Building Community Through “Communities of Practice” and

“Learning Communities”

Jeffrey D. Samuels, Goucher Collegejsamuels@goucher.edu

Chadia Abras, Goucher College (in absentia)cabras@goucher.edu

©Copyright Jeffrey Samuels and Chadia Abras, 2006.

Part I – Learning Community

History 297 (Latin American History II)An idyllic course to teach: 5 students, all seniors,

all Latin American Studies or History majors and minors; met twice a week face to face on Tuesdays and Thursdays; 2 were former students; 1 was a student technology manager; 1 was proficient in Spanish.

Crosby Grant (internal) supported integration of technology into the course to significantly alter the way it was taught.

“Learning Community” akin to Community of Interest (not the more widespread definition)

Hybrid or Blended course modality; allows for a seminar approach at the 200 level, normally reserved for the 300 level.

Three specific aspects of technology included purposeful and targeted pedagogical use of the discussion boards in Blackboard, a Javascript timeline application, and a course wiki.

Tenets of the “Learning Community incorporated into the course:– Instructor as “facilitator”– Students as “participants”– Frequent communication– Facilitator to participant, participant to

participant, and participant to material– Transparent assessment (rubrics)– Facilitator shares in assignment

responsibilities

The “back end” of the course design:Previous coursework on teaching online

courses effectivelyQuality MattersHistory Department assessment criteria

compiled as part of a large self-study within the Academic Division – delineated goals for the course that will need to be measured

Site Visits

http://www.qualitymatters.org/documents.htmhttp://timeline.cer.jhu.eduhttp://blackboard.goucher.edu/

– Timelines– Wiki– Types and purposes of discussion topics– Assessment rubrics for students to follow and

submit (optionally)

Part II – Community of Practice

Community of Practice – why?• Lack of established community in our region for

similar centers for teaching and learning• Interest among a core group for collaboration and

interaction• Annual CTLT Conference with a large local and

regional following• Desire to use the latest conference (May, 2005)

as a launching pad for a sustained momentum• Desire to have an overall framework for some of

the CTLT’s programs, to which colleagues are invited.

Initially, we consulted with Dr. Chadia Abras, our Director of Distance Learning and a scholar who specializes in online communities.

The CTLT offered the services of our Graduate Intern, who also did coursework under Dr. Abras’ direction and as an independent study, examined the scholarship and practices.

The community also grew out of the last CTLT Conference theme, “Group Dynamics and Collaborative Learning,” and from a day-long workshop we did with our keynote speaker who specializes in high-performance culture.

Our goal: to integrate the tenets developing a learning community, focusing on measures of sociability, with established protocols for action research and surveying.

This was approached by multistage processes, as illustrated by the next 2 slides.

Community-centered development approach

assessing the needs of the community

nurture the community

test sociability

and usability

select technology plan for sociability

test prototype

Evaluate

The circular nature of action research

diagnosing

specifyinglearning

evaluating

actionplanning

actiontaking

Initial SurveyCommunity of Practice_OI.htm

The “back end” of our Community of Practice

Definition

A community of practice (CoP) is a group of professionals who come together in pursuit of solutions to shared goals and interests. In this pursuit, they employ the same practices, share the same ideas, work with the same tools, and use the same language (McDermott, 1999; Preece, 2004; Wenger, 1998).

Domains of CoPs

Wenger (1998) describes three important dimensions to CoP: – i) a domain of knowledge that is common to the

members of the group,– ii) a community of people bound together into a

social entity, in which they interact, build relationships and trust,

– iii) a practice in which the members develop a shared repertoire, resources, tools, and build an accumulated knowledge of the community (Allee, 2000).

We added:– iv) the software, tools, and technologies that

facilitate the groups interactions, stores their knowledge, and disseminate it in a logical, comprehensible manner.

Social Theory of Practice

The components of a social theory of learning include the following:Meaning: a way of talking about our (changing) ability

– individually and collectively – to experience our life and the world as meaningful.

Practice: a way of talking about a shared historical and social recourses, frameworks, and perspectives that can sustain mutual engagement in action.

Community: a way of talking about the shared historical configurations in which our enterprises are defined as worth pursuing and our participation is recognizable as competence.

Identity: a way of talking about how learning changes who we are and creates personal histories of becoming in the context of our communities. (Wenger, 1998, p. 5)

What’s Next?

• Distinguish between “CoP” and “CoI”• Study participation rates• Assess quality of participation• Assess roles within the Community (owners,

facilitators, “fans,” lurkers)• Determine when it is time to move to the next

stage in the circular cycle• Continue to involve CoP/I participants in other

CTLT activities• Move toward determining our next Annual

Conference theme as an outgrowth of the Community

• Investigate other communities, both successful and not-yet-successful

Thank you!

Contact information:Jeffrey D. SamuelsGoucher Collegejsamuels@goucher.edu

Handout can be downloaded at:http://faculty.goucher.edu/jsamuels/merlot-samuels-abras.pdf