Supporting Productive Engagement in Online

CommunitiesLindsay, Dani and Laura

Aims

• To consider which online communities students use and how they engage with these communities.

• To explore how we can support students to engage productively in relevant online communities.

• To consider how we might develop our own subject knowledge, as tutors, in the area of online communities.

Learning Outcomes

• Participants will understand the importance of supporting productive engagement in online communities.

• Participants will be aware of a variety of ways of supporting student engagement in online communities.

• Participants will have identified which areas of their own subject knowledge need to be developed in order to support student’s engagement in online communities.

Section 1

What should we be aiming for?

What are we doing at the moment?

What should we reflect on ?

What is productive engagement ?

Developed from The Strategy for Enhancing the Student Experience - Digital and information literacy. Raftery :2010

What are the features of productive engagement?

What should a digitally literate, student (or tutor) be capable of when productively engaged in online communities?

Suggestions?

From the Brookes Graduate Attributes List

Engaging productively in relevant online communities- selecting and using appropriate communication technologies for group

work- knowing when and how to maintain appropriate levels of privacy in

drafting and publishing to individuals and groups- effectively managing group interactions using multiple technologies- selecting and using technologies to represent and synthesise individual

and group knowledge/learning- communicating effectively online[1]- developing fluency and command of ‘voice’ in online authoring and

publishing

When it comes to digital literacy how productively engaged in online communities are we? We sent out a survey monkey link to all students on this course.

Personal use of online communities

How do we engage with students through online medium

What online communities do students use… we think

The response was limited - 9

Survey results

What should we conclude from this?

To develop digitally literate students capable of productively engaging in online communities..

We must reassess ourselves

Are we digital natives or digital immigrants?

(Prensky 2001)

intel.com

Section 2

How might we develop our own subject knowledge, as tutors, in the area of online communities?

What are the barriers to our participation in online communities?

Fear of:• Invasion of privacy

•Public criticism

Lack of:•Time (knowledge sharing and creation)

•Self-confidence

•Knowledgeo What’s out thereo Overwhelming amount of optionso Where to start?

Are our fears real?

Are our fears real?http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/conf/olkc/archive/oklc3/papers/id78.pdf

•posts may not beo importanto accurate o relevant

“Fear to lose face”

Correia, A, M, R, , Paulos, A and Mesquita, A. (2010) “Virtual Communities of Practice: Investigating Motivations and Constraints in the Processes of Knowledge Creation and Transfer” Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management Volume 8 Issue 1 (pp11 -20), available online at www.ejkm.com

Alexander Ardichvili, Vaughn Page, Tim Wentling, (2003) "Motivation and barriers to participation in virtual knowledge-sharing communities of practice", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 7 Iss: 1, pp.64 - 77

Where to start?

Know yourselfhttp://projects.exeter.ac.uk/cascade/digitalcurriculum/teachingresources/whattypeofdigitallearnerareyou/

digitallearnerquiz.php#.UxcD7PnV9cQ

Google +

http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/staffcourses/learning_teaching/index.html

Section 3

Exploring how we might support students to engage productively in online communities.

Group Work

In your groups, please discuss the online community on your handout.

- How do you/ your students currently engage with this online community?

- How might you develop engagement in this online community with your students in your own discipline?

Jigsaw

Twitter

Blogging

Wikis

Instagram

Moodle discussion

YouTube

Things to consider...

• Because of the huge part students play in online communities, outcomes may be those that the students desire rather than what the tutor originally intended. (Salmon, 2004)

• ‘Curriculum on the fly’ (Doneman, 1997)

Plenary

Please consider how you might alter your practice in light of this session.

After the session, please share your ideas in Google+.

ReferencesAlexander Ardichvili, Vaughn Page, Tim Wentling, (2003) "Motivation and barriers to participation in virtual knowledge-sharing communities

of practice", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 7 Iss: 1, pp.64 - 77

Correia, A, M, R, , Paulos, A and Mesquita, A. (2010) “Virtual Communities of Practice: Investigating Motivations and Constraints in the Processes of Knowledge Creation and Transfer” Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management Volume 8 Issue 1 (pp11 -20), available online at www.ejkm.com

Prensky, M. (2001) ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants’ On the Horizon. MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001 anavailable on line at www.marcprensky.com

Raftery ( 2010) The Strategy for Enhancing the Student Experience - Digital and information literacy. Available online at www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/sese/#

Salmon G (2004) e- tivities: The Key to Active Online Learning. London: Routledge.