Online Communities
Reviewed and Updated: January 2008
This page has been kept for reference.
It will no longer be updated by ICVET.
In its simplest form, an online community is a group of individuals with a common interest who engage in discussions and information sharing over a period of time using a forum or web site as the medium of communication.
From a learning perspective, online communities can be a rich source of information and solutions to problems. Online communities may focus on work or learning related topics or an interest in animals, art, photography – any subject at all! There are a number of communities of educators, and it’s easy to start your own community if you can’t find what you’re after.
Being a member of an online community has many advantages. It’s possible to remain anonymous while still enjoying the benefits of collective knowledge and experience. An online community can bring together people with similar interests from all over the world without geography being an issue.
Search the group pages of sites such as Google, MSN or Yahoo to find communities in your area of interest - or start your own!
Websites
edna Groups
A free service for communication and collaboration between members of the Australian education and training community
Community Answers
Advice about building quality online communities. Submit a question, view responses to past questions or discuss issues with others in the forum.
Learning Communities Catalyst
Aims to facilitate collaboration, debate and information exchange among people involved in learning communities. Offers resources and expertise to those wanting to start a community.
2005 Networks Community Forum
Discourse and debate focused on flexible learning and elearning issues for Australian VET professionals and other interested educationalists.
American Society for Training & Development - Community Discussions
Discussion boards on matters relating to elearning.
Learning Times
Community for education and training professionals.
MERLOT– Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
Free and open resource for faculty and students of higher education.
Tapped in: A community of education professionals
International community of education professionals from schools, universities and other educational organisations.
Publications
YOUNG, Margaret & Levine, John 2001, Poor Richard’s Building Online Communities, Top Floor Publishing.
Poor Richard's Building Online Communities shows how anyone with Internet access can create an online community and describes the many advantages. For businesses, Web communities provide tightly targeted audiences for higher ad rates, more efficient merchandising, excellent word-of-mouth publicity and customer loyalty. Online communities can also be used to promote a special interest group or help an organisation communicate with its members.
POWAZEK, D M 2001, Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual places, New Riders Publishing.
The author invites us to ask questions about the online communities we want to build - 'Why do you want to build it? What are you trying to accomplish?' Defining online communities as situations where users have one-to-one communications with other users and develop relationships over time, the author describes how to build community features into websites. Chapters include discussions of building content, website design and setting up communication policies. If you're even considering building an online community, you must begin with this book.
MASON, R & Kaye, A R (Eds) 1989, Mindweave: communication, computers and distance education, Pergamon Press, Oxford, UK.
This book was written in 1989, however the issues it tackles are still relevant today. Although out of print, the entire book is available online.