1. Building a Learning Community
Stephen Downes
April 18, 2001
Trinity College, University of Melbourne
This lecture has been made available by the kind assistance of TAFE Frontiers, Trinity Learning Innovation Centre and Austhink.

2. What is an Online Learning Community and Why Do We Want One?

3. What is an Online Learning Community?
Includes administrative tools, such as registrations and grades
Includes user tools, such as home pages or profiles
But mainly, integrates educational content and communications
See Classroom Component of an Online Learning Community. This paper provides a useful introduction to the concept of online learning communities. It proposes a model, which is applied to an MBAprogram. By Julia Gerhard, Peter Mayr, and Sabine Seufert, January,
See also Learning Online: Extending the Meaning of Community, a useful description of the characteristics of an online learning community. See especially the listing of online community characteristics. By Mary Russell and Linda Ginsburg, National Center on Adult Literacy, September, PDF document.
See also Creating an Online Learning Community Text of a guest lecture. Spends some time defining what an online community is, talks about characteristics of a good learner, and discusses facilitation techniques. Light, quick read. By Peg Saragina,
Good discussion, including some useful quotes from Peter Senge:

4. Examples MuniMall – http://www.munimall.net
The Learning Space - for teachers in Washington State
Royal Roads -
eSocrates -
Bradley Learning Community -

5. Why an Online Learning Community?
Improved Learning
Sense of Commitment
Learning Beyond the Content
Reduced Workload
Boyle (2000) argues that for real learning to take place in schools the establishment of effective learning communities is crucial. This view is supported by many leading educators, for example, Hill (1999), Caldwell (1997) and Sergiovanni (1996). Wilmore, Establishing a Community of Learners, IFET, April,

6. Improved Learning
Collaboration exposes people to new ideas and outlooks on the topic at hand
I've discovered that the collaboration that occurs in such classroom communities is necessary for the process that others have called shared cognition.
Donald J Wienicki
See ELearning is not Knowledge Management. By Verna Allee. Knowledge is a social phenomenon. We learn through experience, application, and conversation in community with our peers. We are on the verge of an explosion of interest in communities of practice and knowledge networks. LineZine, Fall,
See also Learning in the New Economy. A discussion of communities of practice. By Etienne Wegner and William Snider, Kine Zine, Summer,
See also Measuring Learning Community Effectiveness. Power Point presentation. Suggests that online learning communities lead to greater student satisfaction, increased learning, and facilitate graduation. Offers a metric for evaluating learning communities against these. By Kevin Snider, July 6,

7. Sense of Commitment
Where people have a shared experience they gain a deeper sense of commitment to the process and to the product
People everywhere seem more interested in communicating with each other than with databases.
Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community

8. Learning Beyond the Content
Learning is more than just learning the content, it’s learning how the content is applied in everyday interactions
Creating a "community of practice" that the student aspires to join; this term refers broadly to the practices of a field, its social organization, and its mores.
Douglas Gordin, et.al.,
See Using the World Wide Web to Build Learning Communities in K-12. This paper examines the utility of the World Wide Web for aiding in the construction of school-based and work-based learning communities. An ordered list of interactions is provided to characterize the depth of students' entry into new learning communities. By Douglas Gordin, et.al., Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication Volume 2, Number 3: December,

9. Reduced Workload
Instructors who must communicate – usually at great length – with each student individually will have no time for meals, curling or sleep
Classes where students enquire among and help each other will limit the interaction between student and instructor to the essentials
See Jason B. Ellis, Amy S. Bruckman, D. Kevin O'Neil, Nancy B. Songer, "Scaling Educational Online Communities: The Role of Volunteerism in Doing Large-Scale Educational Projects Online," panel discussion to appear in Proceedings of ICLS 2000, International Conference of the Learning Sciences, Ann Arbor, MI, June

10. Lessons
Learning communities are not classrooms; they are facilitated, not taught
Participation and interaction are primary objectives, not merely tools
Educational content is an environment, not a series of programmed texts
The members create the community
See Dynamic Learning Communities: An Alternative to Designed Instructional Systems Rather than being controlled by a teacher or an instructional designer, learners might "self-organize" into functioning communities with a general goal of supporting each other in their learning. That is to say, the function of guidance and control becomes distributed among group participants. By Brent Wilson and Martin Ryder, 1997?
See also Tom Sergiovanni. Building Community in Schools. Jossey-Bass, 1994, p “No one person can pull it off. Community building asks a great deal from everyone. It asks, for example, that principals, teachers, and students care for each other, learn together, inquire together, and share together….” Cited in Wilmore, Establishing a Community of Learners, IFET, April,

11. Attributes of Successful Learning Communities

12. 1. Focus on Learning Materials
Communities need a distinct focus – Hegel and Armstrong, Net.Gain
Learning materials form the riverbed on which community activities are grounded
The objective is not to teach them the content, but to give them the content as a resource which they can use
See Creating Community Online. Interesting and useful discussion of how to approach online learning communities. By Sharon G. Solloway and Edward L. Harris, Educom Review, Volume 34, Number 2, p. 8-13, 1999.“Encourage student collaboration through team projects and discussion. The value of discussion is student participation; the amount of instructor intervention should decrease as student expertise increases.”
See also Building a Learning Community Online in a Second Year Computer Science. This case study illustrates that in order to exploit more fully the potential of online technologies in educating learners for meaningful and effective participation in the emerging knowledge economy,the university community which includes both teachers and students needs to make major innovations in its teaching and learning approaches respectively. The focus needs to shift from content delivery to the process of learning the content. It means building a learning community online and this is implemented by adopting the collaborative learning model as the underpinning educational framework for the online environment. By Mary O’Sullivan and David Miron, ultiBASE, July 14, 1999.

13. 2. Creation of a Sense of the Whole
Hosting Web Communities, Cliff Figallo
Member feels part of a larger whole
Web of relationships between members
Ongoing exchange between members
Relationships last through time

14. 3. Integrate Content and Communication
Orientation and instruction in conversational style and tactics
Seeding conversation with content and activities; seeding content with conversation and activities
Attention to community elements – who contributes, who doesn’t, what are their styles - personalize

15. 4. Appreciate Participant Contributions
The point of user tools is to allow a student to establish his/her own identity
This means giving them things like web pages or personal profiles
Hard to do without a course management tool – but you can get them to create GeoCities pages and link to them

16. 5. Ongoing Communications
Communication and interaction are primary objectives
Use multiple forms of interaction – some people just don’t like discussion boards
Many tools for interaction – the best resource is David Wooley’s site:
See Creating Community Online. Interesting and useful discussion of how to approach online learning communities. By Sharon G. Solloway and Edward L. Harris, Educom Review, Volume 34, Number 2, p. 8-13, 1999.“Use an online application that provides a variety of ways students can complete assignments and communicate with each other. The particular application will determine the processes in translating the course to an online format.”

17. 6. Access to Resources and Information
The purpose is to empower students and help them build their own learning
when students engage in school-based learning communities they must do more than be passive collectors of previously digested information – Gordin, et.al.,
See Evolving a Distributed Learning Community. A good argument suggesting that online learning communities help individuals, organizations and cultures become empowered to understand each other across time and space boundaries. By Brad Cox, The Online K12 Classroom Edited by Zane Berge and Mauri Colins Hampton Press, 1999?

18. 7. Educational Orientation
Stream information; keep the focus on the new and the more complex
Structure activities with a pedagogical purpose
The objective is to get students to move beyond the material

19. 8. Sense of History
Learning does not begin and end with a class or a classroom
Create a community which extends beyond courses and even beyond graduation
Student contributions become an archive subsequent students can learn from and build on

20. Facilitating Online Learning Communities

21. The Guide by the Side
If the sage would guide the people, he must serve with humility. If he would lead, he must follow behind. – Lao Tzu
The host – usually (but not necessarily) the instructor, must set the stage and act as a guide and a leader
See Let Your Online Learning Community Grow This paper proposes three principles for growing successful listservs and online forums in educational settings. The three principles are: 1. Online learning communities are grown, not built. 2. Online learning communities need leaders. 3. Personal narrative is vital to online learning communities. By Caleb John Clark,
See also Curtin’s Internet Based Learning Construction Kit. Curtin University of Technology. 2000? “If learning communities are to work, teachers need to act first and foremost as facilitators rather than experts, with the aim of making students see themselves as active members of the community, rather than as passive recipients of teacherly wisdom.”

22. Functions of the Facilitator
Sharing enthusiasm – showing an interest in the topic and getting involved
Facilitating productive conversation – acting as a moderator
Linking users and content – providing information, resources, exercises, activities

23. Moderation
Managing the pace of conversation – eg. Starting new topics, deleting old topics, reviving stalled topics
Clarifying – outlining an issue, framing a problem, summarizing a discussion
Conflict resolution – mediating, adjuducating

24. Relating to Students
Establishing Trust – reliability, helpfulness, respect, encouragement
Encouraging relationships – initiating chats, linking comments
Backchannels – one-to-on communication, used for encouragement, advise, cautions, recruitment

25. More Information For more information and references: