A Guide to Learning Community (Part 1)
What is it? What does it do? Why is it beneficial?
Hi friends ❤️
Hope you are having a good day 🫶
I am back with another post on community! It’s been a while since I’ve published on the Community section of my Substack.
Hope we will learn something new together through this post:)
Let’s dive in.
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As much as our products are online courses, they are also learning communities.
Community is an important part of our product; yet, it's an element that is often harder to measure the impact compared to other ones such as content, delivery of the instructors/facilitators, hands-on challenges/assignments, or learning materials.
Community is hard to pinpoint and measure, partly, because it is the emergence of many agents interacting with each other (learner to learner, learner to staff, learner to instructors) and interacting with the course structure (learner to Discord, learner to Butter, learner to Google Sheets).
In this post, I will attempt to explain what a learning community is, what it does, and why it is beneficial to one's learning in the context of online learning.
What is a learning community?
A learning community provides a space and structure for people to align around a shared goal.
Effective communities are both aspirational and practical. They connect people who are eager to learn while holding their members accountable to a common goal, agenda, metrics, and outcomes.
Writing On The Net is a learning community that connects people who are excited about writing and blogging while holding everyone accountable for writing and publishing every day for 30 days. WOTN pushes each individual beyond their potential by creating spaces and structures where they can thrive together.
Effective communities enable participants to share results, celebrate milestones, and learn from each other.
What does a learning community do?
1. It connects people.
A learning community gathers people across disciplines, geographies, and backgrounds to connect, share ideas and results, and learn from each other.
WOTN brings together Vietnamese from all across Vietnam and overseas.
2. It sets goals and measures collective progress.
A learning community aligns people around common goals, metrics, and areas of practice.
A distinctive feature of WOTN is its emphasis on a concrete, achievable goal: writing and publishing daily for 30 days. This clear objective provides a focal point for community activities and discussions.
Progress is tracked not just in terms of individual accomplishments but also in how these contributions enrich the community. For example, members could share their writing accomplishments, wonders, or struggles, offering opportunities for feedback and constructive critiques.
3. It enables shared learning.
A learning community creates spaces for people to share what they know, what they don't know, and how they think, which helps deepen collective knowledge.
At WOTN, members can learn from each other’s writing processes, challenges in maintaining consistency, and how they overcome writer's block, thereby building a repository of collective wisdom.
4. It supports distributed leadership.
A learning community allows members to have a wide range of leadership roles and opportunities to contribute to the community.
The structure of WOTN allows for various leadership roles, from Discord moderators to Blogger in Residence to Student Success Leaders. These roles help in facilitating discussions, organizing workshops, and supporting community members along the way.
5. It increases progress towards impact at scale.
In a learning knowledge system course that I am building, each member's participation in enhancing their own learning and note-taking systems can create a powerful community resource that benefits people beyond the course.
Why is a learning community beneficial?
1. Fosters a Sense of Belonging and Engagement
Emotional and Social Support: Learning communities like WOTN create an environment where members can find emotional and social support. This sense of belonging can significantly enhance motivation and engagement.
Reducing Isolation in Online Learning: In online courses, learners often feel isolated. A learning community counters this by providing a platform for interaction, making the learning experience more personable and connected.
2. Enhances Learning through Collaboration
Diverse Perspectives: Participants in a learning community bring diverse perspectives, experiences, and knowledge. This diversity enriches the learning process, as members are exposed to different viewpoints and approaches.
Peer-to-Peer Learning: Learning communities facilitate peer-to-peer learning. In WOTN, for example, members can learn from each other’s writing styles, feedback, and strategies for overcoming common challenges.
3. Builds Accountability and Commitment
Shared Goals and Objectives: Aligning around shared goals, like writing daily for 30 days in WOTN, fosters a sense of accountability. Members are more likely to stay committed when they know their progress contributes to a larger community goal.
Encouraging Consistency: Regular interaction and the expectation to contribute keep members active and engaged, promoting consistency in practice, which is crucial for skill development.
4. Provides Opportunities for Leadership and Skill Development
Distributed Leadership Roles: In a learning community, members can take on various roles, from peers to support alumni to facilitators, providing leadership opportunities that foster personal and professional growth.
Developing Soft Skills: Interaction within the community helps in developing soft skills such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving.
5. Creates a Repository of Collective Wisdom
Shared Resources and Knowledge: Over time, a learning community accumulates a wealth of shared resources, experiences, and insights, becoming a rich repository of collective wisdom.
Learning from Successes and Failures: Members benefit from the shared experiences of successes and failures, gaining insights that are not typically available in traditional learning formats.
One of my biggest learnings towards the end of 2023 in terms of our product development is the importance of instructors’ brand and content in a product’s ability to sell. I would say that this learning has many times made me doubt the impact of community on one’s learning in Vietnam’s market and lose motivation to research and build community.
However, I want to believe in the power and future of learning communities in online learning. I think it’s so magical and beautiful to think about learning and creating collective wisdom that is beyond our individual potential. Maybe it will still take us a long time to sell the importance of community but I want to believe in it and keep writing about it.
In the next part, I will share frameworks for building online learning communities.
Thank you for reading!
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Nếu bạn hứng thú trải nghiệm cộng đồng học tập mình và team đang xây dựng, mình muốn mời bạn tham khảo khoá Writing On The Net #5 tại đây 👇
