Community building

What is it?

This term refers to the development of networks of people, who come together for educational, social or work-related purposes. In an online context the community may never physically meet and the means of communication is either textual, audio or by posting images and video, rather than through face-to-face. Communities could be based on students studying the same course or subject, students attending the same institution or those who have similar social interests. Tools such as live online chat, discussion forums, blogs, virtual conferencing and wikis can all be great for community building.

Pros and cons

Communities built during the course of a training program can provide important peer support mechanisms, both during the learning process and throughout career development.
The online environment is ideal for building and strengthening communities and networks across distances and contexts. For example, experts within a field can provide input to discussions on topical issues when students and experts are part of the same blogging community. Students across different-class groups and stages of a course can also meet and be part of a peer support network.
By asking students, at the outset of the learning process, to establish ‘autobiographies’ you can help to foster a sense of community between participants. Self-created, student profiles allow students to form impressions about the personality and beliefs of others. Unlike face-to-face communities, the online process of building an identity through text and images allows students to create profiles of themselves as they would like to be presented.
The relative anonymity of many social software interactions can allow students to feel as though they are able to communicate more freely. This can lead to levels of support, that are even higher than those within face-to-face communities.
Some students may want to stay involved with the student community after they graduate when they are able to take on a mentoring role with new students.
Where communities are ‘closed’ to an established group, rather than ‘open’ to any other like-minded people sharing the same interests, it may restrict the perspectives and solutions, etc that the group can achieve.

Fit for purpose?

The successful building of an online community relies on the participants feeling safe and comfortable when expressing their opinions. It is vital that the rules for appropriate communication are laid down at the outset in order to avoid negative experiences. However, you also need to be sure that you encourage creative thought and different opinions; you do not want to stifle debate.

Pre-arranged discussions, on course-related topics and issues, are important at the outset of the course because they help to introduce students to each other on an intellectual level and not just socially. If facilitated well, these can help to set the tone and form the basis for further discussions.

The use of emoticons or other techniques for replacing non-verbal communication in the online environment (such as the use of nicknames) promotes feelings of intimacy between participants and can avoid misunderstandings. Emoticons are symbols such as smiley faces, designed to convey the emotion of the writer. Here is an example :)

Using regular scheduled live chat sessions in a virtual conference can help to reduce feelings of isolation between participants in an online environment, and reduces the frustration that can sometimes be felt by students using less immediate communication tools, such as email or blogs.

Including video files or audio files at intervals in the process can be a more personal way of communicating. However, the benefits of this technique must be balanced with the technological restrictions of internet download speeds, which can impact greatly on the quality of the transmission.

You can strengthen social networks and communities by providing a discussion space, which is separate from those used for formal coursework. This space can act as a private space, free from teacher oversight or presence and can lead to students interacting with one another at a more personal level.

Find out more

For more ideas of how this strategy can work in practice, go to the following case studies:

Blogs – Peer learning and support with blogs, Lud Allen
Blogs – Connecting with blogs, Rosa Ochoa
Blogs – Gathering evidence and conversation with moblogs, Gary Lienert
Blogs – Collaborating with blogs and online documents, Colleen Hodgins
Social networking – Closing the distance with social networking, Rob Wales
Virtual conferencing – Creating communities with virtual conferencing, Lyn Hamilton.