Communities of Practice
Leslie Bowman (2013) created a Comunity of Practice for her online students and writes that students fulfill a role as coaches, mentors, and reviewers. Through peer mentoring students are able to share existing knowledge and instruct other students while developing new knowledge of the subject through the analysis of the content. Bowman (2013) writes, "...the COP provides a more balanced perspective of the learning process for students by addressing strengths and weaknesses simultaneously and with equal emphasis." Self-directed learning continues throughout the whole course.
Another CoP that is useful to the online learning environment is the cohort model. The cohort model shows that each group of learners are expected and encouraged o to stay together as a group (Conrad, 2005). The cohort model is supposed to strengthen the online community between classmates and increases the bond. It builds the relationship that enables students to learn from each other.
Developing a CoP for online learning is a good way to ensure collaboration and collective learning within the course as a whole. Students can readily reach out to their mentor or fellow classmate on an as-needed basis. It provides an excellent sense of community between classmates and would benefit a learner in the online community. If the educator were to develop a CoP for students, it would create and improve social presence as well as teaching presence because the students would communicate with each other and feel less isolated.
As an educator, developing a CoP with fellow educators, in the same field of interest, would be beneficial for learning new teaching technology, ideas, and/or instructional strategies. I think this would be beneficial to all educators because it would facilitate the use of newer instructional techniques or design to really enhance the learning environment or course for their students. A network of like-minded people is always a needed tool when talking about education because people are one of the best tools you can use to bounce ideas off of, discuss teaching strategies, and other general classroom discussions.
My course on transition techniques for preschool-aged children could benefit from a CoP with fellow students because they could share their ideas on transitions - what worked and what didn't, why they did and/or didn't work, and what they would try next time for certain situations. I think this would benefit them as well as creating a good community in the course
Sources:
Bowman, L., (2013). Online Teaching and Learning: Creative Communities of Practice to Enhance Student Success and Increase Class Retention. Retrieved from: https://secure.onlinelearningconsortium.org/effective_practices/online-teaching-and-learning-creating-communities-practice-enhance-student-succe
Conrad, D., (2005). Building and Maintaining Community in Cohort-Based Online Learning. Journal of Distance Education, 20(1), 1-20. Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ807822.pdf
Another CoP that is useful to the online learning environment is the cohort model. The cohort model shows that each group of learners are expected and encouraged o to stay together as a group (Conrad, 2005). The cohort model is supposed to strengthen the online community between classmates and increases the bond. It builds the relationship that enables students to learn from each other.
Developing a CoP for online learning is a good way to ensure collaboration and collective learning within the course as a whole. Students can readily reach out to their mentor or fellow classmate on an as-needed basis. It provides an excellent sense of community between classmates and would benefit a learner in the online community. If the educator were to develop a CoP for students, it would create and improve social presence as well as teaching presence because the students would communicate with each other and feel less isolated.
As an educator, developing a CoP with fellow educators, in the same field of interest, would be beneficial for learning new teaching technology, ideas, and/or instructional strategies. I think this would be beneficial to all educators because it would facilitate the use of newer instructional techniques or design to really enhance the learning environment or course for their students. A network of like-minded people is always a needed tool when talking about education because people are one of the best tools you can use to bounce ideas off of, discuss teaching strategies, and other general classroom discussions.
My course on transition techniques for preschool-aged children could benefit from a CoP with fellow students because they could share their ideas on transitions - what worked and what didn't, why they did and/or didn't work, and what they would try next time for certain situations. I think this would benefit them as well as creating a good community in the course
Sources:
Bowman, L., (2013). Online Teaching and Learning: Creative Communities of Practice to Enhance Student Success and Increase Class Retention. Retrieved from: https://secure.onlinelearningconsortium.org/effective_practices/online-teaching-and-learning-creating-communities-practice-enhance-student-succe
Conrad, D., (2005). Building and Maintaining Community in Cohort-Based Online Learning. Journal of Distance Education, 20(1), 1-20. Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ807822.pdf
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