Assignment 3

Facilitating Online Communities

Assignment 3

Evaluate an Online Community Activity

June 2011

Bob Laycock

Background
The focus of the online community that I chose to facilitate for assignment 3 was related to the Recognition of Current Competency (RCC) / Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) process. My original plan involved three stages for the one activity.
1. Identify the current RCC/RPL process used in the community members school / faculty
2. Compare the process against the RCC/RPL policy at the school, faculty or institute
3. Develop guidelines for either the whole RCC/RPL process, or one component of the RCC / RPL process.

During the activity, the plan changed somewhat. Paul Left recommended that I started the activity with an “ice breaking” activity (ask community members what they know about RCC/RPL). During this ice breaking activity, and stage one (identify the current RCC/RPL processes used in community member’s schools), I identified that little would be gained by completing stage 2 (comparing the current process against the institute policy). In the interest of the community, I chose to drop this stage and focused onstage 3, developing guidelines for helping students when gathering evidence for the RCC/RPL process.

Focus on participant needs – so exploring and sharing existing knowledge is often a great place to start. (Paul Left 2010)

The overall effectiveness of the community activity is evaluated in tearms of its purpose

In terms of its effectiveness, I felt the community achieved the revised stage one and stage two goals to a satisfactory standard. The third stage was achieved, but to a somewhat lesser degree.

I felt that it was difficult to effectively evaluate the community when it was restricted to such a small number of participants. The present class cohort is about 10 or 11 students, and the community members are selected from this group. Of the class members, 8 or 9 participated in my activity. I felt stage one and stage two had very good participation, but during stage three, only 4 or 5 of the members participated. However the community did achieve the original goals of increasing the community awareness of the RCC/RPL process, and collaborating to produce a set of guidelines for students to use when gathering evidence for the RCC/RPL process.

Given the small community size, I was happy with the amount of participation, however I don’t think anyone used the WIKI site which I set up for the assignment. I originally thought the WIKI would be an ideal method for the activity to take place, particularly the collaboration phase.

The effectiveness of the communication and collaboration within the activity is evaluated

The same issue discussed above relating to the small class numbers also makes it difficult to truly analyse the effectiveness of the communication and collaboration. Communication did happen within the group, with several members posting questions relating to the RCC/RPL process. Where possible, I tried to avoid answering the questions in the hope that other community members would answer the questions. However, if the questions were not answered by other community members within a day, as sponsor of the activity I tried to answer the questions.

Taking into consideration the small numbers, I felt the amount of communication was satisfactory. However, the level of collaboration was less than I had hoped for. The reason for this could have been because members had little time for this part of the activity, which I had left to last. I feel most were busy completing their own activity or it could be due to the lack of experience that community members have relating to the RCC/RPL process. Community members may have felt they had little to add to the development of the student guidelines.

At the time of writing, I have received feedback from five community members. All five have given positive feedback relating to the level of communication and collaboration.

Communities are about people and their interactions with each other. Thus Communication is the heart of online communities (Bowes, 2002, pg 1)(As cited in Australian Flexible Learning Framework Quick Guides series)

Issues which arose for learners and the facilitators during the activity are identified

As with any activity such as this, time is always an issue. As a facilitator, I felt that it was important to give clear instructions as to what I expected from community members. I also felt it was crucial that community members knew where the activity was taking place.

As a community member of other class member activities, I tried to participate in as many of the activities as I could. However, I found it frustrating trying find where some of the other activities where being hosted, and in some cases had difficulty following the instructions.

Give clear instructions and information about the activity – break the activity into digestible chunks so participants can focus on one thing at a time. Move supplementary information (i.e. info which is not key to the activity) to subsidiary pages. (Paul Left 2010)

I also felt that my timing for stage three (the final stage of my activity) was not that well planned on my part. I feel I left it too late. My stage three involved quite a bit of involvement from the community and at that time the community had other priorities so only about one half of the members took part in stage three.

I also identified that several community members were not familiar with using, editing or contributing to a WIKI. As the final stage of my activity involved the use of a WIKI as a collaborative tool, and I had left this stage a little late I believed this could have been an issue. I chose to give the community members the option of not using the WIKI but posting on BLACKBOARD. I then uploaded the information to the WIKI.

Community members should spend more time learning about the topic than about how to use a given technology. (Kaplan 2002)(As cited in Australian Flexible Learning Framework Quick Guides series)

Strategies used by facilitators to anticipate and/or deal with issues are identified

I feel the communication and collaboration tool for my activity was adequate for the task. BLACKBOARD for the communication and a WIKI for the collaboration. However as mentioned above, It became apparent that some of the community members may not be familiar with how to use a WIKI. I therefore gave the community the option to use only BLACKBOARD.

I also identified that stage two of my activity would probably not attract lot of involvement from community members, and may well stall the activity. I therefore chose to abandon stage two in order to allow more time for the collaboration exercise.

I feel the allocated time for this assignment was in my opinion quite short. To spend time on an activity that would add little value to the objective, just because it was in my original plan, was not prudent. In abandoning stage two I was adapting the activity to the needs of the community.

Areas for further development of application of activities are identified.

What would I do differently if I had to facilitate another online community?

I would focus considerable time on an ice breaking exercise. I felt the one used by a fellow class member was a good example of how this type of activity can build a strong community spirit. My direct approach of going straight to the task did not contribute to the development of a community spirit.

The start of the activity is important – so welcome people and set a positive tone. Don’t overload people with information – start gently! (Paul Left 2010)

I would restrict the number of activities for the community to participate in. At the beginning of the activity I felt my original plan of one activity per week was okay. I now feel it was ambitious and limiting to two activities would have been better.

Area of future development of own facilatation skils are identified

Areas that I have identified I need to develop include
1. Define the goal / purpose of the proposed activity and give absolute clear instructions. I felt my instructions were adequate, and the feedback I have received supports this. I feel this is one of the most critical components of any online community activity that requires collaboration. We are all busy people and we don’t have time to waste deciphering unclear directions.

Effective facilitation (sometime called moderation) is arguably the single biggest Factor in the success of an online community(Australian Flexible Learning Framework Quick Guides series)

2. Understand the community, use an ice breaker to develop a sense of community within the group. Ensure the community members are familiar with any tools you want them to use.

3. Keep the activity to a reasonable amount of work.

4. Have a plan to deal with any technical issues.

5. Be flexible. If the activity is not working or does not appear to meet the needs of the community the facilitator may need to adapt.

If learners are aware that there is a contingency plan to keep the course going smoothly in the event of technology failure, then they will feel more secure and less stressed when a failure occurs.” (Wheeler, Reynolds & Russell 2000). (As cited in Australian Flexible Learning Framework Quick Guides series)

As a side note to this assignment, I was recently in a meeting at MIT. We were discussing a particular programme which is delivered across several institutes NZ wide. This programme uses a MOODLE site for collaboration. The people at the meeting consider this type of collaboration an excellent idea. However in this instance it does not appear to be working as well as was hoped.
I pointed out that the reason why it may not be working is that it does not have an active facilitator...
This made me reflect that I am not totally sure I know what is required to be a good online facilitator, or if I feel I could be an effective online facilitator, but at the very least I know that to have an effective online facilitator is one of the critical components of any online community.

References

Left P (2010) 8 tips for online learning community activity Downloaded 21 May 2011 from http://www.verso.co.nz/learning-communities/832/8tips-for-online-learning-community-activities/

Backroad Connections Pty Ltd 2003, What are the conditions for and
characteristics of effective online learning communities? (Version 1.00),
Australian Flexible Learning Framework Quick Guides series, Australian
National Training Authority.
Version 1.00, 29 July 2003. Downloaded 2 April 2011 from http://pre2005.flexiblelearning.net.au/guides/community.pdf

Facilitating Online Communities Assignment One

Facilitating online communities

Assignment one

April 2011

Overview of the online community
New Zealand Flightsim Forums (NZFF) is a public forum open to anyone, designed to give a friendly, supportive venue to visit, ask for help and enter into discussions that relate to the members shared interest in flight simulation (flying aircraft simulators on PC). As the name would suggest, it is predominantly for New Zealand flight sim enthusiasts. The purpose of the community is to share ideas with like minded people, review new flightsim products, share news related to flight simulators and New Zealand aviation in general. It also is used to help members solve various technical problems relating to flight simulation and computers in general.

“A community is the clustering of similar areas of interest that allows for interaction, sharing, dialoguing, and thinking together” (George Siemens October 17, 2003)

The community membership

The registered membership of the forum is 1674, although since joining the forum I would suggest that only a fraction of these are active members. 180 members have more than 100 posts which would indicate activity levels. Interestingly only one registered member is female. Clearly flight simulation is a male oriented hobby. From the membership list it’s difficult to identify any distinguishing characteristics. They come from all ages, occupations, and ethnic groups. Access to the forum is open but when I registered I did have to apply and wait a day or so before I could post etc. Once my registration was accepted and I was given permission to post, it was pleasing to get welcomed by so many other members. This helped me feel that I had joined a helpful friendly community.

a sense of community is an essential component of collaboration, and that collaboration in turn supports the development of a community. (Palloff and Pratt 2004) (as cited in Paul Left Facilitating Online Comunities)

What online tools are used

The main online tool is an open forum. This is where members of the community communicate, at times very frequently. Although the type of communication on a forum is asynchronous, the rapid response to some of the threads makes it almost synchronous. There is some use of Blogs; however this appeared to be limited, with only a few members making use of this feature.

One excellent use of this forum is the monthly screenshot competition. This is a focus area where each month a topic is generated. For example in February the topic was “a screen shot of some form of agricultural aviation over New Zealand”. I was amazed at the skill, imagination and artistic ability of members who posted in the screen shots competition. When viewing some of the screen shots, I found it difficult to identify if the images were ‘real photos’, or in fact screenshots taken from a flight sim programme. At the end of the month all community members get to vote on the best screenshot. The winner usually gets a prize donated by a commercial flight sim development company. The winning screenshot is proudly posted as the BANNER on the NZFF main screen for the next month. In the screenshot thread, members are able to comment on the posted screenshots; these comments are always good humoured, positive and encouraging.

“The social interaction within a community increases student satisfaction, the collaboration provides a real opportunity to 'extend and deepen learning experiences, test out new ideas... and receive critical and constructive feedback”. (Palloff and Pratt 2004) (as cited in Paul Left Facilitating Online Comunities)

As a new member, I admit I have not yet posted a screenshot in the competition (also mine always look so lame compared to others), but it is a focus activity of the forum and I look forward to viewing the screen shot thread each time I visit.

Rules and guidelines
As mentioned above, when joining the community, my application had to be approved by the moderator, which took about one day. A link to the forum rules and guidelines is included at the top of the main page. All forum rules and guidelines are clearly stated including the reasons for the rule. For example, “this is a public forum, open to anyone, including children. As such, there are both general online forum etiquette and our own rules to consider before posting”.

This page also gives an indication of what will happen if the rules and guidelines are not followed. I feel this is good practice as stating the reason for a rule helps to make the rule valid. However in keeping with the friendly, supportive nature of the forum, most of the rules and guideline page is taken up explaining how the forum tools work, how to make a new topic, post a screenshot etc. Overall, this is a good example of how to make the community friendly and supportive whilst explaining what are inappropriate behaviours and the consequences of not following the rules.

Community Management

As previously stated, when joining the community my application had to be approved by a moderator. The forum is administrated by 5 members identified as administrators and 16 members identified as moderators.

The main forum is divided into 3 main topic areas “New Zealand flightsims”,” NZ related addons” and “Non flightsim related topics”. Each of the main topics is then further subdivided into topics. Each topic has threads which are generated by members. This is where the discussions take place. At least one moderator is given responsibility for one of the sub topics. It was only when analysing NZFF for this assignment that I bothered to look at who were the forum moderators and noted that many of the moderators are active members of the community. This is also in keeping with the friendly nature of the forum.

The dividing and sub dividing of the forum follows a logical manner, it is easy to navigate, making It is easy to fine areas of interest or to find technical help if needed.

“Structured communities can have quite clear protocols for who is responsible for moderating discussion. Some communities can be self-managing, although there is almost always a core group of members who accept particular responsibility for the health of the group”.

(Australian Flexible Learning Network)

Community effectiveness

Although I have only belonged to this forum for a short time, I feel it is a vibrant online community. It succeeds in bringing together a wide selection of the male population who share a common interest in flight sims.

Although I doubt many members “physically” have met, I observed evidence of members showing concern for each other. After the recent Christchurch earthquake several members who are based in Christchurch were, for obvious reasons, not posting on the forum. Several other members went to the trouble of contacting the Christchurch based members and posting news on the forum. I feel this demonstrates several features of a community.

NZFF meets the needs of the community by providing a meeting place for members to discuss, analyse, and share resources for their hobby, flightsiming.

“A community is the clustering of similar areas of interest that allows for interaction, sharing, dialoguing, and thinking together” (George Siemens October 17, 2003)

The community is also effective in providing a venue for members to discuss their hobby. I feel flight simming is probably not a mainstream hobby. Without this “virtual community” most members would not get to share their interest with other people. Hence the community is symbiotic. It needs the members to survive, and the members need the community to enhance their hobby.

A connection that is beneficial to all members of the community...needed in order for the community to survive. George Siemens October 17, 2003

Community Design
I feel the overall layout of the forum, the displaying of the monthly screenshot competition winner, and the logical dividing and sub dividing of topics add to the effectiveness of the community.

The community appears to be basically self moderating with community members always treating each other with respect, providing positive feedback, and suggestions to their ideas, screenshots and questions. The only time a moderator has seen the need to moderate was regarding an issue of software piracy. This supportive environment encourages people to try new things and experiment with new ideas.

References

Left P (2011) Facilitating Online Comunities
Downloaded 2 April 2011 from http://foc2010.pbworks.com/w/page/21049167/Learning-communities

Siemens G (2003 17 october) Learning Ecology, Communities, and Networks Extending the classroom
Downloaded 20 March 2011 from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/learning_communities.htm

Backroad Connections Pty Ltd 2003, What are the conditions for and
characteristics of effective online learning communities? (Version 1.00),
Australian Flexible Learning Framework Quick Guides series, Australian
National Training Authority.
Downloaded 2 April 2011 from http://pre2005.flexiblelearning.net.au/guides/community.pdf

The course so far

On Wednesday we had a wimber classroom session. Not very well supported with the lecturer and two students participating with I think a third who was having microphone problems. I was also not able to get the microphone working at MIT so I listened to the session later in the day. I found the session informative and it cleared some questions I had about the course assessment etc. For assignment 1 we need to join an online community and evaluate it. If I understand correctly the community does not necessarily have to be related to education, so if appropriate I will evaluate the New Zealand Flightsim Forum as I do have a passing interest in flightsims and I am a New Zealander

Online community

What are online communities?

• A gathering place for diverse people to meet

• A nurturing place for learning and developing

• A growing place - allowing members to try new ideas and concepts in a safe environment

• Integrated. As an ecology, activities ripple across the domain. Knowledge in one area filters to another. Courses as a stand alone unit often do not have this transference.

• Connected. People, resources, and ideas are connected and accessible across the community.

• Symbiotic. A connection that is beneficial to all members of the community...needed in order for the community to survive.