Distributed participation in blended learning communities: actors, contexts and groups
by Susanna Annese; Marta Traetta
International Journal of Web Based Communities (IJWBC), Vol. 8, No. 4, 2012

Abstract: Our basic motivation in this article is the question: what does it mean to participate in learning communities? Starting from a socio-cultural perspective of learning as a social process of participation and of participation as a social experience within 'communities of practice' (Wenger, 1998), we studied participation trajectories in three blended learning communities, characterised by the combination of various communication settings. By mixing social network analysis and qualitative content analysis, we studied - in a 'diagnosis phase' - two such blended learning communities, in order to reorganise - in a second 'action phase' - the general architecture of the blended course, and to evaluate - in a third 'maintenance phase' - the impact of this reorganisation in a third blended learning community. The three phases were aimed at improving participation dynamics in blended learning courses according to an action-research paradigm (French and Bell, 1973). Results show that a careful design can promote active participation in blended communities through the merging of different communication settings, varied membership levels, diverse group sizes and definite social cohesion practices (Annese and Traetta, 2009).

Online publication date: Wed, 20-Aug-2014

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Web Based Communities (IJWBC):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

    Username:        Password:         

Forgotten your password?


Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com