Building a Community of practice in an online

Learning environment

Dr. Lynne Young RN PhDUniversity of Victoria

Betty Poag RN, MN (c), BSN

Overview of PresentatIon

• Overview of UVic School of Nursing Master’s Program

• Definition and principles of Teacher-centred vs Learner-centred education

• Community of Practice (CoP) vs Community of Inquiry (CoI)

• Elements of Effective CoP• Case Analysis• Activity• Summary• Questions

Uvic School of NursingMN Program Description

•Master of Nursing Program• Nurse Educator• Advanced Practice Nursing• Nursing and Health Information

Science • Nurse Practitioner

•Mature practicing nurses•Program delivered entirely online

On-Line Learning: Teacher- or Learner- CentEred?

• Do on-line course platforms lend well to teacher- or learner-centred teaching?

• Does the culture of on-line university teaching guide a course designer to teacher- or learner-centered teaching?

• How can on-line courses be designed to be learner- centred?

Teacher-centred• Knowledge is transmitted to passive

listeners/students who receive the knowledge• Focus is on ensuring learners acquire knowledge• Emphasis is on students knowing ‘right’ answers• Teaching and evaluation of learning are

separate• Educator is the main knowledge/information

giver and evaluator (See Young and Paterson, 2007)

Learner-centred• Students construct knowledge

(Constructivism) • Focus on use and communication of

knowledge to explore questions, issues, problems, in real-life contexts

• Emphasis in on learning from confronting problems and issues to develop skills of inquiry and exploration

• Teaching and evaluating are integrated throughout and student and teacher together evaluate learning

• (See Dewey, 1963/38;Young and Paterson, 2007)Image retrieved from: www.constructivisminelt.wikispaces.com

Retrieved from: www.helencrump.net

Co-Learning a stRategy for learner-centred teaching

• Vygotsky (1978) posits that individual development occurs by way of social interaction, that is social constructivism

• Noddings (1998) inspired by social constructivism speaks of cooperative learning

• Social constructivist cooperative learning posits that it is through interaction that we learn the basic questions of reflective inquiry.

Social Constructivist Cooperative Learning

• Basic questions of social constructivist cooperative learning are:• How did I arrive at this?• Does it work?• What is it useful for?• How can I be sure?• How can I explain this to others?• Are there viable alternatives?• How do others perceive my views?• Noddings, 1998, p 132

Community of Inquiry• “group of individuals who collaboratively

engage in purposeful critical discourse and reflection to construct personal meaning and confirm mutual understanding” (Garrison, 2007, p. 2).

• Three elements required for development of a Community of Inquiry (CoI)• Cognitive Presence• Social Presence• Teaching Presence

Community of InquiryGarrison and Arbaugh 2007

Retrieved from: www.eilab.ca

Community of practice• Is a group of people who share a common

concern, a set of problems, or interest in a topic and who come together on an ongoing basis (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002)

• Three components necessary for a CoP:• A shared domain• A community• A common practice

Components of Effective Community of Practice

• Identify Purpose: focused and well defined purpose, goals, and vision (Cambridge, Kaplan, & Suter, 2005; Wenger, 2002)

• Determine Domain: what are the boundaries of the domain and issues of interest? (Wenger, 2002)

• Identify a Facilitator: key to success of CoP (Wenger, 2002; Andrew, et al., 2009)

Components of Effective Community of Practice

• Build Relationships: engage in activities to build trust, respect and commitment (Cambridge, Kaplan, & Suter, 2005)

• Clear Action Plan: keep members engaged through regular communication and activities (Wenger, 2002)

• Create a Space: regular events and ‘place’ for CoP information, activities, history

• Find ideas worth sharing: CoP discover the knowledge most important to the group (Wenger, 2002)

Background

Master of Nursing On-line Program…•Diverse group of students •Face-to-face on campus 4-day

program orientation•‘Social’ activities

issues

•Challenge of building and sustaining an engaged community of learners

•Differing experience and knowledge levels among students

•Fully on-line program•Many students working while

engaged in course-work

Facilitators

•Orientation enabled initial relationship development

•Program highly student-centred •Highly motivated learners•Skilled educators

Betty’s Experience

Photo Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/89697726@N08/14420730443/">through the lens 2012</a> via <a href="http://compfight.com">Compfight</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>

Participant Activity:PaiR-Share

• Reflect on your learning in a group. Was there a group learning experience that was transformative for you?

• If so, what was it that you learned that was transformative?

• If group learning has not been positive for you, what was it about group learning that interfered with your learning?

• How might a teacher foster robust on-line group learning?• What strategies might a teacher use to facilitate the

development of a community of practice in an on-line course?

Concluding Thoughts• Fully on-line programs across Canada,

challenged to engage students fully in on-line discussion

• Face-to-face component offers opportunity for student relationship development

• Student-centred approach offers increased quality of engagement, discussion and learning

• Development of robust on-line engagement offers rich opportunity for development of Community of Practice

Pair-share ideas

Retrieved from: www.saphanatutorial.com

References• Andrew, N., Ferguson, D., Wilkie, G. Corcoran, T., & Simpson, L. (2009).

Developing professional identify in nursing academics: The role of communities of practice. Nurse Education Today, 29 (X), 607-611.

• Cambridge, D., Kaplan, S., & Suter, V. (2005). Retrieved from: http://www.cacuss.ca/_Library/documents/CommOfPracticesGuide.pdf

• Dewey, J. (1963/38). Experience and education.New York:Macmillan.

• Garrison, D. R. & Kanuka, H. (2004). Blended learnng: uncovering its transformative potential in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 7 (2), 95-105.

• Garrison, D. (2007). Online community of inquiry review: Social, cognitive, and teaching presence issues. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 11 (1), 61-72.

• Garrison, D. R., & Arbaugh, J. B. (2007). Researching the community of inquiry framework: Review, issues, and future directions. Internet and Higher Education, 10 (3), 157-172.

References• Noddings, N. (1998). Philosophy of education. Boulder, CO: Westview Press• Rovai, A. P. , & Jordan, H.M. (2004). Blended learning and sense of community: A

comparative analysis with traditional and fully online graduate courses. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 5 (2), 1-13. Retrieved from: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/192/274

• Vygotsky, L. (1978). The mind and society. Cambridge,MA: Harvard University Press. • Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. M. (2002). Cultivating Communities of

Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.

• Wenger, E. & Wenger-Trayner, B. (2015). Communities of practice: a brief introduction. Retrieved from: http://wenger-trayner.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/07-Brief-introduction-to-communities-of-practice.pdf

• Young, L.E., & B. Paterson (Eds.) (2007). Teaching Nursing: Developing a student-centered learning environment. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins.