Learner Experiences in an Online Community of Practice Karen Guldberg Jenny Mackness

Context CPsquare Foundations of Communities of Practice Workshop with Etienne Wenger 7 weeks (Jan – March 2008) 29 participants, 3 mentors, 3 facilitators International group Mature learners

Research Methods Online Survey (SurveyMonkey, 13 respondents) Semi-structured Skype interviews (7 participants, 2 mentors, 2 facilitators, own insider perspectives)

Emerging Themes

Emotion fired up frustrating overwhelming exciting ‘Oh my gosh, what have I got myself into’ disappointed embarrassed anxious isolated and alone ‘baptism by fire’ terrific invigorating ‘felt bereft at end’ disillusioned ‘roller coaster’ painful ‘Holy cow, I’m so over my head’

Connectivity ‘In some discussions I didn’t get a feeling that it was a place of belonging.’ ‘Sometimes I felt disconnected. I didn’t know what people were talking about.’ ‘I felt like I had found my people.’ ‘At a certain point my world became the people I was working with...’ ‘A close connection with ‘x’ enabled depth of learning.’

Understanding Norms ‘Its not just the material that is overwhelming but discovering what are norms – which are implicit rather than explicit.’ ‘You get out of it what you put in – you just have to be willing to ask the questions.’ ‘We had to manage that group thing of working together and coping with people starting up and never doing anything.’ ‘I took time to find my comfort level. Safety was an issue.’

Learning Tensions Domain - theory and practice ‘I’m very much a theory person so I went in looking for the practical.’ Practice - flexibility and structure; reflection and action ‘I think there is a tension between structure and flexibility and there will be a mindset that finds this openness and ambiguity hard to deal with.’ ‘Pace got in the way of being a mindful community.’ Community - experienced and novice ‘I felt others were operating at far more than foundation level. I noticed different skills sets and different degrees of competence.’

Technology ‘The integration of teleconferencing and discussions works very well, some learn by hearing, others by seeing or doing. All that is covered by the course.’ ‘Phone calls tended to be more focused and discussions are where people take the conversations wherever they want. The nature of interaction is different in the two and they complement one another well.’ ‘ The mix of technologies was fine. I found that the synchronous stuff helped bring people together and get more sense of people.’

Identity ‘Some people really want validation, so will post the same thing in many different ways…… My ego is not as strong as it used to be – I don’t need to have a lot of attention or have my point of view heard by everyone.’ ‘The concept of online identities is intriguing. You have opportunities to recreate yourself if you want.’ I am…… ‘participatory… a synthesiser… an introvert… task-focused… reflective… a reader… a networker.’

Implications? For learning? For teaching? For course design? For technology?

Acknowledgements With thanks to participants, mentors and facilitators of the Foundations of Communities of Practice Online Workshop (Jan – March 2008) who took part in this research and included: Heidi Bredlow, John Hovell, Caren Levine, Lisa Levinson, Jill Smith, John Smith, Cassandra Star, Lynn Tveskov, Eric Tsui, Etienne Wenger Flickr credits to: Noah Sussman: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thefangmonster/352439602/ Buildscharacter: http://www.flickr.com/photos/buildscharacter/438840670/ Clearlyambiguous: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clearlyambiguous/18790219/ John A. Ward: http://www.flickr.com/photos/spadgy/313251851/ Voj: http://www.flickr.com/photos/milivoj/492870899 C.A. Muller: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cliff_robin/618199950/