Assessment of Learning Communities

What is an Online Learning Community? The commonly used explanation is a group of people who come together to learn particular topics, using the power of social structure, a la Vygotsky to create greater meaning through that social experience. However there is more. but how do we measure this advantage?

The internet creates an amazing way to develop community at great distance and a function that allows us to share ourselves as more than the written word, while allowing us to share thoughts at almost the speed of those thoughts. Our students, in the course of building communities in this medium, will bring a wide array of skills and knowledge to their communities. How do we measure relative learning and synthesis in collaborative space?

In a post from Jonathans Blog, an educator and blogger from the UK, it is necessary for each member of a community to personalize a space of their own in order to become an individual within that community. This is echoed by Pallof and Pratt (2008). However the individual is part of a group, and groups judge themselves for effectiveness as well as the teacher.

According to Siemens (Laureate Education, 2008) one of the main roles of the community is peer review. Instructors must develop a structured approach to community building for the students to follow in order to build context for review. The community must know the criteria in which to review their fellow students. Rubrics can be powerful tools in such a situation (Edwards and Edelstein, 2002). In this way, both students and teachers have fair and equitable measures by which to grade and assess the learning activities of the community.

There are questions regarding whether students should be required to work in a group. If the course is designed using socio-constructivist principles I would definitely require it of all students.

However this poses Siemen's biggest questions: How do we measure students as a group, when they have disparate skills? Can we change our academic position of grading individuals to grading their relative contribution to their learning communities?


References:

Edelstein, S.,Edwards J. (2002).If You Build It, They Will Come: Building Learning Communities Through Threaded Discussions. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, Volume V, Number I, Spring 2002. Retrieved from: http://distance.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring51/edelstein51.html

Furness, J.(2008).Online Learning Communities for pupils, parents and teachers.Jonathan's Blog. Retrieved from:http://www.jonathansblog.net/online_learning_community_software_schools_vle_facebook_solution

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Principles of distance education: Assessment of collaborative learning featuring George Siemens [DVD]. United States: Walden University.

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.