Key ideas

Critique of traditional analyses of online learning, community, network and groups are constructs from face-to-face world, might not apply directly to online. Study of one group of 3 students in 16 student class

This paper is part of a reading group at P2PU

Online group formation as socio-technical system

• tool uptake and use
• patterns of interaction
• development of completely online group practices

Is there a minimum/max size, or is it just in relation to a larger group/community?

“Smallest and arguably most productive social unit in a new form of organization” (built through distributed and networked connections)

• Communities of practice
• Small group deveopment - describes how organizational and group pratices emerge and are reified

One group of 3 students in a 16 student class. Highly scripted interaction, individual, peer-to-peer (pair?), group.

Context: Online graduate student course community

Shared repertoire (Wenger), socially negotiated component of community of practice, highly dependent on tools available.

• 3 rounds of interviews with 3 group members
• observation of discussion board and assignments
• coding of work products
• sociogram of trace data (who reads/writes other's messages)

• politeness and cautious about risking social capital
• members are frequently multi-tasking (doing stuff in real-world at the same time as being active online
• absence of disagreement - associated with low levels of engagement and learning
  • software used does not support structured argumentation

• seems like a very small study to make big claims “We think the present findings point to a need to reconsider theories of community and group development when the context is completely online”
• the group seems very scripted, yet says “Completely online small groups are not bounded by time, space or even membership. They gravitate toward assigned teams, and negotiate time and place within those teams and across the larger community. They do this when they are ready, and not the first time they are asked to.”
• Seems very focused on task performance and outcome, unclear about connection to learning outcomes.