Education Commons^™

Bounded Community: Designing And Facilitating Learning Communities In Formal Courses, Brent G. Wilson, Stacey Ludwig-Hardman, Christine L. Thornam, Joanna C. Dunlap

Joanna Dunlap

Learning communities can emerge spontaneously when people find common learning goals and pursue projects and tasks together in pursuit of those goals. Bounded learning communities (BLCs) are groups that form within a structured teaching or training setting, typically a course. Unlike spontaneous communities, BLCs develop in direct response to guidance provided by an instructor, supported by a cumulative resource base. This article presents strategies that help learning communities develop within bounded frameworks, particularly online environments. Seven distinguishing features of learning communities are presented. When developing supports for BLCs, teachers should consider their developmental arc, from initial acquaintance and trust-building, through …