Topic 3: Learning in communities – networked collaborative learning

 

Richard E. West & Gregory S. Williams, defines the characteristics of a learning community as:


 



I will try to operationalise a learning community according to the four characteristics that serve as the boundaries for defining a community.  I believe these four boundaries overlap, but they represent distinctive features of possible community structures.

 

A great example of a learning community is the ONL course and especially in our PBL groups we are a group of educators who share common academic goals and attitudes to learn and share knowledge around online learning.

Firstly, we need access, we need to be present or have access to this community. For us in the ONL PBL groups this was not an issue but not all the students at university have connectivity. How can we support them, how can we adapt the learning community to allow all students to participate and not be left behind?

We all understand that we should have a clear and well-understood goal and vision. During our connecting week we already established the goals and how we will achieve the goal.  Ground rules were set and thereafter there was no conflicts and change from the rules. We all knew what, how and when we need to do what. The group leaders had meetings outside the PBL meetings to plan the success of the PBL meetings. We also used differed platforms to add our thoughts in a collaborative way on the weekly topics. We can also apply this in our daily face to face classes as well as in the online virtual classes.  The more students interact with each other the better they build a process to achieve their learning objectives and then ensure success.

It is very important to have good relationships in the learning community. If we have a favourable working environment, have the support of all the group members, can trust each other and encourage each other we are already halfway there.

The most basic way to define the boundaries of a learning community is by what the members do, what are the functions of the members? This includes the involvement of the members, physical and psychological energy.

I allude to Richard E. West and Gregory S Williams in their article: “I don’t think that word means what you think it means”: A proposed framework for defining learning communities.

“Because learning communities are so important to student learning and satisfaction, clear definitions that enable sharing of best practices are essential. By clarifying our understanding and expectations about what we hope students will be able to do, learn, and become in a learning community, we can more precisely identify what our ideal learning community would be like and distinguish this ideal from the less effective/efficient communities existing in everyday life and learning.?”


Comments

Popular Posts