(Not) On My Own: Using Online Communities of Practice (CoP) to Encourage Development of Academic Identity of Distance Tutor

DE200 is in a unique position in 19J presentation as we are lowering the group size from 20 to 15, hence need to recruit a large number of ALs to cover the groups (approximately 35). This will include ALs new to the University as well as existing ALs new to the module. 

DE200 is a level 2 compulsory module in our BPS accredited psychology qualification. A large part of the module is dedicated to research methods teaching – this is the area that many students struggle with and we know that large number of students who withdraw from the module do so around the assessment related to research method. It is crucial that we can provide the best support for students and the ALs are in the best position to do that. However, as the module is rather complex, we have seen new ALs struggling to get to grips with the expectations of the Open University correspondence tuition and feedback and academic student support. This is compounded by our teaching model, where ALs are effectively working in isolation and often feel they are on their own. Fostering the sense of supportive community is therefore crucial not just for development and maintenance of professional identity but also as an environment where both formal and informal learning can take place. 

We are Staff Tutors on the module team and one part of our role is to organize staff development events for ALs, including induction and marking coordination. For this presentation we are planning a face to face induction weekend for new colleagues which will be followed up by a series of online SD events in order to support such a large number of new ALs. These will include TMA marking coordination for each TMA, how to use dedicated one-to-one student support time, regular online drop in sessions for new ALs on the topics raised in the AL forum, sessions about specifics of some of the assessment work (e.g. collaborative TMAs, thresholded TMAs), preparing for f2f and online learning events and anything that comes up during the module. This is intended to be a responsive rather than prescriptive kind of support. However, as the staff development will be delivered online, we propose to use the concept of online Community of Practice (CoP) to explore the most effective way of fostering an online community and the sense of belonging for the new ALs, which, at the same time, will impact on student experience. 

This is a much more comprehensive and frequent programme of staff development events than we have ever offered on the module. It lends itself to developing an online CoP and therefore feedback gained from the participants as well as metrics obtained from the OU systems (TGGR-POT, SEaM data, VOICE MI, monitoring) will be important in evaluation of this approach. If successful, it could be extended to other modules, particularly the new or relatively new modules which are still trying to build cohesive teaching teams. 

Theoretical background and previous research: 

The research shows that developing a CoP, particularly for staff who need to adapt to a new working environment, is essential in building the domain knowledge, the sense of community and increasing effectiveness of staff (Crawford and Saluja, 2017). Drawing on Bandura’s social learning theory, the term of CoP originated in the work of Lave and Wenger (McDonald and Cater-Steel 2017) and has been applied extensively in higher education. However, with the Open University model of teaching at a distance, where the members of the same teaching team may never meet each other face to face, the challenge is to develop and evaluate the CoP online. Previous research at the OU indicated that online CoP help increase vocational ALs’ identification with academic role description (Roberts, 2011). Furthermore, study by McCall, Mooney, Rutherford and Gilmor (2014), evaluating the SocialLearn platform as a facilitator of Communities of Inquiry, looked into the barriers and opportunities in creating a successful online platform for teacher where the CoP can develop and be maintained. The present study builds on the previous work and expands this into evaluation of whether building a successful CoP for ALs can ultimately lead to better outcomes for students. 

The research questions: 

What are the challenges and opportunities of developing an online CoP for Associate lecturers new to the module and how CoP fosters development of academic identity? 

The objectives of this project: 

The overall objective is to explore pedagogical implication of developing an online CoP for new DE200 psychology ALs. In particular, the focus will be on achieving the following outcomes: 

New ALs will get comprehensive support at the appropriate time – with their marking, preparing for learning events and dealing with common student issues on the module. 

By providing comprehensive support with assessment marking in particular, the ALs will be better equipped in the use of effective correspondence tuition and feedback. This will be assessed through the monitoring feedback (qualitative) as well as through TGGR/POTs reports (quantitative). 

By supporting new ALs effectively, the student retention on the module and progression onto the next stage of their qualification will be improved. 

A Qualtrics survey will be send to all new ALs who attend staff development sessions. First survey will be scheduled to go out after the face to face induction weekend (booked for 27/28 September) and then after each marking coordination meeting. These subsequent surveys will also include questions about the sessions offered in between (e.g. drop in sessions) as we do not wish to send out too many surveys. Informal feedback will also be encouraged. 

At the final stage we plan to follow this up with semi-structured interviews with new ALs, focusing on their experience of support in the first year of teaching and how that impacted on their work. 

Quantitative and qualitative data on AL’s marking and feedback will also be gathered thorough monitoring reports, TGGR/POT, VOICE MI and SEaM data. 

We plan to use the following types of impact as a framework for the evaluation of this project (Reed, 2018): 

Understanding and awareness – to raise awareness about online CoPs amongst ALs on the module, including its potential for problem solving and professional development. 

Attitudinal and cultural impacts – introducing online CoP to new audience and encouraging alternative ways of working together in order to improve student experience as well as personal and professional development. 

Capacity building – to enable the group of ALs to deal with changes that require professional updates quickly and effectively by using the online CoP. 

Social impact – particularly in allowing access to information and training equally to individuals dispersed across the wide geographical areas and reduce isolation often felt by the ALs. 

Connectivity – encouraging development of formal or informal networks and by extension the sense of academic identity. 

References:

Crawford, E. G. C and Saluja, S. (2017). In McDonald, J. and Cater-Steel, Aileen (2017) Communities of Practice : Facilitating Social Learning in Higher Education. 1st ed., pp. 471-504 

McCall, V., Mooney, G., Rutherford, P. and Gilmor, A. (2014) The potential of online academic communities for teaching staff: findings from a pilot study of the SocialLearn platform. https://openuniv.sharepoint.com/sites/units/lds/scholarship-exchange/documents/Mooney%20SocialLearn%201.pdf#search=Community%20of%20practice Accessed 15/08/2019 

McDonald, J. and Cater-Steel, Aileen (2017) Communities of Practice: Facilitating Social Learning in Higher Education. 1st ed. 2017. doi: 10.1007/978-981-10-2879-3 https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/open/reader.action?docID=4743079 

Reed, M. S. (2018). The Research Impact Handbook, 2nd Edition, Fast Track Impact 

Roberts, J (2011). Practitioners as university teachers: Building communities of practice through professional recognition. https://openuniv.sharepoint.com/sites/units/lds/scholarship-exchange/documents/Practitioners%20as%20university%20teachers%20poster%2011-11.pdf#search=Community%20of%20practice Accessed 15/08/2019