Designing Online Communities ... on a Shoestring Budget

Describe an offline group to which you belonged that raised new

questions, opened doors, or set a new learning agenda for you. How did it run? How did you connect?

Source: John D. Smith, CATS 2006

Describe an offline group to which you belonged that was an utter

failure – that “died on the vine.” What went wrong? What issues did that organization face [and

possibly not resolve?]

Now for the bad news…

• Technology can’t build or save communities.

• Online communities are more than just a conference or a listserv.

• Community comes before [or in tandem with] the technology.

Source: John D. Smith, CATS 2006

Our goals today ...

• Discover the nuts and bolts of communities.

• Discover the nuts and bolts of online communities.

• Learn how to create our own online communities ... cheaply.

• DO ALL OF THIS IN ENGLISH!

The Rules of Community Design

How to ensure that your hard work as a community builder will

actually benefit your students

A Happy Discovery

• I recently stumbled across something called “Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.”

• First published by the American Association of Higher Education in 1987

Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education

• Encourage contact between students and faculty.

• Develop reciprocity and cooperation between students.

• Use active learning techniques.

• Give prompt feedback.

• Emphasize time-on-task.

• Communicate high expectations.

• Respect diverse talents and ways of learning.

Source: Palloff and Pratt 2002, p. 19

The Community-Building Bible• Community Building on

the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities by Amy Jo Kim

• ISBN: 0201874849• List Price: $29.99 ($23.99

at Amazon and BN)• Free excerpts at

http://www.naima.com/community/

Nine Timeless Design Strategies

1. Define and articulate your PURPOSE

2. Build flexible, extensible gathering PLACES

3. Create meaningful and evolving member PROFILES

4. Design for a range of ROLES

5. Develop a strong LEADERSHIP program

6. Encourage appropriate ETIQUETTE

7. Promote cyclic EVENTS

8. Integrate the RITUALS of community life

9. Facilitate member-run SUBGROUPS

Case Study: Bamafan

• Needs:– Email list for fans of the

Crimson Tide

• Solution:– LISTSERV list

• BUT, I forgot to establish etiquette rules up front

• I AM STILL SUFFERING THE CONSEQUENCES!

6. Encourage Appropriate ETIQUETTE

• Figure out:– What the rules are.– Who will be responsible for enforcing the

rules.

• Let your students know the rules, and the consequences of breaking those rules, as soon as possible.

• For some great netiquette guides, go to Yahoo and search for “netiquette.”

Communities of Practice

Yeah, I know. CoPs seem like the latest education fad. But there really is something to

this.

What are Communities of Practice?

CoPs are groups of people who – Share a passion for something they

know how to do.– Interact regularly to learn how to do it

better.

Source: Etienne Wenger, Cultivating Communities of Practice

Why Focus on CoPs?

• Help with challenges• Access to expertise• Confidence• Fun with colleagues• Meaningful work

• Personal Development• Reputation• Professional identity• Network• Marketability

• Problem solving• Time saving• Knowledge sharing• Synergies across units• Reuse of resources

• Strategic capabilities• Keeping abreast• Innovation• Retention of talents• New strategies

Source: Etienne Wenger, Cultivating Communities of Practice

Short-Term Value Long-Term Value

Mem

bers

Org

an

izati

on

What Elements to Develop?

• Domain– The definition of the area of shared inquiry and

the shared issues.

• Community– The relationships among the members and the

sense of belonging.

• Practice– The body of knowledge, methods, stories,

cases, tools, and documents.

Source: Etienne Wenger, Cultivating Communities of Practice

Where To Start?

• Set a strategic context– A strategic context lets communities

find a legitimate place in the organization

• Steps– Articulate a strategic value proposition– Identify critical educational problems– Articulate need to leverage knowledge

Source: Etienne Wenger, Cultivating Communities of Practice

Blah Blah Blah

• Just do a search for: cultivating communities of practice quick start up guide

• This is a free PDF that will get you started.

Whataboutthe

tech?

Bring on the Technology!

The nuts and bolts of online communities

What Is An Online Community?

• A unified body of individuals who share the same common interests.

• Online Communities are different, though, because they:– Break down the barriers

of distance and time.– Make it easier for like-

minded people to get together.

– Can offer anonymity.

Four Types of Online Communities

1. Geographic, defined by a physical location like a city or region. 

2. Demographic, defined by age, gender, race, or nationality.

3. Topical, defined by shared interest, like a fan club, hobby group, or professional organization. 

4. Activity-based, defined by a shared activity, like shopping, investing, playing games, making music, or taking a class.

Subtypes of Online Communities

• Asynchronous (“not live”)– Messages are stored somewhere and

community members read and respond to the messages on their own schedules.

– Best examples: email, newsgroups, Blackboard/WebCT

• Synchronous (“live”)– Communication is real time.– Best example: AOL chat rooms / AIM.

Asynchronous Communities

• PLUSSES– EASY to use.

– Usually doesn’t require the community members to have any special software or training.

– More deliberation in the community’s communications.

– Not synchronous.

– Requires us to change our pedagogy.

• MINUSES– Requires a “master

of the house.”– “Phone Tag” – it is

like conducting a conversation using voice mail.

– Not synchronous.– Requires us to

change our pedagogy.

Synchronous Communities

• PLUSSES– Live, real-time

communication.– High “bells and

whistle” factor – it looks impressive.

– Requires us to change our pedagogy.

• MINUSES– Additional software –

and training in how to use that software – may be required.

– Fear factor is high.– Scheduling is a

nightmare.– “If you aren’t on the

bus, you’re off the bus.”– Requires us to change

our pedagogy.

Why Is This Important?

• Online communities have existed since the early 1970’s [Usenet/NNTP.]

• But, it is only within the last couple of years that K-12 and higher ed have seriously begun using online communities as teaching tools.

The BIG Picture

• There is a HUGE focus on how many schools are offering online courses.

• The real focus, in my humble opinion, should be on how many schools are offering Web-enabled courses – real-word courses supported by online content.

The Even BIGGER Picture

• I can’t imagine anyone in this room moving from teaching in a bricks and mortar classroom to teaching entirely online … yet.

• What you’re more likely to do is appropriate some of the Internet’s existing community tools and incorporate them into your existing classroom.

• The ultimate end product here is a real-world classroom enhanced by online communities.

Two Forms of Online “Teaching”

1. “Shovelware”Faculty dump all their material online, and the students weed through the material on the own, completely isolated.

2. “Learning Communities”Students participated in Instructor-guided, group learning as part of a Community of Practice.

Why Learning Communities?

“The online re-creation of the face-to-face classroom can be a dismal failure for both faculty and students. A … comment in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (Carnavale, 2000b) indicated that students find nothing more boring than reading screen after screen of text when an instructor is attempting to re-create a lecture online.” (Palloff and Pratt 2002, p 12)

So What DOES Work?

• “When we ask students to evaluate the effectiveness of their online learning experience, it is the ability to engage in asynchronous discussions with their peers that they value most.” (p 10)

• “Unlike in the face-to-face classroom, in online distance education attention needs to be paid to developing a sense of community in the group of participants in order for the learning process to be successful.” (p. 20)

More from Palloff and Pratt

“The transition to the cyberspace classroom can be successfully made if attention is paid to several key areas: ensuring access to and familiarity with the technology in use; establishing guidelines and procedures that are relatively loose and free-flowing and generated with significant input from participants; striving to achieve maximum participation and ‘buy-in’ from the participants; promoting collaborative learning; and creating a triple loop in the learning process to enable participants to reflect on their learning, themselves as learners, and the learning process.” (p. 26)

Don’t Celebrate Yet

• “Working online certainly takes more time than teaching face-to-face. However, that time is well spent if students are taking responsibility for the learning process.” (p. 25)

• “Teach students about online learning. Instructors and academic institutions assume that when students enter the online classroom, they will intuitively know what online teaching is about and how to learn in an online environment. What we have found, however, is that students need to be oriented to the online classroom and taught how to learn online.” (p. 30)

Tools of the Trade

Software you can use to create asynchronous and

synchronous online communities … CHEAPLY!

The Biggest Secret

• You really don’t need ANY special software or hardware to create a really good asynchronous online community (although software and hardware is available that will help you take your community to the next level).

• The number one asynchronous community-building tool? EMAIL!

Creating Basic Asynchronous Email Communities

• The simplest way is to use “groups” in your email program’s address book, but you should only do this if you have less than 10 people in you community.

• Problem #1: EVERYONE IN THE COMMUNITY HAS TO UPDATE HIS OR HER ADDRESS BOOK WHEN SOMEONE JOINS OR LEAVES THE COMMUNITY. This is MADNESS!

• Problem #2: If the community becomes too big (more than 10 people), it becomes unmanageable.

Simple, Moderated Email Communities

• One person – the “moderator” – maintains the list of community email addresses in his or her address book.

• All of the community’s email is first sent to the moderator who then forwards it to the rest of the community.

• Problem: This is one heck of a lot of work, especially if the community is either large or “active.”

Asynchronous Email Communities Using an Alias List

• You can set up an email aliases list (/etc/aliases) that will send mail to multiple people on the list.

• But, someone must maintain this list.

• This is a UNIX solution.

Using Mailing Lists

• That’s where Majordomo, Mercury Mail, and L-Soft LISTSERV come in!

• Software automates both the subscription and mail distribution processes.

• Every major university on the planet is running L-Soft LISTSERV, and many major organizations (like Merit) are running Majordomo.

• Ask if they will host a list for you.

Asynchronous Tools: Majordomo

• You “subscribe” to a mailing list that interests you.

• Majordomo automatically adds your name to the mailing list.

• Any time something is posted to the mailing list, you automatically receive a copy (“mail explosion”).

Asynchronous Tools: L-Soft LISTSERV lists

• Sort of the “Band Aid” of mailing list software.

• Works like Majordomo (with more bells and whistles).

• Currently 434,412 LISTSERV lists, of which 75,283 are open to the public (as of 04/06).

Don’t Forget the Archives

• List archives are a wonderful resource for current members (“asked and answered”).

• List archives also help acclimate newbies.

• LISTSERV does it automatically; Majordomo requires Hypermail (I think).

http://www.lsoft.com/catalist.html

• L-Soft’s CataList Reference Site

• Search for a mailing list of interest.

• View lists by host country.

• View lists with 10,000 subscribers or more.

• View lists with 1,000 subscribers or more.

Other Asynchronous Tools

• USENET (NNTP)/Google Groups

• Yahoo Groups

• Bulletin Board System (BBS)

• Blogs and Wikis

• “Guestbook”-like Tools

• Blackboard/WebCT, Moodle, D2L, and other LMSes

Synchronous Tools: MUDs, MOOs, Etc.

• Originally “Multi-User Dungeons,” now “Multi-User Dimensions.”

• “An inventively structured social experience on the Internet, managed by a computer program and often involving a loosely organized context or theme.”

Synchronous Tools: AIM

• AOL Instant Messenger

• FREE!• Download [or

access live online] at http://www.aim.com/

Synchronous Tools: IRC / ICQ

• Other popular chat programs:– Microsoft Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo

Messenger

– IRC: Internet Relay Chat• http://www.irc.net/

– ICQ: “I Seek You”• http://web.icq.com/

• If you are a “newbie” (or work with newbies) stick with AOL Instant Messenger. It is MUCH easier to use.

Synchronous Tools: Web-based stuff

• Online Chat– Example: http://chat.yahoo.com/

• Online MUDs/MOOs/etc.– Examples: http://www.cybertown.com/

and http://www.tappedin.org/

• Online Workspaces– Example: http://www.groove.net/

Web-Based Chat

• Use someone else’s (like chat.yahoo.com)

• It is cheaper.• With SO MANY Web-

based chat communities out there, unless you have set meeting times, any new chat room you create is probably going to be a ghost town.

• Needs:– Synchronous and asynchronous

communication with its online MA students

– Conversation transcripts/archives

• Solution:– MUD for synchronous communications

– NNTP for asynchronous communications

Do You Want NNTP?

• Ask your ISP if they will host a newsgroup for you.

• If not, have your school’s techie go to Serverwatch

• http://serverwatch.internet.com/newsservers.html

• Better still, just create a “fake” newsgroup at Yahoo or Google.

The Whole Point ...

• If want to incorporate an online community into your existing classroom, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

• There are hundreds of thousands of already existing online communities you can use.

• The tools you need to access and use these communities run the gamut from simple (email) to semi-complex (a VRML-enabled Web browser).

Some More Resources

Where to go if you want to learn more about online teaching and learning

communities.

Palloff and Pratt, Part One

• Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt

• ISBN: 0787944602• List Price: $29.95

Palloff and Pratt, Part Two

• Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom : The Realities of Online Teaching by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt

• ISBN: 0787955191 • List price: $29.00

Lave and Wenger

• Situated Learning : Legitimate Peripheral Participation by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger

• ISBN: 0521423740 • List price: $18.00

http://www.naima.com/CS377B/class.html

• Amy Jo Kim’s “Designing Online Communities” graduate seminar at Stanford.

• The “Template” is the key points from her book.

• The “Outline” is the seminar syllabus and contains FANTASTIC links.

Our goals today ...

• Discover the nuts and bolts of communities.

• Discover the nuts and bolts of online communities.

• Learn how to create our own online communities ... cheaply.

• DO ALL OF THIS IN ENGLISH!