A carefully built course-internal CoP in a fully online doctoral program dissipated once the structured course period ended¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · qualitative r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? In an online doctoral program designed to build a cohort CoP, the community fell into disrepair during the independent thesis phase when no shared domain and practice was imposed. → Kyungmee Lee 2018 q2 i? Campus residentials were emphasised by all 13 interviewees as pivotal for building a sense of community, but face-to-face interaction was too costly for some students. → Kyungmee Lee 2018

Evidence¶

Kyungmee Lee 2018¶

Kyungmee Lee. (2018). Everyone already has their community beyond the screen: reconceptualizing online learning and expanding boundaries. Educational Technology Research and Development. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-018-9613-y

q2 · i? · qualitative · r2

Case study of thirteen doctoral students near thesis completion in a social constructivist, community-oriented online program at a UK research-intensive university. Oliver reported the community aspect "just sort of dissipated really" once students entered independent Part 2 work.

"The cohort CoP, which had been carefully built throughout Part 1 as a result of the pedagogical efforts of tutors, students, and program administrators, fell into disrepair when there was no ''imposed'' shared domain and practice."

Kyungmee Lee 2018 (2)¶

Kyungmee Lee. (2018). Everyone already has their community beyond the screen: reconceptualizing online learning and expanding boundaries. Educational Technology Research and Development. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-018-9613-y

q2 · i? · qualitative · r2

Same case study of thirteen online doctoral students. One cohort member, John, described the residential as "just a big expensive trip", showing face-to-face interaction was unaffordable for some students.

"the usefulness of campus residentials for increasing a sense of community, which was emphasised by all 13 interviewees, suggests the challenging nature of developing that sense of community without face-to-face interaction."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Sustaining large-scale online teacher communities of practice is generally more difficult than creating them — a broader claim this one bears on
• Departure of a key person together with the end of external funding posed a genuine threat to the continuation of the online doctoral program — related
• In a course designed with the double-layered CoP model, more than half of participants developed successful external CoPs, and nine students reported months later that they were still taking part in them — related
• Adult online learners in courses without structured collaboration spontaneously build effective learning communities in their offline work contexts — reports the opposite