I’m tinkering with my research questions. I’ve mostly reverted to identity from subject position, partly because it’s more comprehensible, partly because it’s sexier, and patly because it fits in with the idea of learning as transformation of identity. I’ve got a tentative title and hypotheses as well.

I’ve thrown in a short definition of a successful virtual community, although this is obviously going to need a lot more work.

Who do you think you are: The roles of identity in virtual learning community.
Research questions:
Once it is accepted that virtual learning community exist, it is important to ask how such communities can be designed and administered to support learning as a transformative process which changes identity. This research therefore asks:
* Which are the key identities to be found within a learning community which comes together in an asynchronous online environment?
* How are these identities introduced or created?
* Which of these identities are mobilised to support learning, and which to discourage learning?
* How can the asynchronous environment be designed in order that participants will position themselves, and others, in ways which support learning?

Hypotheses:
* Learners have multiple identities within this type of community, many of them products of the online environment.
* Learners must work hard to establish their identities and those of others. This work is not accomplished in the same way as it would be offline.
* The environment, the community design and the participants all introduce certain subject positions.
* A successful virtual learning community will engage in a high level of exploratory talk and knowledge creation. Participants will show evidence of identity change in line with the aims of the community.
* In a successful virtual learning community, the majority of commonly available subject positions will be mobilised to support learning.
* In less successful virtual learning communities, this will not be the case.
* Design and administration of virtual learning communities exert a major influence on the subject positions mobilised within those communities, and on how and why those subject positions are mobilised.