So, what is a community?

The articles for this week discussed building communities among students at a distance and virtual teams. One thing that was mentioned in the Kimble et al. (2000) piece is that "the concept of the virtual team is not clearly defined and it often overlaps with concepts such as the virtual or networked organizations, the virtual workplace, virtual communities, electronic commerce and some forms of teleworking" (p. 3). Perhaps one of the difficulties in creating a sense of community in virtual spaces is rooted in the fact that online educators have not reached a consensus on the definition of community. How can we as researchers understand online communities and the formation of these entities if we cannot first define what they are?

Not only are there different ways of defining "community," but, as Brown (2001) notes, there is little research on the way students define community. In her study, Brown found that not all students participating in courses that were reported to have high levels of community did not share that viewpoint. Moreover, Brown states that while she was able to identify three levels of community (making online acquaintances or friends; community conferment; and camaraderie - p. 24), five of the students reported that they felt no sense of community in these courses; responses from four of the others were questionable. This discrepancy between the researcher's observations and the comments revealed during the interviews complicates the notion of community even further. Where does (or should) our focus lie - on the findings of our observations based on theory, or on the self-reports of those participating in these courses?

Brown indicates that this research involved telephone and email interviews. It would have been interesting to see whether the comments made in the first round were consistent with those made in the second. It is possible those who reported no sense of community had a bad day and upon reflection would revise their initial response. One explanation Brown gives is that the "participants did not want to be part of the community - did not want to bother with positive, supportive messages and interaction in the cafeteria" (p. 26). Isn't it possible that these individuals could have had an external support group, and because the cafeteria interactions were not a required part of the course did not feel the need to engage in optional activities? Overall, Brown's spin on her five explanations are somewhat simplistic and negatively skewed.

People are complex and developing a deeper understanding of what makes a community for individuals who participate in online course may require research that is more longitudinal in nature.