the
more I think about the topic, the more I realise that I know very little, and
some issues are confusing.  Was I a
social loafer these past two weeks? 

What is a learning community? The scenario says that we should not fall
back into the group-work mode from school. 
But most of the questions in my mind also apply to ‘learning in
groups’.  The same questions come up: how
big should a community/group be; how should groups be chosen; how should groups
be assessed; and so on.  So, what does
learning in communities mean?  To answer
this, I define the concepts as I understand them:

What is a community?  A community
is a group of people whose aim it is to investigate or learn about a certain
topic.  In a university environment, it
is the cohort of students that registered for the same module.

This is a forced community.  They
have the same curriculum and, furthermore, their outcomes are all the
same.  This community is diverse, and the
only common thread through them is that they should have passed the same
prerequisites. The community is also unknown to the facilitator.  So, if we incorporate community work into a
curriculum, where and how do we start? 

Obstacles/hurdles in the way:

• I am restricted by time.
• I need to find a way to engage everyone in the
  community – no loafing.
• How do I build the community work into the
  individual grading/assessment?
• How do I become an
  efficient facilitator?
• How do I train
  tutors?
• How do I make sure that every member of the
  community feels safe, e.g. that they have a voice?
• How do I force effective collaboration?

So, is a community a group? By nature it is a group; the only difference is that they are working online, communicating with each other via the Internet (if it is distance learning), and that some digital tools are added to enhance online learning.    ‘An online learning environment reflects a “group-centered” interaction pattern versus an “authority-centered pattern” of a face-to-face environment’ (Garrisson, 2019; Lobel, 2005). 

Hopefully Topic 4 will shed more light on how to
shift from the traditional ‘face-to-face’ interaction to a collaborative
community that includes communication and community learning.

Lobel, M., M. Neubauer, and R. Swedburg. Selected Topics From a Matched Study Between a Face-to-Face Section and a Real-Time Online Section of a University Course. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning 6(2): 2005. Online: http://www.irrodl.org/content/v6.2 /lobel.html.

GARRISON, Randy. ONLINE COLLABORATION PRINCIPLES. Online Learning, [S.l.], v. 10, n. 1, mar. 2019. ISSN 2472-5730. Available at: <https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/1768>. Date accessed: 21 nov. 2019. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.24059/olj.v10i1.1768.