Learning Community or Community of Practice: Preliminary Findings of a Transfer of Learning Study

Abstract

This exploratory study examines the learning community and community of practice aspects of an online applications course. Transfer of learning (Caffarella, 2002) was significant for nearly all study participants. The learning community purposefully fomented as part of the course design was a significantly positive and effective element of course design and delivery, supported by instructor presence. However, the community of practice aspect during the course (Lave and Wenger, 1991), whilst strong, was not as evident after the course ended. This paper represents a preliminary analysis of the findings from the quantitative (questionnaire) portion of a larger, mixed methods scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL) study.