Postgraduate writing e-communities: De-marginalising remote participants (original) (raw)
This paper considers how building e-communities can support and socialise postgraduate learners of Writing in an online Master of Arts taught from Melbourne, Australia. Although participants may be geographically remote, active establishment and maintenance of online communities of practice can help to break down the feeling of marginalisation that online and distance learning participants report (Caplan 2003). This study uses pedagogical theories of building and maintaining e-communities born of Lave and Wenger’s social constructivist thinking about communities of practice (Lave & Wenger 1992; Wenger 1998) to introduce a pilot study of e-community in first year subjects in Swinburne University’s Master of Arts in Writing. The pilot study draws on the insights of the university’s tutors, experienced in teaching writing online, and their perceptions of postgraduate Writing students’ needs to belong. In a first year core paper in the degree, learners work closely with a critical friend or in a small group to develop their Writing in the context of a selected project. This participation requires them to engage in virtual collaborations and learning e-communities. This paper shows how such an approach can de-marginalise geographically remote writers by providing insider support, harnessing common goals, encouraging shared discourse and promoting membership.
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