Inviting different levels of participation

This principle addresses participation on many levels: providing different ways to participate, allowing different levels of commitment based on time and interest, and encouraging members to take on new roles in the community (Wenger et al., 2002). 

Participation in SCoPE is flexible and inclusive. In the public seminars, members may choose to participate by reading along rather than activity contributing to the discussion. There is no formal registration process for events, and once the session begins there is no obligation to participate on a regular basis, or to even continue.

Each topic invites both experts and novices to contribute. For example, a seminar discussion held in May, 2006 on informal learning attracted participation from a recent book author on the topic. In that same seminar other participants were wondering what the term “informal learning” means. This open format can lead to a fruitful discussion. “Experts” who are completely immersed in a topic are asked to explain their work to people who may be unfamiliar with the basic concepts, resulting in opportunities to examine and rethink their ideas.

In addition, the community environment is intuitive for newcomers. At time of writing there had been no requests for assistance to carry out basic functions such as posting to forums and updating profiles and preferences. There has been only a handful of requests for help logging in. At the same time, a more seasoned community member may take advantage of the more advanced features to customize and manage their participation.

There are various options for reading member contributions to the community such as RSS feeds from each forum, and the option to subscribe to individual forums by email. These options fully support and encourage lurking behaviour, which allows individuals an opportunity to become acculturated and ease in gradually if that suits them. There are “unspoken rules in every long-standing community, and …if you don’t spend some time just reading posts, observing how members of the community interact, you run the risk of barging in like a bull in a china shop” (Sandra & Spayde, 2001, p.167). This open format accommodates busy professionals, and members choose to join a discussion when they feel compelled and have the time. Obviously, not all seminar topics are going to appeal to everyone, but many members choose to read along to keep one ear on the discussion. As Wenger et al point out “successful communities build a fire in the centre of the community that will draw people to its heat” (Wenger et al., 2002, p.58). The scheduled seminar discussions are clearly the “heat” in SCoPE. There have been many cases where members have entered a discussion declaring that they could no longer resist the temptation:

• “Been lurking asynchronously, but my activation threshold has been reached and I have to jump in with some desultory comments.” Corrie Bergeron - January 26 2007
• “I've been following this conversation in RSS but you've wormed me out of the woodwork!” Linda Hartley - June 21 2007

Currently there is only an option to subscribe to RSS feeds from individual forum discussions. Figure 7 is a suggestion for a site-wide feed posted to the community Suggestion Box, an idea that would provide a convenient and effective method for inviting different levels of participation. Also, RSS calendar tools would allow for broad sharing of events among members and across communities.

Figure 7 A wish posted to the SCoPE suggestion box

During scheduled discussions there have been requests to continue the dialogue past the seminar end date. One member suggested that all scheduled discussions remain open for afterthoughts, a format which we immediately adopted. In addition to moving the forum to a separate section called “Past Seminar Discussions” I added to this title “…but always open. Afterthoughts encouraged!” Even though there is typically very little activity after the scheduled end date, members know there are more options. Perhaps that is the main purpose; it’s not that members will take advantage of the feature but they like knowing that they can if they choose. As mentioned earlier, in some cases special interest groups are formed to provide an opportunity for ongoing conversation or projects. Figure 8 shows a poll to determine interest in a book project following the “Blogging to Enhance Learning Experiences” seminar. This book project is now underway using Wikispaces.com. Introducing focused projects and new ways to interact add variety and sustain interest.

Figure 8 Poll to determine interest in writing a book together

An interesting dilemma we faced early on in the community was how to serve the needs of the SFU community (as outlined in our project goals), yet at the same time present SCoPE as an inclusive community -- extending community activities and invitations for participation to an international audience . We made a conscious effort to portray SCoPE as community hosted by SFU, but not hosted for SFU. SCoPE’s tagline “an open, online community for people like you” is intended to present an open invitation for anyone who is interested. Calendar events and discussions of interest only to the SFU community are posted in a separate SIG. As of May 30, 2007 19% of the membership is from SFU (as indicated by email address) and further work is needed to create awareness about SCoPE among SFU faculty and staff.

Communication trends among education professionals point to more use of blogs and social networking software. Spontaneous thoughts, questions, observations, opinions, and announcements are posted to personal blogs or in response to other blog postings rather than in a single community venue (White, 2006).  SCoPE members are also active in other communities. This cross-pollination of published ideas and dialogue presents both interesting opportunities and challenges for fostering different levels of participation. Experimentation with available social networking platforms such as EduSpaces.org, Facebook.com, and ning.com has provided new insights into how we can engage members in different levels of participation. Casual conversation and providing new ways to connect by interests and experiences help to build more and stronger relationships.