Creating Learning Connections via an Online Community of Practice

The Mind Lab by Unitec | 2016

Creating learning connections via an online community of practice: a case study

Darcy Vo- The Mind Lab by Unitec

Presentation from National Learning and Teaching Conference 2016

The Mind Lab by Unitec | 2016The Mind Lab by Unitec | 2016

Outline

● Background of the study

● Methods

● Results

● Discussion and Conclusion


Background of the study

Wenger’s (1998) communities of practice

Communities

of Practice

Joint enterprise


Online Communities of Practice

deepen knowledge

creating new understanding

( Wang, 2010; Tseng & Kuo, 2014; Hou,2015; McLoughlin & Lee, 2010)

Online communities

of Practice

Joint enterprise


Mutual Engagement

Communities

of Practice

Joint enterprise


Research aim

To investigate learner’s perceptions of the impact of an online CoP

participant learning

Mutual engagement

Learner-learner online interactions


Research questions

Overarching questionWhat is the impact of the online community of practice on participant learning?

Sub questions● What is the impact of the online interactions on participant

learning?● What are the barriers to the online interactions?● How likely will the participants continue the online

interaction in an online community of practice?


● Background context

● Participants

● Methods

Methods


● DCL postgraduate program dedicated to enhancing digital literacy capability and the implementation of contemporary practice in the teaching profession.

The Mind Lab Context


Participants

● Student cohorts from 4 intakes (full time teaching, part-time study)

● All enrolled students join their relevant community (TML G+)


Methods

An electronic survey questionnaire

Exclusion criteria● Disagreeing to proceed● No to any of the three elements

Total responses after exclusion are 103.

TML G+

Domain(s) of interest


Results

The online community of practice

● Domain(s) of interest

● Interact online in any way

● Utilise shared resources


Impacts on Learning

● Positive for most questions

● Responses to negative phrased question is consistent with others

● The highest positive responses related to concepts


Impacts on Learning

Some comments

“Shares ideas of practice in different levels I don't teach”

“Being kept up to date on latest research”

“Exposed to new ideas”

“It takes me directions I wouldn't have thought of otherwise”


Barriers to Online Interaction

● The most significant barrier was feeling uncomfortable interacting online

● G+ platform also hascreated some issues


Barriers to Online InteractionUncomfortable to interact online

“I am worried about looking stupid in some of the things I would say because I have so little knowledge of all this”

“Feel too shy to post mostly”

“I find it hard to share as I am not use to to putting my ideas out in a forum that everyone can comment on. It has taken a bit of courage to put myself out there”


Barriers to Online InteractionIssues with G+

“It’s not user friendly, too hard to re-locate posts on G+ too busy, too jumpy when scrolling”

“I think the quantity of posting that came through was huge and it is important to filter what would be relevant and what would not”

“Some people post so often that the comments/posts of others are easily lost or go unnoticed”


Sustained engagement

High percentage of respondents are likely or very likely to extend their social exchanges on other online communities


Discussion● Positive impacts on participant learning, especially in relation to

concepts

● Considerations for online course designers:

- Preparing for learners to participate online

- Address the issues of the platform


Limitation of the study

● lack of triangulation of methods.

● based on student perceptions

● focused on only one of the three dimensions of a community of practice.


Future directions

● Study all three elements of an online CoP on participant learning

● Collect data from different resources

● Robust tools to measure the impact


Reference

Hou, H.(2015). What makes an online community of practice work? A situated study of Chinese student teachers’ perceptions of online professional.Teaching and Teacher Education,46, 6-16.

McLoughlin, C., & Lee, M. J. W. (2010). Developing an online community to promote engagement and professional learning for pre-service teachers using social software tools. Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 12(1), 17.

Moore, M. G. (1989). Editorial: Three types of interaction. American Journal of Distance Education,3 (2), 1–7.


Tseng, F. C., & Kuo, F. Y. (2014). A study of social participation and knowledge sharing in the teachers’ online professional community of practice. Computers and Education, 72, 37–47. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.10.005

Wang, L. (2010). Integrating communities of practice in e-portfolio assessment: Effects and experiences of mutual assessment in an online course. Internet and Higher Education, 13(4), 267–271. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2010.07.002

Wenger, E.(1998).Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press.

Wenger, E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems.Organization,7(2), 225-246.

http://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.10.005

http://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2010.07.002