Community (of practice) in course environment – fantasy, rarity or reality?

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I have been lucky to have worked in a community of practice (Wenger, 2011) when I was a PhD student and young post-doctoral researcher. It was fantastic to be engaged in collective learning in developing our departmental practices, teaching and research. We had shared passion in one or all the domains we shared. Much of my learning took place without intentional effort just by participating in collective activities; by being invited to participate, by been giving voice and responsibility; by sharing my enthusiasm; by developing teaching collaboratively and teaching collaboratively and by collective writing and generous commenting and information sharing. Engaging in the activities of the community of practice molded me; turned me from a student into a researcher and educator with particular values and understandings.  I realized how much I had learned only when I left the organization and entered another one where I put all my learning into practice. 

Reflecting back on my experiences made me wonder have I actually ever participated in a community of practice in an e-learning course, or any other course for that matter, or is it only a fantasy. According to Siemens (2002) interaction on online courses seldom reaches the level of a community where people would be engaged in concerted effort to reach a common purpose but rather remain on the level of communication (discussion) or collaboration where people work together. This seems to be my experience in online courses but also in other courses that I have taken. This further seems to my understanding of what takes place in the face-to-face courses I teach and the courses provided by my university in general if I have heard my students correctly. The students’ complaints related to face-to-face teaching I have come across seem to be rather similar to the frustration experienced by students in online courses. In online courses students are unhappy about the unequal division of labour in teams, lack of shared goals, difficulty of communication and group organization and grading where individual and group grades and not fairly balanced (Capdeferro and Romero, 2012). All issues too familiar from my interactions with our students. Thus, I feel that the issue at hand is not with the online format of the teaching but rather in the way our students engage with their studies and the type of learning culture we have created in Finland. While you can support the formation of collaboration and community (see Brindley, Blaschke and Walti, 2009), the rather individualistic take a lot of students have towards their education combined with the freedom of choice to show up or not to show up, to take this course or that course, to pass the programme in time or not to pass in time (Finnish system) create a situation of fragmentation and lacking sense of community and student cohort. When that is combined with the differences in motivation, time resources and interests among the students, creating true learning community in course contexts becomes a rarity, if not fantasy, rather than reality. A lot more needs to change than course designs and supportive strategies for community building.


References

Capdeferro, N. & Romero, M. (2012). Are online learners frustrated with collaborative learning experiences?. The International review of research in open and distance learning, 13(2), 26-44.

Brindley, J., Blaschke, L. M. & Walti, C. (2009). Creating effective collaborative learning groups in an online environment. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(3)

Siemens, G. (2002).  Interaction. E-Learning Course. October 8, 2002. Retrieved May 19, 2008, from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/Interaction.htm

Wenger, E. (2011). Communities of practice: A brief introduction.

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