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HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE

A Publication of OKCIR: The Omar Khayyam Center for Integrative Research in Utopia, Mysticism, and Science (Utopystics)
ISSN: 1540-5699. © Copyright by Ahead Publishing House (imprint: Okcir Press) and authors. All Rights Reserved.
HUMAN
ARCHITECTURE
Journal of the Sociology of Self-

Creating Networking Communities


Beyond the Classroom

Apostolos Koutropoulos
University of Massachusetts Boston
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
a.koutropoulos@umb.edu

Abstract: In the summer of 2008, after a change in leadership, the Graduate Instructional
Designer Association at UMass Boston embarked on a project to connect students, faculty and
alumni in an online space. It was believed that this space, unrestrained by the spatial and tempo-
ral constraints of classroom learning, would help connect students with each other and with
alumni so that they could extend the learning that occurred in the classroom, be that a physical
classroom or an electronic classroom on Blackboard. This was not the first attempt at creating
such a community of practice; however it has been the first successful attempt to date. This arti-
cle explores our goals and how this community has successfully met them, as well as limita-
tions—such as helping members overcome a perception of social media fatigue—that we still
need to overcome in order to improve our community and to extend learning outside of the
classroom. Helping members overcome such fatigue enables them to better help the community
by contributing more content and greater net presence, thus contributing to the overall learning
experience.

BACKGROUND nected ways. This meant that there was


little overlap among officers and little long-
In the summer of 2008 I assumed the term planning. A lot of knowledge was
presidency of the Graduate Instructional shared within each cohort; however, upon
Designer Association (GIDA), a student graduation the knowledge each cohort
organization consisting of graduate created was mostly lost—thus the Associa-
students in the Instructional Design tion experienced periodic brain-wipes. As
Department at UMass Boston. The Associa- the new President, I decided to expand the
tion had been a fixture of the program since scope of the organization, to make it a
its inception in the early 1980s; however, all student and alumni association so that the
activities were ephemeral. Each new group dialog and learning could continue post-
of officers pursued the management of the graduation; and the knowledge of one
Association in different and often discon- cohort could be shared with others.

Apostolos Koutropoulos is a Training Coordinator for the Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts
Boston where he instructs students on computer literacy, and consults faculty on pedagogically sound ways of
integrating technology into the curriculum. He holds a B.A. in Computer Science, an M.B.A. with a focus on
Human Resources, an M.S. in Information Technology and an M.Ed. in Instructional Design from the University
of Massachusetts Boston. He is currently completing an M.A. in Applied Linguistics. His research interests
include: knowledge management, educational technology, linguistics, and epistemology.

71 HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, VIII, 1, SPRING 2010, 71-78
72 APOSTOLOS KOUTROPOULOS

GOALS having—such as seeking a good provider


for corporate training in a certain field.
Right from the onset of this project This type of behavior is abundant in
there were two overall goals. The first goal many face-to-face classrooms. During the
was to extend behaviors, such as informa- semester someone acts as a catalyst, breaks
tion sharing, that we tend to see during the ice, and turns on the faucet of informa-
face-to-face communication. The second tion. Barring any unforeseen events, this
goal was to break down certain barriers information flows freely throughout the
that kept our peers from meeting, interact- semester. As the Greek proverb goes “eyes
ing, and sharing that information and that don’t see each other frequently tend to
collaborating to produce mutually benefi- forget one another.” When the course ends
cial outcomes. and people go their separate ways, they
In a face-to-face classroom setting, a tend to forget that during the semester they
number of social behaviors can be observed had this great network of information. This
before, during, and after a class session. physical separation serves as a catalyst to
These social behaviors revolve around indi- terminate, or limit, the sharing of valuable
viduals sharing information with their information. Therefore our first goal was to
peers and their instructors. This informa- prevent this, to the best of our ability, and
tion is oftentimes, although not always, provide a path for the information flow to
about the subject matter of the course. continue.
Peers share book and article information, Our second goal was to bridge the
websites that make the content a little more many divides that existed. The main issue
clear, that expand upon the subject matter in the Instructional Design program was
and that illustrate the point of the weekly the issue of cohort separation. Many
lecture. Peers also provide personal exam- students in the program take the two “boot-
ples that help illustrate concepts and solu- camp” courses as a group. This in essence
tions to questions posed. All of this constitutes a cohort. Once those two
information and knowledge, when coupled courses are over many students compare
together with weekly class sessions, consti- the courses they are taking with the courses
tute invaluable resources that serve to their peers are taking, and quite often they
personalize learning and enhance the end up in a class that is made up of the
student’s understanding and appreciation same individuals as the bootcamp cohort.
of the subject matter. This issue was amplified by the fact that
Discussion and sharing isn’t just there were online-only and face-to-face
limited to academic subject matter in a cohorts. These cohorts would never be
given course! For instance many peers introduced to one another unless some of
exchange tips that they can take back to the face-to-face students took online classes
their work, including job leads for individ- as well. Even then, the percentage of expo-
uals seeking employment. Peers provide an sure to fellow students from other cohorts
expert recommendation system for the would not be huge.
group that they are in. They provide recom- By bridging these divides we can help
mendations for, among other things, which students discover other students locally,
courses to take, what reading and activities and grease the pedagogical function. If
they liked and disliked, which software to students meet online, outside of Black-
use to get the job done, tips for assignment board, there is less need for icebreakers
completion, and whom they should consult during the first week of classes because
for specific issues that they may be everyone tends to know one another. This
facilitates discussions and learning because

HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, VIII, 1, SPRING 2010


CREATING NETWORKING COMMUNITIES BEYOND THE CLASSROOM 73

discussions can be continuations of discus- these communities is to ensure that the


sions started originally as a way of socializ- community (a) always has available access
ing. By knowing your classmates and to the product, and (b) that they can
instructors ahead of time, in a non-class- communicate about it with others. The
room environment, you are essentially foundation of these [read-mostly] kinds of
lowering the affective filter (Krashen, 1995) communities is access” (Bacon, 2009, p. 35).
allowing students to be more open to the Conversely, a write-centered community is
educational process in the classroom. As a one where members don’t merely enjoy
side effect to this, new cohorts can partake things together, but rather collaboration
in the sharing and learning process of these goes so far as to help people create things
communities before they even take their first together. The community in this role also
class in the program. This can in turn feed assumes the role of content producer
back into those bootcamp courses to (Ibid.).
improve educational outcomes. When creating the community we
enabled many different options for
WHAT WE DID members to communicate with one
another. Blogs enabled members to broad-
cast information to the community, but at
The plan of attack was to create a
the same time allowed them to receive
community of practice for the Instructional
feedback on what they had written. Discus-
Design program. A community of practice
sion boards allowed members to have
is defined by Wenger as “groups of people
conversations on topics of interest to them-
who share a concern or a passion for some-
selves or the community at large. A
thing they do and learn how to do it better
community wiki allowed us to create, and
as they interact regularly” (2006). The
structure, knowledge and information for
service that we used is Ning, a white label
easier access. A community calendar
social network. There were other options at
allowed members to share events of subject
the time; however Ning allowed us to
matter significance with fellow members,
leverage both the strengths of social
as well as provide a springboard for social
networks like Facebook which allow each
outings.
individual member a profile to customize,
One major element of our Ning
and such group functions like discussion
community was to link to other resources
boards, blogs, and groups for specialized
and communities where our members may
topics. Our initial community guidelines,
be. Examples of these are LinkedIn, Twitter
which asked members to respect each
and Facebook. We used Ning as our home
other, copyright laws and the privacy of
base for everyone to come and become a
other members, were intentionally broad so
member, however if people did not want to
that they could provide a framework for
become members, some information could
member actions without stifling the discus-
also be accessible to them through other
sion and the creativity of members with
services such as Twitter or by RSS. By
unnecessary cumbersome rules.
extending our reach to partnering services,
Our goal was to strike a balance
even though the discussion could become
between a write-centered community and a
fragmented, we are able to reach more
read-mostly community. A read-mostly
members, and eventually convince more
community is one where members come
students and alumni to join the epicenter of
together to share information provided by
our learning community.
experts—in other words information that is
produced elsewhere. “The primary focus in

HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, VIII, 1, SPRING 2010


74 APOSTOLOS KOUTROPOULOS

SUCCESSES and tell” groups to show off the instruc-


tional projects they’ve created and to
In the first couple of years we’ve had a receive peer feedback. Another community
number events occur that indicate a based interest is starting a podcast which
healthy, growing, community. Some brings together students, alumni and
general indicators of success are that faculty to discuss current issues in instruc-
people joined, they recommended the tional design.
community to their peers, and they
attended events and gave the organizers of CHALLENGES
the community valuable feedback.
In the first two years of existence our The community faces three major chal-
community saw a 200% increase in lenges. The first is that currently the
membership! Our attempt at creating a community is a read-mostly community,
community of practice for the instructional whereas we would like to strike a balance
design program was by no means the first; between read-mostly and write centered.
however, it was the first successful attempt. The second is having members either not
In six months we had surpassed the join the community or join and not partici-
number of members compared to previous pate due to social media fatigue. Finally, we
attempts, and our members felt encour- have the challenge that many these days
aged to tell their classmates and fellow are facing: that of the web-native versus the
alumni about the community and recom- web-immigrant. The major challenges
mend that they join. These are individuals probably stem from the belief that if we
who may have not known of the commu- build it they will come and participate.
nity or had never gotten an answer to Our first challenge revolves around the
WIIFM (What’s In It For Me), a common fact that our community is currently a read-
instructional designer question. This mostly community. In a read-mostly
enthusiastic support from fellow students, community the members of that commu-
alumni and faculty of the program has nity tend to consume the content provided
created a warm and welcoming environ- by a select few individuals from external
ment that allowed the community to sources. Some of the available research
expand. This in turn encouraged organiz- (Zhang, 2001) prepared us to not expect
ers, all of whom are volunteers, to provide many contributions from all members;
more support back to the community. however, we did not think that only a
Since the community was started, handful of individuals would be seen as the
members have attended events in the area endowed content creators of the commu-
and sought each other out. In the Boston nity. We expected an online community,
area the CIT conference is a prime example due to its temporal and spatial shift nature,
of this. Our members came together for an to be a liberating place that allowed
event that interested them and stayed to members to express themselves, seek infor-
socialize. Other examples are previous mation from and provide information to
EdTech Conferences at UMass Boston, as others without the spatiotemporal
well as local ASTD events. constraints of the classroom.
Finally, members have taken charge to Our second challenge was that of social
carve out their own piece of the commu- media fatigue, also seen as information
nity. Members who have joined have had overload. By now many members who are
ideas for groups within the community— inclined to join social networks may have a
special interest groups such as the “show MySpace account, a Facebook account, a

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CREATING NETWORKING COMMUNITIES BEYOND THE CLASSROOM 75

blog, a Twitter account, and many other LESSONS LEARNED


accounts on top of their work and personal
emails. Joining and participating in such a Early on in the process I thought that it
community of peers represented a would be rather easy to set up a community
dilemma. Members, who want to keep in and that individuals would flock to it
touch with their peers, join but they feel simply because it existed. After all, in both
like they may not have enough time to my face-to-face courses and in my online
“keep up with it.” A comment we’ve heard courses classmates seemed to have built
has been that students would become more rapport with each other that would, I
social once the semester ends and they thought, naturally carry over into an online
have fewer obligations. This seems to indi- space. The fact that we had built rapport
cate that members feel like there is an infor- with one another meant that getting more
mation overload consequence that is people online, and conversing and building
inherent in joining such a community. knowledge would be a natural extension of
Finally, there is the challenge of getting our face-to-face and Blackboard based
web-immigrants on board with resources activities. Of course, I was a bit mistaken.
that are available only on the web. One The first lesson learned was that you
thing that many instructional designers need a community manager that can guide
know is that people will invariably ask the community. The community manager
WIIFM. Of course, each individual will has a job that is time-consuming, does not
have different reasons for joining a commu- have standard hours (i.e., 9-5) and often
nity of practice, so the answer to WIIFM does not have a tangible dollar figure tied
will vary depending on the person. Many to return-on-investment. However, the
web-immigrants are more sensitive to effects of good community management
concerns of “information overload” that can be seen by increase in membership,
web-native members are not necessarily community activity and information
concerned with. We need to arrive at an flow—just to name a few things. One of the
answer to the WIIFM question posed by tasks of a community manager is to build
our web-immigrant members. buzz within the community and bridge the
The fact that the community seems to world of the community with outside enti-
be read-centered has created an interesting ties that affect the community—namely
dilemma: the classic problem of what fellow practitioners. One final issue that
comes first, the chicken or the egg? Some makes the job of community building espe-
members (mostly web-natives) have told cially challenging is that a community
us that they would contribute, or contrib- manager is not a PR person for the organi-
ute more, if they knew for a fact that others zation. Rather, the community manager is
in the community would read what they an ombudsman. This means that there is a
wrote and either respond specifically to challenge in separating your own views as
what these members had written, or an individual, and the views of those you
respond in kind by starting a discussion, represent. This isn’t always an easy task.
participating in other discussions, writing a The second lesson is that the commu-
blog post, and so on. In other words they nity needs a mission, and a plan to imple-
want proof that the community is indeed ment that mission. Before building a space
vibrant. Of course, solving this dilemma is for their community, organizers need to
something we are still working on. think about what the end goals are. What is
the community trying to accomplish?
Based on these guiding principles you can

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76 APOSTOLOS KOUTROPOULOS

design your online spaces and determine community. As such, one of the duties of
your interaction with members. This also community leaders and volunteers is to
gives the community a blueprint to follow. help fellow members when technology
A mission and a clear plan make it easy for does not work.
members to be part of a community, and it
helps community organizers create succes- AUDIENCE REACTION
sion plans. Another issue related to our
mission plan is the concept of transparency.
The audience of this CIT presentation
Transparency has come up many times in
was composed mostly of Instructional
the past few years in a number of different
Designers working both from the higher
facets of our lives. Communities of practice
education and the corporate domains. The
are no different. Communicating change to
main questions that came up are questions
the community, be it the addition of a
about using these communities as a possi-
service or a removal of an existing one, is
ble replacement for textbooks in classes
important in making the community feel
and general questions about the logistics of
like this is their place, that they have a say
community management.
in what happens. A corollary to this is that
As far as members becoming disagree-
a community manager shouldn’t be afraid
able or posting on controversial topics are
of negative feedback and suggestions. This
concerned, personal experience in moder-
type of feedback only serves to improve the
ating large communities of practice gave
community.
me the ability to have a “gut feeling” about
The third lesson is that you need some
such interactions among members. For new
dedicated volunteers. An online commu-
moderators of our community, however,
nity is like a high school dance. There are a
who may not have had such experience, the
few brave ones that take to the dance floor
Air Force Web Posting Response Assessment
right away, and there are many that sit on
flowchart is a great job aide. It displays, in
the sidelines looking on. Dedicated volun-
an easy to follow flowchart, what my previ-
teers in an online community serve as those
ous experience as a moderator has taught
few brave ones that take to the dance floor,
me and it codifies an organizational
and encourage others to participate as well.
response to potentially troubling posts. As
If only one or two “tech savvy” people
far as copyright compliance is concerned, if
contribute in the community, it may feel a
moderators discovered that some sort of
bit awkward to join in. However, if more
information were posted in violation of
and more people contribute (or getting
copyright, that content would be removed
onto our metaphorical dance floor), this
and a moderator would speak to the
encourages others to participate and we’ve
member who posted it to let them know
got the beginnings of a knowledge sharing
that this type of activity can endanger the
and knowledge building community. If few
community. Of course it should be noted
people participate, we don’t have a
that in our community I have noticed
community of practice, but rather a simple
neither disagreeable behavior nor any
online group.
copyright violation.Let me start with the
Finally, we’ve learned that technology
issue of the logistics of community
won’t always work. Sometimes it is the
management. The audience wanted to
technology that just does not work, and
know how many hours are spent weekly
other times it’s how people interact with the
managing the ins and outs of such commu-
technology that doesn’t work. Leaving
nities, and what happens when friction is
community members to fend for them-
created by members that break the rules.
selves isn’t a great way to encourage the

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CREATING NETWORKING COMMUNITIES BEYOND THE CLASSROOM 77

The fact of the matter is that many hours CONCLUSION


are spent per week on the management,
maintenance and expansion of the commu- A lot has been learned from creating,
nity. The community manager needs to managing and maintaining our community
keep an eye out for members who’ve got of practice for the Instructional Design
questions, see if he can point people to the program at UMass Boston. The main lesson
right sources of information, be attentive to learned was that if you build it, they won’t
members’ needs and bring those needs up necessarily come, and if they do come, they
to the right people within the organization. may not necessarily contribute. Just like
In addition, the knowledge that is created face-to-face interactions, online interac-
needs some management and structuring. tions need a friendly environment and ice
Being a community manager is not a 9-to-5 breakers to get members engaged and
job, as a recent instructional designer blog- participating. In the grand scheme of
ger wrote (Jarche, 2009). The community things, this community is still young and
manager may put in a regular work week’s given our current evidence I wouldn’t
worth of hours into managing a commu- necessarily call it a great success. However,
nity, but it may not seem like work because the seeds have been planted and there is
these hours are distributed over the whole great potential both for the community and
week. the members that comprise it.
Finally, there was the idea brought up
of using such communities as textbook
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