Abstract:

Today’s college students tend to be more independent than previous generations of learners; they work/study in an online world where collaboration takes place in ways that are not defined traditionally. Blended learning is an instructional paradigm that promotes student collaboration, and that makes the necessary move away from the age old method of teacher-centered instruction to student-centered instruction. What develops from this sort of facilitated student collaboration are informal learning communities.

The purpose of this investigation is three fold: first, to identify the different types of learning communities; second, to determine how students benefit from creating learning communities, and third, to see if there is a correlation between individual student performance and success in a learning community.

The authors intend to study the impact of these learning communities on student performance/success by surveying students in their junior and senior years, when class projects are an integral part of the curriculum, and students are expected to form teams and work together to produce deliverables. These students are in technical majors (Computer Science and Network Information Systems) and are proficient in programming languages like C, C++ and Java and usually work on real world projects, such as setting up a website for a small business or creating their own customized project management system. Most of these students enter the workforce right after graduation, and are expected to work in teams, exhibit ethical behavior, have superior communication and leadership skills, and be able to train new hires.

The survey questions focus on how students learn within the scope of the community. Summative assessments (course grades are based on individual effort, as well as a students' contribution in the team) are employed to evaluate the student during the course of the team project. Based on the survey results we hope to improve team building exercises and the overall pedagogy of teaching classes that involve teams. Learning communities can be further extended to help students develop soft skills, such as time management and oral and written communication.

Keywords:

learning community, blended learning, collaboration tools.