Martin LeVoi referred to ‘critical mass’ – the size that an online group needs to be in order to be effective. Thought I’d go and check this out. ‘Critical mass’ doesn’t appear to be a technical term in regular use in the literature, but there is some discussion of group size. Glass and Smith looked at […]
* Which are the main subject positions to be found within a learning community which comes together in an aynchronous online environment? * How are these subject positions introduced or created? * Which of these subject positions work to support learning, and which discourage learning? * How can the asynchronous environment be designed in order […]
Haythornthwaite, C., Kazmer, M. M., Robins, J. and Shoemaker, S. (2000) Community development among distance learners: temporal and technological dimensions JCMC, 6 (1) Student quotes include this: “I’ll have to tell you that it has been one of the most stressful times in my whole life… I started to have a lot of anxiety…. Just […]
Haythornthwaite, C. (1998) A social network study of the growth of community among distance learners Information Research, 4, 1 * Communication frequency is associated with the maintenance of more relations and the use of more media. * Patterns of media use are highly influenced by the media established by the instructor for class interaction * […]
I had this under another entry, but it became a major issue, so I’ve moved it to its own posting. Interesting about Ostrom is that she is looking at successful communities. What makes a learning community successful? Its learners are inspired? All learners construct some knowledge? Knowledge is constructed? All students pass the course? All […]
Ruth got back to me fairly quickly and now I have a useful reference to follow up. Hello Rebecca — I’m glad that you found my research interesting. Yes, it was based on my Ph.D. dissertation which is in the University of Nebraska at Lincoln library. It is also available through ProQuest which can be […]
Why did I find it necessary to say I was a first year? Dear Dr Brown, I am a first-year PhD student in the UK, researching social presence and the development of online learning communities. I have just finished reading your JALN article ‘The process of community-building in distance learning classes’, which I found very […]