Community-Powered Learning

I’ve been really moved by the conversations sparked from my tweet and newsletter on Monday. Big thanks to everyone who has contributed to the discussion!

In case you missed it, here’s the newsletter, and here’s the tweet:

Charlotte Crowther 🕸

@CharlotCrowther

I asked:
In your experience, what's the difference between an Online Course that's Community-Powered, and one that isn't?
The conversation it sparked was mind-blowing.
10 co-created reasons to take a Community-Powered Learning approach as a learner or instructor:

11:31 AM • Oct 31, 2022

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The topic of how to empower community-powered learning is top of mind for many learning community leaders, as well as community members and learners themselves.

You can't beat a sense of belonging and growth with others. Those conversations, those ups and downs, the new experiences and possibilities — are magic.

I recently moved a 30 minute train ride out of London and joined a local tennis club. The support, encouragement, and fun (and bbq's!) has meant I play consistently 1-2 times a week. Showing up is half the battle. Keeping going at something is often what it takes to improve. I hadn't picked up a racket since I was 18. I'm super chuffed to be playing so regularly now, and represent the club in a local league(!).

Coming back to my thread and newsletter, here’s a few highlights of the questions, experiences and challenges shared:

The 10 co-created reasons to take a Community-Powered Learning approach as a learner or instructor has helped us clarify and understand what community-powered learning is, and why it's important.

The question now is HOW to foster community-powered learning effectively (and without the overwhelm).

I really appreciated the experience and suggestion shared by Meta Learning reader Tara:

I loved this analysis. You're spot on. And it got me thinking about how learners come into a community-powered learning experience. For context, I ran community-powered learning experiences from about 2012-2021, and this was a nut I was trying to crack the whole time!

In my experience, community builders get the value of interactive learning and peer-to-peer support. And they're up for learning how to do it better.

But learners have a more difficult time with community-powered learning.

While some adult learners dive head-first into collaboration and getting/receiving feedback from peers, many feel like fish out of water. I think there's a huge opportunity to teach learners how to learn in community—and that it would be a boon for both results and sales.

I tried many different strategies over the years (from comprehensive automated onboarding to 1:1 orientations to very hands-on moderation...) but I couldn't ever get it quite right. I know some people have this figured out! But I think that, by and large, it's not well understood and certainly under-utilised.

So maybe there's some fodder for a future thread: what are the best approaches for teaching learners how to learn in community?

I think Tara is onto something here. What do you reckon? Think this will be the focus for my next thread on the topic! Your suggestions, links, experiences and thoughts are welcome :)

Charlotte

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