Web-based Learning Solutions for Communities of Practice

should focus on developing engaging communities
of practice with existing technologies. They
emphasize the human elements of mentoring,
and developing trust, support, collaboration and
communication as the keys to successful virtual
communities in online environments.
Another model, called “Adventure Learning”
by Doering (2006), contends that online learning
can be enhanced via a hybrid model. Specifically,
by combining real world projects with collaborative
online learning with peers, teachers and
subject experts, students become more engaged
in the overall experience. This approach is supported
by several researchers (Puntambekar
2006, Hedberg, 2006, Waddill et al., 2006, and
Darabi, 2006) whose research all demonstrated
that greater involvement with active, relevant
projects enhances the online learning experience.
Puntembekar also demonstrated that using webbased
technologies can facilitate collaborative
knowledge building, development of new ideas
and constructs by bringing people with divergent
views together.
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
IN DISTANCE LEARNING
With the exponential growth of internet use, the
first collaborative technologies were termed Web
1.0. These included e-mail, video-conferencing,
chat and discussion forums. CoP’s began to develop
on the web platform, engaged in the pursuit
of common objectives (Wenger and Snyder, 2000).
It became increasingly apparent that sponsorship
and support of these communities, whose members
regularly engaged in sharing and learning based
on common interests, could significantly facilitate
the transmission and spread of knowledge and
improve organizational performance (Lesser and
Storck, 2001).
In organizations, CoP’s had been viewed as
the best way to bring about the long-sought goal
of creating a “learning organization” - getting
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Using Web-Based Technologies and Communities of Practice
people to share their knowledge, and creating
a pool of collective organizational intelligence.
Research in distance learning has shown that a
strong sense of community is crucial in the success
of distance classes. In the case of web-based
learning, the facilitator “creates” this community,
but the extent to which CoP’s develop is largely
based on how the participants use this community
(Johnson, 2001). Facilitation techniques need to be
employed, which nurture the experience for those
that may want to “tune out” of the experience.
Creative solutions to this undesirable dynamic
have included the use of blogs to retain student
interest and active engagement (Dickey, 2004).
Another important element in addition to trust
and rapport is a shared sense of purpose in the
learning community (Conrad, 2008). For example,
students who work collaboratively on projects
develop camaraderie and a sense of purpose in
the achievement of their class goals.
This is further supported by the classic work
on CoPs by Wenger (2009), who suggested that
learning involves becoming part of a community,
allowing people to share ideas and perspectives
while working collaboratively on common tasks.
These online learning communities allow people
to actively seek and receive support and knowledge
transfer to enhance the overall learning
experience. However, CoPs in distance classes
must also be nurtured to create environments of
tolerance and respect in order to succeed. Participants
in online classes also succeed when they
have a high comfort level with the technologies
required for use in the class. For example, using
software like Blackboard/WebCT or searching
the library’s online databases for research must
be user friendly and seamless in the course. The
web “infrastructure” dimension that creates this
user friendly, seamless experience is of particular
significance to the success of web-based environments
and learning platforms (Hung & Thanq,
2001). Unified structures that promote the ease of
transmission of knowledge along CoPs have been
shown to yield positive performance results in the