Online Learning in Divorce: How the Formation of a Community of Practice in a Divorce Support Website Enables and Inhibits Learning

Abstract

This article is about the informal learning that took place in an online divorce support and advice forum. In it, the author discusses the formation of a community of practice among the members during the first nine months of the site's operation. The author shows how the key markers of mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire developed between members, and argues that the community of practice both enhanced and inhibited learning among its members. In particular, the author suggests that members learned not only the knowledge about divorce law provided by others on the site as a form of public good, but they also learned ways of coping with divorce, with their exspouse and with the legal system generally. At the same time, however, some group practices inhibited learning, both for those participating in the community and for those excluded by members. The author concludes with suggestions for developing similar online communities of practice.

Lurkers versus posters: Perceptions of learning in informal social media‐based communities

“…Wenger et al (2002) pointed out in the community of practice theory that lurking is a significant feature of online communities. Paechter (2012) defined “lurker” as “someone who follows online interaction without overtly participating in it” (p. 394). If there is a member‐only community, lurkers are those who log in but do not post.…”

“…Some researchers believe that lurkers have little influence in online communities (Thorpe et al, 2007), but they also point out that lurkers may intentionally select what to read within the information in a community (Dennen, 2008) and will sometimes let their social presence be known through “liking” other posts (Gerben, 2012, p. 163). Although “too often, reading is assumed not to have any intrinsic value by comparison with contribution” (Thorpe et al, 2007, p. 355), some studies have found associations between participation and members' perceptions of learning (Gilbert, 2016; Luc et al, 2018), while others have not (Paechter, 2012).…”

Communities of Practice of Transition: An Analytical Framework for Studying Change-Focussed Groups

“…The first community, based around an online divorce support website, was the subject of a retrospective online ethnography conducted by Carrie (Paechter, 2012a(Paechter, , 2012b(Paechter, , 2013. The site, Wikivorce, 1 was established in 2007 to provide support for people in the UK going through divorce.…”

“…Carrie had been an early participant in the community and gradually realised that a community of practice had spontaneously formed among its members. She subsequently took advantage of a period of study leave to use it as a retrospective case study in the serendipitous formation of an online community of practice: for further details, see Paechter (2012a).…”