Australasian Journal of Business & Social Inquiry Volume 1 Number 3 (September) 2003 <http://www.scu.edu.au/ajbsi/papers/vol1/mcmurray.pdf> Promoting communities of practice online Dr Donald McMurray School of Social Sciences Southern Cross University Australia dmcmurra@scu.edu.au Keywords: Collaborative online learning, Communities of practice, Learning communities Abstract Since first semester 1999 when five undergraduate units were offered to students completely online at Southern Cross University, there has been a steady increase in demand by traditional distance education students wishing to utilise this communication technology. Currently half of all the University s units are offered online. This paper reports on attempts to foster a community of practice concept amongst students studying business related units completely online by first identifying key elements of community and then developing specific activities to promote these in online settings. Evidence suggests that the opportunity to interact and collaborate contributes to a feeling of community, which in turn leads to richer learning experiences. The key appears to be the establishment of a flexible learning environment that allows easy access to a wide range of resources along with the opportunity to interact and collaborate with people who are in pursuit of similar goals. Introduction In the last years of the twentieth century Higher Education has been forced to respond to an unprecedented access to information and the challenge of competing in a global knowledge economy. Emerging digital technologies (e.g. e-mail, the World Wide Web and the Internet) have provided Higher Education with the tools to respond to this challenge. Coincident with the application of these e-learning technologies in university settings has been the growth of virtual communities amongst learners who are physically remote from each other. By motivating learners to collaborate and innovate, universities can play a real role in the development of future knowledge workers in organisational settings. This paper outlines strategies for promoting a community of practice concept amongst a group of learners studying the unit Organisational Communication online. The unit is 131
premised on the belief that communication is an integral and not peripheral dimension of organisational activity (Zaremba 2003, p.xi). The effectiveness of some online learning activities and the manner in which they encourage interactivity and collaboration in forging a community of practice has been established (McMurray 2001; McMurray & Dunlop 2001; McMurray 2002). Communities of practice describe informal settings in which people learn by doing. It has its epistemological roots in constructivism that assumes meaning is jointly constructed and arises out of ongoing activities of a community of learners. Here knowledge creation as well as action is fundamentally social in origin (Henning 1998). Learning here is based on the human capacity to make sense and share this meaning with someone else. In preparing initial units for online delivery, there was a repositioning of the instructor away from the role of knowledge transmitter to that of facilitator, coach and resource guide (McMurray & Lucas 2001). What was to be avoided at all costs was simply Web mounting course material, which ignores the unique capabilities of the online learning environment. At the end of each semester units were evaluated to assess the efficacy of online learning. Initial feedback (Hayden, Saenger & Parry 1999) showed that while distance learning students value the interaction with and access to the lecturer, they found collaboration with each other to be problematic, especially where it led to a shared grade. Following this there has been a deliberate attempt to establish a community of practice concept in online settings similar to that established amongst academic developers during the design phase of the University s Online Project (Ellis & Phelps 1999). The sense of community that emerged was predicated on trust which in turn was an important prerequisite to team building. More recently, McMurray (2002) found that students reported growing feelings of trust, cohesion and support as they forged their online learning communities. These perceptions were widely shared and collectively aggregate around the concept of organisational climate. Redding (1972) claimed that the climate of an organisation is more important than are the communication skills and techniques of organisational members in creating an effective organisation. Organisational climate reflects the norms, values and beliefs of the organisation s culture and provides a framework for interpreting organisational behaviour. Climate, according to Turnipseed (1988), may be an empiricist substitute for culture. It is suggested that the culture of an online community, if not co-extensive with a community of practice concept, shares many of the same attributes. According to Moran and Volkwein (1992) organisational climate is a relatively enduring characteristic of an organisation that embodies collective views of its members about their organisation with respect to autonomy, cohesion, trust, support, recognition, fairness and innovation (Table 1). Autonomy Self-determination of procedures, goals and priorities Cohesion The perception of togetherness or sharing Trust The freedom to communicate openly with the expectation that the integrity will not be violated Pressure Time demands with respect to task completion and performance standards Support Willingness to allow people learn from their mistakes without fear of reprisal Recognition The perception that contributions in the organisation are acknowledged Fairness Organisational practices are equitable Innovation Change and creativity are encouraged, including risk-taking Table 1: Moran and Volkwein (1992) organisational climate 132
Towards the end of 2002 face-to-face and online students were surveyed to ascertain perceptions of the climate of their virtual organisations. The instrument used was designed to reflect Moran and Volkwein s (1992) critical dimensions of organisational climate. Significant differences were found between the two groups with respect to cohesion, support and trust. For example, only 21% of the face-to-face students reported feelings of cohesion with the school or their fellow students as compared with 90% of online students. Similarly, almost twice as many online students felt supported in their studies as compared to internal students. Overall, the results furnish evidence for the presence of a healthy organisational climate inside the virtual organisations that was not found amongst groups studying in the conventional distance education mode. Building learning communities on the Web The rest of this paper suggests a number of activities that are designed to assist students develop key attributes of organisational climate and at the same time form a virtual community of learners through Web-based interaction and collaboration. It must be stressed, however, that online learning needs to be viewed as a process and not just a sequence of structured activities. In the spring semester 2003 the following activities, designed to develop a healthy organisational climate and promote a community of practice, were incorporated in an undergraduate unit entitled Organisational Communication. Three virtual organizations were formed and they called themselves Chameleons d Chat, the Dynamic Communicators and the Just-in-time Communicators. With the exception of the last group, which was an all female organisation, the other two exhibited a reasonable gender balance. To begin with, the students were once again invited to develop their personal home page as a prelude to forming their own virtual organisations. Communicative activities flowing out of this exercise were thought to be instrumental in building up levels of trust, cohesion and support. Adequate time must be allotted for this important community-building step (Dunlop & Scott 2001). Only then can successful collaboration take place which, in turn, can lead to the facilitation of shared meaning. The primary task of the students within each virtual organisation was to design a project of sufficient complexity to sustain their interest and effort over the course of the semester. The only additional requirements by the instructors were that each project must: focus on an aspect of organisational communication; require a team of people to facilitate the project s completion; challenge the team members to be creative; be realistic and feasible in order to conclude with a tangible outcome within the time frame of one semester. At the outset students were asked to construct a home page complete with photographs and then initiate contact with each other and begin the process of forming their virtual organisations. Within Blackboard s CourseInfo there is provision for both synchronous and asynchronous chat. Whilst a small part of the real-time chat sessions initiated by the students was used to clarify and discuss issues associated with the unit s content, the asynchronous chat room was predominately used as the vehicle for conducting and archiving their discussions towards completion of their projects. An additional task was that each project team was required to submit a monthly progress report to the instructor via the file exchange inside CourseInfo. The submission of these reports could either be a collaborative or shared responsibility amongst a team or could be a delegated task to one person. It was required that 133
each progress report should be read and agreed to by all members of the project team. Assessment of and electronic feedback on the progress reports formed the basis of instructorto-learner communication. Each progress report was required to address a specific goal and to apply organisational communication theory to evaluate the team's progress, as it worked towards completion of its project task. The brief provided by the instructors for each of the four progress reports was: Progress report 1: discuss the process of forming your team; Progress report 2: discuss the communication climate and culture within your team; Progress report 3: discuss how the team s members have individually taken on leadership roles; and Progress report 4: discuss what and how the team s members have individually developed skills over the duration of the semester, which may be useful for organisational participation in the future. Students made good use of the synchronous and asynchronous communication tools along with a range of pedagogical resources to assist in the building of a collaborative learning environment. Many cross-channel exchanges occurred between the different organisations as members explored boundaries and developed a sense of cohesion in and around their own organisation. Initially these discussions were almost exclusively social and yet the creation of this social community served as an important bridge to the formation of the academic community that was to follow. Finally, students were required to keep a personal diary where they recorded thoughts regarding their ongoing communication experiences. The prime objective here was to encourage students to reflect on their own learning and to analyse these metacognitive activities for future reference (Callaert 2002). Confidentiality and immediate feedback were key assurances. The electronic diary formed part of the assessment regime. In the past students have complained that not all contributions to team based assessment were equitable. In order to address this problem a combination of peer, self and instructor evaluation was employed. It is also thought that this combination would lead to greater collaboration amongst team members (Leader 2003). As noted earlier, the design of activities and tasks for the online learners is heavily influenced by the constructivist paradigm that features strongly in the Social Sciences discipline. Thus, the process of knowledge construction was fostered through reciprocally engaged student learning activities. With this particular unit the focus was on organising and communicating. Early in the semester the Just-in-time Communicators elected to stage a virtual presentation in real time using the Chat room for the benefit of the other groups. At a specified time each of the virtual organisations will meet in the Chat room and be shown a Powerpoint presentation on some aspect of organisational communication. Following this there will be an opportunity to pose questions to the presenters and engage in synchronous discussion around the ideas raised. This type of activity represents an attempt to simulate the activities of any business organisation but, in particular, those that operate in a global environment. Further, the virtual presentation is to span three different time zones across more than more one country. From the outset, there was a deliberate attempt to provide an environment that is intimate, inviting and authentic. If interaction and collaboration are to occur, this online environment should be protected from outside criticism and interference (Hill 2001). To illustrate the importance of this step, once the groups were formed each was given its own space within the 134
shell such that only other members of the group could gain access to the Discussion, the Virtual Chat room and the File Exchange. A common forum called Com Online was retained to facilitate communication and interaction between the groups. Learners working on assigned online tasks engage in social as well as intellectual tasks. For example, the Virtual Chat Room provides for real-time contact much of which is socially oriented. These interactive exchanges are seen to be fundamental to the process of collaboration. Further, students understand the merit in interacting with each other in this way (Newton & Ledgerwood 2000). For collaboration to be truly successful, the learning environment should be structured by the participants themselves. This includes reaching agreement about shared goals as well as the purpose of the collaborative enterprise. This problem-based interactivity within the learning environment can lead to an enhanced sense of community (Cadieux, 2002) as the following excerpts from the Virtual Chat room show: This has been a great experience and I hope you all have got as much out of it as I have. I enjoyed our community of learners, it was fun; We all developed a common bond through working collaboratively together, I wish you all the best in the future; The communication climate in our organisation encourages everyone to contribute equally so there is a high level of participation. While the online learner is seen as semi-autonomous in so far as control of the dialogue with the unit instructor it is important the instructor be more than the guide on the side. Instructor activities here include visiting the chat rooms to review the archived threads of conversation, staging teleconferences, recording audio messages and sending e-mails. Ultimately, however, the cumulative purpose of activities that take place inside the unit is to reinforce the constructivist view that organizations, including business organizations, may be seen as relationships and conversations. Conclusion The landscape continues to evolve and in many higher education institutions we have witnessed a move from faculty-centred research communities to student-centred learning communities. This paper has traced the emergence of a community of practice concept amongst students studying the unit Organisationa Communication completely online. A number of additional activities designed to enhance the learning climate of their organisations have been outlined and are to be evaluated at the conclusion of the present semester. It is concluded that the establishment of a virtual community of practice involving common goals and a desire to learn from each other are key drivers behind the success of online learning. Technology, in and of itself, does not foster collaboration. As Adams and Freeman (2000) found, the establishment of a community of practice serves the purpose of supplying the necessary human infrastructure for the joint creation of knowledge with the Web providing the technological tool. 135
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