Internet Based Learning Communities

What is a Learning CommunityOnline learning communities are groups of

learners and instructors, supported by instructional and learning resources, pursuing common knowledge-interests in an online environment. Such communities extend beyond the traditional classroom and may include corporate managers, community leaders, and members of grassroots groups.

Aspects of a learning community

Why a need for New Learning CommunitiesCommunication is the heart of all

communities. It is the most important catalyst in all on-line communities.

The need was not just for technology, but also for training, permanent institutional support, and learner preparation.

Learning communities also will restructure both technology and pedagogy to create online business management education systems that foster learning communities.

Research

What Research? -Who did it?What were there findersWho was responsible for this innovationHow did they convince schools to participate

Four Stages of Innovation

Innovation – is the idea that perceived as new by an individual or unit of adoption

Communication Channels- means by which messages get from one individual to another.

Time – is involved in diffusion in the innovation-diffusion process, innovativeness and innovation’s rate of adoption.

Social Systems – is a set of interrelated units that are engaged in joint problem solving to accomplish a common goal.

Learning Community InitiativeFaculty Interest in learning communityLeadership role for the learning communityFaculty working collaborativeGeneral education requirements open to

learning community

Funding and Resources

Research ProjectsGrantsInternal ResourcesStipends for instructorsRetreat and conferences

Faculty Support

Planning and DevelopmentCollaborationTeam-teachingInstructional Strategies

Assessment for Learning Community

Evaluation and access data- Knowing in real time what is working and what isn't greatly increases the likelihood a learning community program will thrive and have tremendous success.

Listening to all stakeholders associated with the learning community.

Innovation Decision ProcessKnowledge Stage – individual is exposed to the online

learning communities existence and understanding of how it functions.

Persuasion – forms a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward the online learning communities.

Decision – individual engages in activities that lead to a choice to adopt or reject the online learning communities.

Implementation – puts the online learning communities into use.

Confirmation – seek reinforcement for an online learning communities-decision already made but may reverse the decision.

DevelopmentSome of the development issues are:

How do people select virtual learning communities and how do they make use of them for learning?

How do voluntary members of virtual learning communities differ from those who are assigned to learning communities in formal educational contexts?

How do virtual communities recruit and maintain members?

What are the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful virtual learning communities?

Intended AudienceThe audience of a learning community can vary based upon the information that’s been communicate in that particular community.

Instructors/educators StudentsBusiness workersPeople with disabilitiesCorporations and OrganizationsSpecial interest Groups

THE DEVELOPMENT OF VIRTUAL

LEARNING COMMUNITIES

Educational

Experience

Cognitive

Presence

Social Presence

Teaching

Presence

Supporting discourse

Setting climate

Sele

ctin

g

Con

tent

Timeline 1994

TeleEducation NB, implemented DOS-based learning management system. 1995

Develop WeBWorK (a free Perl-based system for delivering individualized homework problems over the web) for use in mathematics instruction.

1997 Develops the "Interactive Learning Network" ILN 1.5, and installs it at

several academic institutions. The ILN was the first e-learning system of its kind to leverage an install on top of a relational database.

2000CyberLearning Labs, Inc. is founded. Its primary product, the ANGEL Learning Management System (LMS).

2003 WebCT announces over 6 million students users and 40,000 instructor users teaching 150,000 courses per year at 1,350 institutions in 55 countries.

Commercialization

ProductionManufactoringPackagingMarketingDistribution

Rate of Adoption S-CurveInnovators: Education Leadership team

Early Adopters: School Districts and Universities

Early Majority: Teachers and Faculty

Late Majority: Businesses and Corporation communities

Laggards: Blended Learning Communities

Attributes that affect the rate of adoption According to Rogers (2008), it is the

perception of these attributes that has an impact on the adoption rate.

Relative advantageCompatibilityComplexity Trialability Observability

Attributes that affect the rate of adoptionRelative advantage - training sites use the metaphor of a virtual classroom,

and the methodology follows the model of a virtual lecture.

- Learning is delivered directly to the learner.- Increase both their learning and flexibility.

Compatibility- Students in the face-to-face learning environment is

more likely to have the assimilator learning-style, whereas students in the on-line Internet-based learning environment were more likely to have the converger learning-style.

Attributes that affect the rate of adoptionComplexity - Online learning communities are groups of people bonded

together entirely through technology. These communities never convene physically - their interactions and learning begin, and are carried out entirely through technology (on the web, through conference calls, via video conferencing, etc.).

Trailability - Online learning community is a public or private destination

on the Internet that addresses the learning needs of its members by facilitating peer-to-peer learning. Through social networking and computer-mediated communication, people work as a community to achieve a shared learning objective and experiments.

Attributes that affect the rate of adoptionObservability - Identifies the knowledge and measurements

of online learning communities.

- Online learning community observers must consider a variety of factors related to people, group processes, and technology, if they are to design and orchestrate online environments that inspire collaborative learning.

The attributes that are most related to online learning communities

Complexity - Online learning communities are groups of people bonded

together entirely through technology. These communities never convene physically - their interactions and learning begin, and are carried out entirely through technology (on the web, through conference calls, via video conferencing, etc.)

Observability - Identifies the knowledge and measurements of online learning

communities.

- Online learning community observers must consider a variety of factors related to people, group processes, and technology, if they are to design and orchestrate online environments that inspire collaborative learning.

The sequence of Change Agent Roles in Learning CommunitiesTo develop a need for change.To establish an information exchange

relationshipTo diagnose problemsTo create an intent to change in the clientTo translate an intent into actionTo stabilize adoption and prevent

discontinuanceTo achieve a terminal relationship

The need for learning communitiesTeachers in a school and its administrators

continuously seek and share learning and then act on what they learn.

To enhance their effectiveness as students and professionals

Learning communities is seen as a powerful staff development approach and a potent strategy for school change and improvement.

Learning communities can help teachers become more effective, and student outcomes increase - a goal upon which we can all agree.

Centralized & Decentralized suggestions for learning communities

Centralized - control of decisions - top/down diffusion for users of learning

community - Stakeholders decides which learning

community - Learning communities-centered approach

stressing the need. - Local adaption and re-invention of learning communities as they diffuse among

adapters

Decentralized Diffusion SystemsDecentralized - client control by local system - peer diffusion of learning communities through horizontal networks - learning communities come from experimentation that are not proficient, who often are users - local units decide which learning community

should diffuse on the basis of their informal evaluations. - an evaluated degree of local adaptation as they diffuse among adopters.

Types of Innovation-DecisionsOptional-innovation- decisions, which

identifies the choices to adopt or reject learning communities that are not made by an individual independent of the decisions other members of a system.

Collective innovation-decisions, will identify the opportunity to adopt or reject online learning communities that are made by consensus among the members of a system.

(Cont’) Types of Innovation-DecisionsAuthority innovation-decisions, which gives

an opportunity to adopt or reject online learning communities that are made by a relatively few individuals in a system who possess control, high social status, or technical expertise.

The Roles of ChampionThe champion is a charismatic individual who

throws his or her weight behind this innovation, which is online learning communities, thus overcoming indifference or resistance that this idea may provoke in an organization.

Online learning communities can address the learning needs of its members by facilitating peer-to-peer learning. Through social networking and computer-mediated communication, people work as a community to achieve a shared learning objective.

Defining the Need for Learning Communities

Learning communities have been shown to increase student retention and academic achievement, increase student involvement and motivation, improve students and enhance student intellectual development.

Students involved in learning communities become more intellectually mature and responsible for their own learning and develop the capacity to care about the learning of their peers.

Faculty members involved in learning communities that facilitate cross-faculty collaboration are expanding their repertoire of teaching approaches, continually revising their course content, and acquiring new scholarly interests.

(Cont’) Defining the needLearning community programs also address a variety of societal issues

such as the increasing fragmentation of information and student alienation toward participation and engagement.

A variety of approaches are used to build these learning communities, with all intended to restructure the students� time, credit, and learning experiences to build community among students, between students and their teachers, and among faculty members and disciplines.

Teaching in learning communities often requires employing new approaches to collaboration with colleagues, course design, classroom management, and assessment, all of which must be addressed in regular workshops, brown bags, retreats, small group and one-to-one conversations, and written dialogues.

References Barab, S.; Duffy, T. (2000). "From Practice Fields to Communities of Practice". D.

Jonassen & S. Land (Eds.), Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments. LEA. http://inkido.indiana.edu/research/onlinemanu/papers/commun.pdf.

Bryant, S. L., Forte, A., & Bruckman, A. (2005). Becoming Wikipedian: transformation of participation in a collaborative online encyclopedia. Conference on Supporting Group Work. Proceedings of the 2005 international ACM SIGGROUP conference on Supporting group work, Florida.

Hill, J., Raven A., (2000) ITFORUM PAPER #46 - Online Learning Communities: If You Build Them, Will They Stay? Posted on ITFORUM October 10, 2000 - http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/paper46/paper46.htm.

Kaplan, S. (2002). Building Communities -- Strategies for Collaborative Learning, ASTD's Source for E-Learning - http://www.astd.org/LC/2002/0802_kaplan.htm

(Cont’) References Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together

in community. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.

Resta, P & LaFerriere, T. (2007). Technology in Support of Collaborative Learning, Educational Psychology Review, 19:65–83.

Riel, M., & Polin, L. (2004). Online learning communities: Common ground and critical differences in designing technical environments. In Barab, R. Kling & J. Gray H. (Eds.), Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning (pp. 16–50). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.