ONLINE COMMUNITIES HAVE GREAT POTENTIAL for facilitating learning. 

Participants connect from all over the globe to share a common learning interest.

Much of the learning currently happening on the Internet comes from self-motivated individuals with a common interest and a desire to interact with others who share the same interest (Wenger, 1998). Educators who have experienced this type of online learning community in their personal lives can see the potential of constructing this environment in more structured settings, such as a college classroom. But far too many well-intentioned instructors end up struggling with the reality of what it takes to build a thriving asynchronous learning community.

While many of the successful learning communities that exist on the Internet today emerged on their own (Rheingold,1993), others have been designed. Emergent groups, also called organic or natural communities, come together by themselves with a shared purpose. Designed groups are created for a specific group of learners, often by educators or corporations. Potential members might attend the same college class, participate in the same training workshop or consume a shared product or service. Somewhere along the way, an organizer decides that an educational need could be met with an online learning community. However, learning communities that are designed lack the same intrinsic motivational component found in organic communities. As a result, they can be very difficult to launch.

The five components for building a successful online learning community.

Once the decision to create an online community is made, understanding the five components (White, 2002) of successful groups increases the likelihood of the group catching on and meeting its educational goals. Successful groups have a specific audience, a well-defined purpose, a timeframe, explicit rules and repeated interactions. Knowing your audience will help you create topics, set the tone and voice of messages and also pick the best means to promote your group. Defining a purpose of the group keeps discussion and learning topics focused and connected to your audience. The timeframe may be ongoing or for a specific amount of time or until certain learner goals are reached. Rules are written, enforced and adjusted as the group grows and changes. Interactions are initiated and encouraged by group moderators whose purpose is to make sure the conversations flow and rules are followed. Paying attention to all five of these aspects of successful online groups may not insure regular group activity, but will certainly set the stage for learning to happen in this context.

A learning community for web developers

When the five components are met, the work has only begun. At this point, group moderators must be selected and called upon to create dialogue and interactions. They add information, ask questions, conduct polls and, in general, create not only informative content, but more importantly, a reason for members to return and participate in the group. Moderators enforce the rules and modify them if necessary.

While there is no recipe for building a successful online learning community, meeting the conditions found in successful groups will increase your chances of accomplishing this outcome.

Full Circle Online Community Resource

Janet Mayer
Educational Technologist, SUNY Fredonia

Mayer, J. (2005). Online Community Building. In B. Hoffman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Technology.