This week I started a cMOOC called Exploring Innovations in Networked Work and Learning where we will explore the four models of learning and how they can be applied in the workplace. These are:
- Networked learning
- Personal learning networks
- MOOCs
- Communities of Inquiry
Our first task of the week was to either:
- Option 1: Explore a model that is new to you. Write a post or start a discussion about what you see as the defining features of that model.
- Option 2: This is for participants who have experience with one or more of these models. Based on your experience, what are the subtleties that novices overlook or under appreciate about any one (or more) of these models?
Community of Inquiry
I decided to explore the Community of Inquiry (CoI) as I had never heard of this term before and wondered if there was another opportunity to apply this concept to workplace learning. Here is a quick explanation of what it is:
My immediate reaction to the readings was to look at it from the business perspective but I honed in on “the teacher” (read: Facilitator not Moderator). For some strange reason, I had completely discounted the Learning and Development department perspective (on learning outcomes) and role in a Communities of Inquiry because I was thinking of how a CoI may be set up for business (on performance outcomes).
In particular, the questions I had running in my mind were:
- “How can Communities of Inquiry help solve business performance problems?”
- “Who can act as the “teacher” in a Community of Inquiry?” (Does and should this vary dependent on the community in question?)
- “Does Learning & Development have a role as the “teacher” in a Community of Inquiry or should this be better served by someone who is an external consultant or someone within the business?” For example, someone who has a social presence themselves, seen as a role model for business or the particular topic and one who has community moderation skills?
- How is a CoI different to a cMOOC or a Guided Social Learning Experience exactly? They all look like one and the same thing.
In my head I was thinking “how can this be of benefit to say, a group of business bankers, engineers, doctors etc who have a pesky performance problem to solve together? Who would they (and could they) trust and respect as a”teacher”?
I am currently working on the development of a social learning guided design program with Coca Cola Amatil called the “Work, Connect and Learn Program” with their national engineering and maintenance teams so if I was going to apply context to the above questions it would be something like:
- Would someone from their internal Learning and Development team be more effective as the “teacher” in their community of inquiries?
- Would someone external (like myself, a consultant external to their business) be more effective as the “teacher” where I may not know their business? Or, can the “teacher” be an external consultant who is in similar line of work say in the supply or manufacturing industry?
- Would someone from their own internal business team (eg a respected senior leader, engineer or maintenance staff) be more effective as the “teacher” instead?
- Or, does it really matter who the “teacher”in a community of inquiry is as long as they can get people thinking critically and to facilitate discourse and reflection? (some “third party”).
There are pros and cons for each of the above and I believe it really does depend on the situation. However, there is also another factor at play – and that is the teacher not only providing contextual knowledge relevant to the subject but also being a social presence themselves. That is, having subject knowledge, acting and role modelling open social learning behaviours and this is where I believe that Learning and Development is just starting to explore but still has some way to go. You can read about my experience in “Social Learning? Whatever THAT means!”
I don’t think I’ve come close to defining a Community of Inquiry and its application in the workplace because upon reflection of the readings this week, I think that a CoI is similar – if not the same – as a connectivist MOOC or as Jane Hart (@C4LPT) calls them more appropriately, “Guided Social Learning Design Experiences”
If anything, it’s made me realise that for the last few years I have been developing “Communities of Inquiry” using social platforms and tools but simply calling them “social learning programs”.
As for the question of who is the “teacher?” part of me is erring on the side that it really could be anyone who knows and understands the subject matter, is interested in how people learn (can facilitate) and who is social themselves.
Will it always be a member of the Learning and Development team? It doesn’t always have to be.
And just FYI, I have put “teacher” in exclamation marks because I don’t think it aligns in a business context. I don’t use this word in business because of the perceptions and connotations of schools and education.
You can read more about how I have done this in my post: A Way To Work, Connect and Learn in Your Job.
Helen,
Your blog has helped clarify Communities of Inquiry for me. I had not heard of it either (which is ironic considering I am at the University of Alberta and in the education sector!). I went over most of the MSLOC430 resource materials for CoI and kept feeling that it does not fit into the same broad categories with Networked Learning, Personal Learning Networks and MOOCs. To me it feels too much like a particular program with rules and guidelines than a broad form of learning. Your blog and the way you drew parallels with Guided Social Learning Experiences has helped to open it up for me. Having an experienced guide or facilitator works for me but I admit that in the context of open and connected learning I struggle with the term and role of a “teacher”.
Thanks Maureen, yes, I think that’s why I struggled with it because it was too structured. That is, it was like undertaking an education or training program online – a facilitated online synchronous & asynchronous experience. The “teacher” threw me out because it was too much like formal learning – which then means there needs to be someone guiding the learning. In a corporate context, this may or may not necessarily be the Learning and Development department. It could be a subject matter expert or an external consultant. The community of inquiry still seemed too formal for me but something that may still be necessary in a corporate context especially when it may be used as an introduction to social learning for those who have never experienced it?
Helen — I really wish you had been in the MSLOC conference room today when we were pondering similar questions about the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. The CoI framework has been most often used to design and measure formal, structured online learning classes which explains the academic/school language that you are reacting to. I do, however, think it is an interesting model to have in the mix as we think about how to design social learning communities. Mostly because it can help us step back and think about the various elements that need to go into the design and care and feeding of social learning communities — Cognitive Presence, Social Presence and Teaching Presence according to this framework. I think this is just one more lens through which to view social learning as you have pointed out — you have already been working on creating communities of inquiry.
It has been extremely useful to share the CoI framework with faculty in our masters program as a way to inform course design, online facilitation practices and the design of our online class groups. I can see how CoI could easily apply to a class led by L&D or a SME or a professional/leadership development program in an organizational context where there is a person or people designated as facilitators/teachers (I agree that this term is probably not helpful in a business context). It would be interested to talk to facilitators about the CoI framework in order to help them think about how they as facilitators have a role in creating a community of inquiry; especially if there is an expressed learning goal / outcome that the participants in the class are working towards. In particular, how might more formal learning events within organizations be set up in a ways that help employees become self-directed learners outside of those time-boxed events/classes? A key component in the CoI framework is helping learners assume responsibility for their own learning on an ongoing basis (Garrison, 2011, p. 11).
But what happens when you start looking at the applications of this model outside of a formal, structured course as you have done in this post? Things get more murky.
My colleagues Jeff Merrell and Kimberly Scott and I have been working on measuring whether and how self-directed, informal learning is happening within the MS Learning and Organizational Change program’s online social learning community outside of formal class groups. (Read about our social learning community to get more context: http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/masters-learning-and-organizational-change/knowledge-lens/stories/2014/msloc-breaks-new-ground-with-jive-social-collaboration-technology.html) Just as you have laid out in this post, we have also been asking ourselves what constitutes “teaching presence” when you attempt to use this model to observe/measure what is happening in the self-directed areas of an enterprise social network / learning community. Even though our online learning community is within an academic setting, the parts that are public to the whole community (interest groups, a “water cooler”, personal blogs, personal status updates and more) sit above and across the private class groups that also reside in this community. This makes aspects of our community more like a leadership development / community of practice within an organization. Participation in the open parts of the online community is voluntary and there isn’t a teacher facilitating the interaction. But does the teaching presence part of this model just go away in this context? I don’t think so, although it may not play out in all the ways that is described in the model. It might be something related but different.
A few questions that are forming for me are:
– In an online community / enterprise social network could anyone demonstrate “teaching presence” in a given discussion or CoP? My colleague Kimberly Scott posited today that there needs to be intent to help others learn and then to help facilitate that process in order to deem a particular action/post as “teaching presence”. Otherwise the online interaction is either classified as “social presence” or “cognitive presence”.
– What actions taken by a community manager (an increasingly common role within organizations that use enterprise social networks / collaboration tools) could be classified as “teaching presence”? I think there is likely a different term that would need to used here but many of the behaviors and actions of a community manager align with what is described as teaching presence in the CoI framework. For example, community managers curate and share content, monitor activity, measure activity, moderate, promote productive behaviors, facilitate introductions, and manage community policies (The Community Roundtable, 2014). It could be argued that all of these behaviors fall into the Facilitating Discourse and Instructional Design and Organization parts of the Teaching Presence element of the CoI framework. I wonder if there could be an expanded view of this community manager role that includes a more explicit goal of facilitating learning. I’m going to try to explore this community manager role in greater depth during #msloc430 after reading a blog post by Karen Jeannette, another #msloc430 participant, titled ‘4 takeaways about investing in online learning community’: https://kjeannette.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/4-takeaways-about-community-management-in-building-learning-community/. Maureen Crawford’s response to Karen’s blog where she questions the term ‘community manager’ is thought provoking for me as I have been seeped in the community management space for a few years. Perhaps this is a misnomer just as I think ‘knowledge management’ is a misnomer. Putting ‘manager’ or ‘management’ after anything that describes something that isn’t easily managed raises red flags.
– In D. Randy Garrison’s book (2011) about the Community of Inquiry framework he says this about teaching presence: “There is always a need for an instructor or facilitator to structure, shape, and assess the learning experience, if it is to be more than an informal or fortuitous learning experience” (p. 83). Does this imply that the CoI should only be applied to formal classes that have instructors/facilitators in schools, colleges and organizations? Or is there a modified version of the CoI where ‘teaching presence’ is replaced with ‘community manager presence’ when we are talking about informal social learning? Can deep learning happen in a non-mandatory online space without formal teaching presence?
– What if there were an attempt to provide environments in organizations that attempted to create shared understanding as opposed to just exchanging information, a goal of CoI? It would likely have to be in the service of something larger that aligns with the company’s strategy (innovation, creativity maybe?) in order to sell the concept of CoI as a useful framework. More likely, CoI is probably another framework for L&D and KM professionals to have in their toolkit but they may just use it to inform an overall learning philosophy or learning practices.
I’ve had various thoughts related to CoI as it applies (or doesn’t) outside of formal classes and community management rattling around in my brain this week so thank you for writing this post. Writing this response has helped me push my thinking forward a bit. I hope to continue to explore this area over the next several weeks and beyond.
REFERENCES
– Garrison, D. R. (2011). E-Learning in the 21st century: A framework for research and practice. Taylor & Francis.
– The Community Roundtable. (2014, April 22). The State of Community Management 2014. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/rhappe/the-state-of-community-management
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Wow, thanks Keeley. You have brought up more questions and I like how you provided it from the perspective of the Masters Course (yes, I recall reading the article that you were first to use Jive as an ESN in learning). I’m sure that you’ve already have some great case studies of how it’s working in your environment – which would align closely with what business experiences with ESN’s (my assumption – and it’s a big one at that – is that possibly (??) the student population is more open to sharing in this forum because there’s no perception of fear, consequences of participation as there may be to say workplace employees?) That is, students are encouraged to participate, some employees are not – or simply don’t want to. I look forward to reading more about what others say about this as it looks like CoIs were a topic of discussion! Thank you for the great references – maybe we should place these into the Google doc?
I’m seeing that my reply is not formatted well — all the spaces were removed. Maybe I’ll work on some version of this for my own blog so I can format it more clearly.
Great PoV of the CoI Helen. Wonder if I can use any more acronyms 🙂 You ask some excellent questions and trying to draw Communities of Inquiry into a business state of mind is exactly what I’m trying to think about.
What resonated with me a lot is your desire not to use the term teacher. I love that. I think it goes along with the same mentality of avoiding any education terms that business probably doesn’t ever connect with, or at least they just don’t like it but they’re comfortable with it. Sort of the way things are so they go with it.
I think it was Jay Cross who wrote once about avoiding education terms with the business. I’m sure a lot of people have written about it but that one sticks out in memory but after searching I couldn’t find it.
I got distracted. I think things are getting a bit clearer on what a Community of Inquiry is, the big question is; how would it be effective in a business setting? You’re onto something.
Thanks Nick, that’s why I enjoy doing these MOOCs with a mix of academics as well as business people. There’s a lot that both sides can offer and there’s no ‘right or wrong’. I also believe that the academics also want to know how it may or may not work in a business world. I certainly want to know it from the perspective of adult learning. I think CoIs ‘may’ have a defined role in the workplace – but for a specific need with people who have certain skills to undertake the online facilitation. However, communities of practice are an entirely different matter and specific to workplaces. Thanks for your comment and I look forward to learning more on this cMOOC. I think the CoI got people talking!!