Collaborative Approaches To The Construction Of Knowledge And Building Communities Of Inquiry And Practice

Student demographics have been changing for some considerable time – more mature students, more students combining work and study, more students looking for flexible learning options. While school leavers are still an important segment of the college and university student body, they no longer are the dominant drivers of the strategies pursued by the institutions which look to broader markets, especially international markets.

From the early days of online learning, there was an emphasis on enabling students to construct knowledge through questioning, discussion, sharing of perspectives and sources, analysis of resources from multiple sources, and instructor feedback. Social media encouraged the development of communities of practice, where students share experiences, discuss theories and challenges, and learn from each other. The professor is no longer responsible for delivering all of the knowledge or even providing all of the sources for learning – but maintains a critical role as guide, facilitator, and assessor of the learning. However, most instructors have not experienced learning, much less teaching, in such collaborative environments, especially when facilitated through technology. It requires a reconsideration of roles, authority, and how learning is achieved and measured.

The most recent model of how this constructivist approach to teaching and learning can occur has been developed which gives emphasis to the idea that the “class” is a community engaged in a serious inquiry into a body of knowledge, guided by the teacher. Known as the community of inquiry model, it has garnered a lot of attention and is now an embedded idea in instructional design. It is built on a simple principle: the more engaged learners are with their learning, the more likely they are to be successful.

(Available: https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends. Adapted.)

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