Richard A. Schwier

Social Capital in Virtual Learning Communities and Distributed Communities of Practice

Abstract. Social capital has recently emerged as an important interdisciplinary research area. It is frequently used as a framework for understanding various social issues in temporal communities, neighbourhoods and groups. In particular, researchers in the social sciences and the humanities have used social capital to understand trust, shared understanding, reciprocal relationships, social network structures, common norms and cooperation, and the roles these entities play in various aspects of temporal communities. Despite proliferation of research in this area, little work has been done to extend this effort to technology-driven learning communities (also known as virtual learning communities). This paper surveys key interdisciplinary research areas in social capital. It also explores how the notions of social capital and trust can be extended to virtual communities, including virtual learning communities and distributed communities of practice. Research issues surrounding social capital and trust as they relate to technology-driven learning communities are identified.

A Review of What Instructional Designers Do: Questions Answered and Questions Not Asked

The purpose of this literature review was to determine what evidence there is that instructional designers apply ID Models, as well as to establish what other activities and processes they might use in their professional activities. Only ten articles were located that directly pertained to this topic: seven reporting on empirical research and three case descriptions recounting development experiences. All ten papers pertained to process-based ID models. Results showed that, while instructional designers apparently do make use of process-based ID models, they do not spend the majority of their time working with them nor do they follow them in a rigid fashion. They also engage in a wide variety of other tasks that are not reflected in ID models.

The Interplay of Content and Community in Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication: Virtual Communication in a Graduate Seminar

A group of graduate students and an instructor at the University of Saskatchewan experimented with the use of synchronous communication (chat) and asynchronous communication (bulletin board) in a theory course in Educational Communications and Technology for an eight-month period. Synchronous communication contributed dramatically to the continuity and convenience of the class, and promoted a strong sense of community. At the same time, it was viewed as less effective than asynchronous communication for dealing with content and issues deeply, and it introduced a number of pedagogical and intellectual limitations. We concluded that synchronous and asynchronous strategies were suitable for different types of learning, and what we experienced was a balancing act between content and community in our group. A combination of synchronous and asynchronous experiences seems to be necessary to promote the kind of engagement and depth required in a graduate seminar.

A process model for building social capital in virtual learning communities

Social capital adds significant value to learning in virtual learning environments. Social capital is created when learners interact with each other, by exchanging rich and thoughtful experiences among themselves through storytelling. Little research has focused on how this stock of capital is valued in virtual environments. The goal of this paper is to describe how social capital is created, through storytelling. Trust is essential for building social capital in virtual learning environments. This paper presents a process model for creating and maintaining social capital in virtual communities based on trust.Social capital is a significant value-added to learning in virtual learning environments. It is created when learners interact with each other in the community, by exchanging rich and thoughtful experiences among themselves through storytelling. Little research has focused on how this stock of capital is valued in virtual environments. The goal of this paper is to describe how social capital is created, singling out trust as basis for building social capital in virtual learning environments. The paper argues that storytelling can be a protocol for the exchange of experiences, which in turn can be avenue for the cultivation of trust. Trust is then an enabler of social capital. The paper is organized as follows. First the concept of virtual learning community is examined. This leads into the description of the essential elements of virtual learning community. Second, the paper describes how social capital is grounded on trust and this is presented through a process model. The rest of the paper will then discuss this model and the significance of social capital in virtual communities.

Social Network Analysis techniques: implications for information and knowledge sharing in virtual learning communities

This work employs social network techniques to analyse patterns of interactions critical to information and knowledge sharing among learners in a virtual learning community. Drawing from the results of this analysis, fundamental variables which are more likely to affect information and knowledge sharing in virtual learning communities are explored and future research initiatives to pursue these issues is presented.

Content and Community Redux: Instructor and Student Interpretations of Online Communication in a Graduate Seminar

The experiences of an instructor and teaching assistant who employed online communication strategies in a graduate seminar are examined in this paper. This paper expands on the findings reported in an earlier article on virtual learning communities founded on social constructivist pedagogy (Schwier & Balbar, 2002). We examine how the instructors constructed and refined structured discussions of content with synchronous and asynchronous communication at the graduate level. The instructors offer several observations and principles that are organized into categories that illustrate the source, message, channel and receiver in the communication system. The critical reflections of the instructors are compared with data from interviews with students about learning experienced in the online discussions (Dykes, 2003). Findings include the realization that instructors may fundamentally misinterpret or overlook important elements of communication, but that students are robust learners who can transcend the limitations of the medium and the instructor if given the authority in a social constructivist learning environment.

The Corrosive Influence of Competition, Growth, and Accountability on Institutions of Higher Education.

Three agendas are at work in higher education that threaten the fundamental purposes and values of universities: competition, growth, and accountability. Instructional design and technology contributes to all three agendas through our emphasis on efficiency in teaching and learning, but could make a stronger contribution to the ideals of the university by attending to quality of teaching and learning and ways to merge research and teaching.

Analysis of Students’ Engagement and Activities in a Virtual Learning Community: A Social Network Methodology

With advances in communication technology and online pedagogy, virtual learning communities have become rich learning environments in which individuals construct knowledge and learn from others. Typically, individuals in virtual learning communities interact by exchanging information and sharing knowledge and experiences with others as communities. The team at the Virtual Learning Community Research Laboratory has employed an array of methods, including social network analysis (SNA), to examine and describe different virtual learning communities. The goal of the study was to employ mixed methods to explore whether the content of students’ interaction reflected the fundamental elements of community. SNA techniques were used to analyse ties and relationships among individuals in a network with the goal of understanding patterns of interactions among individuals and their activities, and interviews were conducted to explore features and student perceptions of their learning community.

Comparing Formal, Non-formal, and Informal Online Learning Environments

Everything our research team learned about virtual learning communities (VLCs) from formal learning environments was called into question when we recently shifted our attention to non-formal and informal learning environments. In almost all of the literature we reviewed, what we understood about online learning communities and how they develop, grow, and die away was based on examinations of formal online learning environments—primarily on postsecondary courses managed by institutions of higher learning. Formal environments typically require learners to engage each other online in prescribed, externally defined ways. As effective as formal environments may be, paying exclusive attention to them limits our understanding of the nature of learning in online settings. Non-formal and informal learning environments, by contrast, impose fewer controls on learner activities, and collaboration among participants is not required. This chapter considers what we are beginning to learn about learning communities in formal, non-formal, and informal online environments and speculates about how learners make use of social interaction to enhance learning. We wonder out loud whether “community” is an overused, tired metaphor for understanding dynamic learning phenomena and social interaction evident in non-formal and informal learning environments.

Bayesian belief network approach for analysis of intercultural collaboration in virtual communities using social capital theory

We present a Bayesian belief network approach using social capital theory as a means for addressing issues that are critical to intercultural collaboration learning in virtual communities. Our work has two contributions; first, we present a computational approach that can be used for understanding social capital and intercultural factors critical to the design of virtual communities. Second, using evidence-based scenarios, we show how the Bayesian model can be tuned over time as knowledge about the system grows.