WebJunction

What if a group all took the same course at the same time?

We would have a cohort, but there are still several key elements to put together to get the cohort members to learn together and to create the kind of social learning experience that happens naturally in on-the-ground classes.

In the all-virtual environment of WebJunction’s learning community, we are able to assemble some key pieces of the social puzzle:

• Course
• Classroom
• Classmates
• Course materials
• Conversation

Course

For the course, we aligned our choice with the March focus on customer service, selecting The Customer’s Voice course from the WebJunction catalog. We intentionally chose a course that addresses a general business audience, rather than a library-specific audience. We wanted to test the cohort’s ability to add the library context to the course.

Classroom

WebJunction’s groups have great “classroom” potential.  Groups bring people together around a topic of interest to share knowledge through online forums and collections of related materials, all in a central location.

We created the Customer Voice group as the location for our virtual knowledge collaboration, as well as a resource that would continue to inform visitors to the site who seek to improve their customer service. The main page of the group served up fresh information about the cohort: getting started information, announcements of key milestones, and links to important resources.

Classmates

As people joined the group, the congregation of their photos/avatars in the Group Members window enlivened the cohort with a peek at profiles and personalities. Most profiles include email contact, which enabled the facilitators to send email notices and reminders about key cohort events. A total of 22 WJ members joined the group, including two WJ staff members who provided active facilitation in setting up the group and guiding the activities.

Course materials

The course materials were posted in the documents section of the group. The starting lineup of documents included:

• Syllabus with a suggested four-week timeline based on the four chapters of the course
• Learn Together Guide with tips and strategies for making the most of the cohort
• Instructions for joining live Wimba meet-ups

Conversation

Conversation occurred in the discussions section of the group. In addition to the “introduce yourself” and course logistics threads, 11 more topic threads were introduced by various group members to discuss the implications of what we were learning for the library field.

More conversation

The facilitators scheduled three live, synchronous sessions in Wimba with the intention of enhancing the personal connections in real time:

• Kick-off meeting to get better acquainted and discuss our objectives for the course and the learning experience
• Mid-course check-in to continue putting the library lens on the course matters
• Wrap-up to talk about what we learned, to announce awards, and to reflect on what worked and didn’t work about the cohort

The big question

How well did all the pieces fit together? In many ways, the pieces started to form a whole social learning experience; in other ways, we have plenty of room for improvement. Let’s look at some of the numbers.

Course: At the five week mark (one week past the official end of the project), seven group members had completed the course and received a certificate. Two more indicated that they were close to completion and had “good intentions” to do so.

Conversation: The 13 discussion threads that accumulated during the project generated a total of 60 posts, with some very thought-provoking and insightful comments from group members. There were a total of 778 views of the topics, an average of almost 60 views per topic, a spread that closely follows the 90-9-1 theory of online participation. Although not active contributors, the “viewers” benefit from the content of the conversations. 

More conversation: At the first live session—the kick-off meeting—9 group members gathered, but attendance dropped to 4 for the mid-course and wrap-up meetings. For those who did join the synchronous sessions, the conversation was lively and rewarding.

A post-project survey aggregated more responses to the Customer Voice project from half (11) of the cohort group. Nine of the respondents had never experienced this kind of online, cohort learning before. Ratings for the “puzzle pieces”:

• Customer Voice group (classroom): made all the difference for 4; helped greatly (4)
• Member profiles (classmates): helped a little or greatly (9 of 10)
• Syllabus (course materials): helped a little or greatly (9 of 10)
• Live sessions (conversation): made all the difference for 2; helped greatly (6)
• Discussions (conversation): made all the difference for 1; helped greatly (8)
• Email (communication): helped greatly (8)

The survey also garnered several suggestions for improvement:

• Better bonding: more icebreaker efforts to bring group members together at the beginning.
• Pairing up: enhance motivation by asking members to find a partner and communicate frequently about course progress and learning.
• More competition: set more competitive targets in addition to the final target of completion and announce “winners” regularly.
• More push and “automated nagging”: more facilitator efforts to send syllabus reminders or push special topics and milestones of the course.
• More social networking tools: disperse the course experience through more network channels—Twitter hashtag, Facebook feeds, live chat room embedded in the overview page.

Did we reach social learning paradise? Not exactly. Those of us who participated actively in the cohort had an enriched learning experience. We formed stronger social network connections; we had meaningful conversations about the relevance to librarianship; and we completed the course. The challenge is to entice more people to participate fully in online social learning. There are still significant barriers.

1. Lack of time was cited by 7 of the 11 survey respondents. Although the Learn Together Guide offered tips for managing learning time, it is difficult to prioritize learning time over all the other demanding and mandated tasks of each day. Some group members had to take the course at home on personal time. Lack of time is often a reflection of the #2 barrier.

2. Lack of management support undermines the best intentions toward learning. If learning is not required, time is not made in staff scheduling. If online, self-paced learning time is not valued, then motivation falls by the wayside.

3. Lack of incentives (or the "no carrots, no sticks" problem) compounds the first two barriers. It's just as important for the learning organization as it is for the learner to have clear objectives on how the new knowledge will apply to the job. Certification programs and continuing education credits are incentives to learning and help focus the learner on a meaningful path.