Wendell A.

McKenzie

OMDE 610 9040

Teaching and Learning in Online Distance Education

UMUC Online Communities of Practice

One of the best ways to accomplish something in the online environment is to

communicate with others that share similar sentiments and interests. Through this online

discourse and digital networking, a sense of community is established. These online

communities serve as platforms for like-minded individuals who share common goals and

aspirations to learn from one another, send and receive information, express concerns, and

share their enthusiasm. These online communities can be professional, social or leisure,

and/or educational in nature. Regardless of this, if executed correctly, the online community

will have an affect on the group’s performance. The Online Community of Practice (OCoP),

which encompasses many of the elements listed above, can be effective if implemented

correctly in the educational realm. It can enhance the learning experience and make the

process more satisfying. One successful implementation of an online community of practice

in the educational domain is The University of Maryland College (UMUC), as its distance

education theories have contributed to learning and developing knowledge.

The University of Maryland College (UMUC) is a successful online community of

practice. UMUC is an educational OCoP that allows students and faculty to interact with one

another through discussion posts and collaborative learning activities. UMUC was founded in the

late 1940s as the College of Special and Continuation Studies. UMUC was a pioneer by being

the first university to send faculty to Europe in the late 1940’s to educate United States military
men and women overseas. In the mid-1990s, UMUC offered its first online course. UMUC now

offers more than 600 online courses and is one of the most profound providers of public online

education in the United States. To-date, there are more than 80,000 students who attend UMUC

globally, both online and on-site, and the university caters to the military community by

providing education services at military installations in more than 20 locations worldwide.

The UMUC online community of practice is successful for different reasons. Wenger

(2014) stated that Communities of Practice, “are groups of people who share a concern or a

passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (as stated

in Bates, 2014, para. 2). One reason is that it encompasses what Wenger coined the three critical

characteristics of a community of practice, which are (1) domain, (2) community, and (3)

practice. Domain deals with students sharing a common interest that brings them together. The

shared interests that UMUC students have is to master the course content and successfully fulfill

all course requirements. Community, which Wenger (2014) describes as being bound by, “the

shared activities they pursue… around their domain” (as stated in Bates, 2014, para. 4). The

information contained in the required discussion posts encompasses the common interest of the

domain. Practice deals with members contributing to and learning from the community, how it

affects what they do, and how it informs their involvement. These three characteristics contribute

to the formation of deeper and/or more contemporary levels of knowledge and understanding,

which is beneficial to the UMUC OCoP.

Furthermore, there are several distance education theories that contribute to the success

of the UMUC online community of practice. One of the DE theories is connectivism. Kop and

Hill (2008) stated the following regarding connectivism, “Knowledge is distributed across an

information network and can be stored in a variety of digital formats” (p. 3). In the UMUC
OCoP all information is sent and received digitally, which allows the community to exist.

Another DE theory that contributes to the UMUC OCoP is the constructivist learning theory.

Constructivism has to do with how people learn based on their experiences. According to

Boghossian (2006), “Constructing knowledge means that students are active participants in a

learning process by seeking to find meaning in their experiences” (p. 714). This theory allows

the third critical characteristic of a CoP (practice) to exist. UMUC students in the OCoP learn

through this active participation and can make sense of the information based on their individual

experiences.

Continuing, the UMUC OCoP is facilitated through discussion posts and collaborative

learning activities and assignments. It functions as a virtual community where students and

faculty can procure and allocate knowledge through active participation. This contributes to the

progressively collaborative nature of contemporary teaching and learning. This process can take

place synchronously and asynchronously. The OCoP is sponsored by the faculty associated with

each individual online course. While these faculty members sponsor the OCoP, it encompasses

the student-centered learning methodology. Faculty presence and subject matter expertise

encourages different levels of contribution and participation. There is no cost to participate in the

UMUC OCoP. However, to participate in the OCoP, each student must be enrolled at the

university and in the respective course, and there is cost associated here (i.e. course enrollment

costs, course materials, etc.).

Additionally, the UMUC OCoP contributes to learning and building knowledge in

different ways. The discussion posts/collaborative assignments are designed to become more

challenging and expose learners to more information each week/module. Per Bates (2014) this

ensures the community can, “evolve and shift in focus… without moving too far from the
common domain of interest” (para. 7). This discourse also allows students to gain different

perspectives from the contributions of their classmates. This collaboration also helps in building

new knowledge. This takes place over the course of the class. The success of the UMUC OCoP

can be assessed by looking at the amount of active participation displayed by students in the

discussion posts, and by looking at the grades received as part of collaborative assignments.

In closing, the University of Maryland University College’s Online Communities of

Practice encourages students to collaborate based on the shared interests of acquiring knowledge

and achieving educational goals. It is a successful OCoP based on the three critical

characteristics of CoP and it stimulates the generation of new knowledge. There are distance

education theories that directly attribute to the success of UMUC’s OCoP. The success of the

UMUC OCoP can be determined by the active participation of students and faculty. The

designers of UMUC’s OCoP must ensure that the elements of community, familiarity,

excitement, and value are present. They must also make certain that the OCoP motivates students

to participate and make certain that students are able and willing to participate.
 References

Bates, T. (2014, October 1). The role of communities of practice in a digital age.

Retrieved July 18, 2018, from https://www.tonybates.ca/2014/10/01/the-role-of-

communities-of-practice-in-a-digital-age/

Boghossian, P. (2006). Behaviorism, constructivism, and socratic pedagogy. Retrieved July 18,

2018, from https://learn.umuc.edu/content/enforced/272033-022082-01-2185-go1-

9040/boghossian_behaviorism_constructivism_socratic_pedagogy.pdf?_&d2lsessionv

al=vk7Avtjbwwwrhfdnh4mj543q2

Kop, R., & Hill, A. (2008, October). Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestige of

the past? Retrieved July 18, 2018, from

http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/523/1137