Working collaboratively in Online Communities
In the Virtual-Workspace at present, there are approximately 22,000 students and teachers from over 50 schools and colleges across Worcestershire and Wolverhampton. Bringing together communities of teachers and students from these different schools/colleges are our online community-building tools.
What is an Online Community?
An ‘Online Community’ contains tools for collaboration that help members to:
- foster relationships;
- learn together;
- create new knowledge; and
- work together remotely (in and out of school hours).
In the Virtual-Workspace, students and teachers have access to the ‘Communities’ area. This is where they can join - and create, communities of their interest.
A community can contain any of the following tools for collaboration:
- A shared workspace - where relevant materials and resources can be uploaded for members of the community to access
- A shared calendar - on which dates and events relevant to the community can be saved for members to access
- A discussion forum - where community members can start and take part in topical discussions relevant to the community
- An opinion poll - which can be set by the owner to get instant feedback on their community's views
- An RSS news feed - which helps community members to keep up to date with news and information relevant to their community
What kinds of Communities are available in the V-W?
| Purpose | Duration | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Subject/Interest-related community | This type of community develops students' capabilities in a particular subject/interest through the building and exchanging of knowledge (eg Maths community, Book Club community, ICT community). | Whilst there is interest by the members |
| 2. Learning group community | This type of community can be seen as an extension of the classroom: Teachers create a 'learning group' community for each class they teach, in which they can upload relevant learning resources and important dates for their students to access. Students also have access to a community forum which enables them to discuss any work-related issues together and with their teacher. | Until the end of a course |
| 3. Project community | This type of community is set-up to accomplish a specified task (eg to manage a group activity, project or competition). | Until the end of a project |
Each type of community outlined above offers a form of social structure that can take responsibility for fostering, learning and developing competencies, and managing knowledge.
The Communities area has become, by far, the most popular area in the Virtual-Workspace. Our community-building tools are enriching the learning experience by enabling focused interaction between students and teachers on an ongoing basis - in and out of school hours.
