The unexpected consequences of replacing corridor chats with an online community of practice

Abstract

We are four academics teaching mathematics at three different higher education institutions over two continents. Through fortnightly meetings to research how our practices changed as a result of the Covid-19 lockdowns, we formed a community of practice. The process of articulating our experiences and ideas, and reflecting on the recorded meetings and the written homework we set ourselves, was reassuring and motivational. We identified five assessment propositions to guide our mathematics teaching, which we summarize in this paper. A major proposition of assessment we embraced was the use of open book (or open-internet) assessment as a way to test for mathematical understanding. Our community of practice interactions influenced our teaching and assessment practices. We learnt more deeply about assessment by interrogating each other's work, observing and identifying misconceptions or errors (made by ourselves and others), and learning different ways of solving problems through discussion. We noted that sustaining the community of practice required comfort in being confronted and criticized. The unexpected consequence of our community of practice was the push it gave us to think about why we teach what we teach, assess how we assess, and how we can make both more relevant to a changing world.

Virtual Communities of Practice for Faculty and Staff in Higher Education

“…Furthermore, while not unique to vCOPs and found in other communities of practice, the digital resources and tools served to support the emotional well-being and personal resilience of participants during the pandemic (Bickle et. al, 2021;Borkoski & Prosser, 2020;Campbell et. al., 2022;Eaton & Paswuini, 2020;Ulla & Perales, 2021).…”

“…Some participants were in different colleges within a single campus (Yang et al, 2020), and some were located across multiple campuses of the same institution (Borkoski & Prosser, 2020;Harvey et al, 2021). Other participants were located in multiple institutions within a country (Bickle et al, 2021;Gottlieb et al, 2021;Mead et al, 2021), an online faculty for a single institution located throughout a country (Gilmore, 2021), or in multiple countries (Campbell et al, 2022;Cottom et al, 2018;Filipe et al, 2021;Henriques & Hopkins Eyles, 2021).…”

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, several vCOPs were created as a result of the shift to emergency remote instruction, the quarantine, or work-from-home mandates put in place by many local governments. As such, the vCOPs identified that they needed tools that would allow them to function while not being able to meet in person (Bickle et al, 2021;Campbell et al, 2022;Carroll & Mallon, 2021;Mead et al, 2021).…”

“…Many positive impacts were a direct result of using digital tools that would not have been possible in a traditional community of practice. The most frequently cited benefit was that the digital tools allowed vCOPs to overcome the physical barrier created by having participants who are displaced over varying geographic locations (Campbell et al, 2022;Cottom et al, 2018;Filipe et al, 2021;Harvey et al, 2021;Henriques & Hopkins Eyles, 2021;Mead et al, 2021;Yang et al, 2020). A benefit connected to the COVID-19 pandemic was that vCOPs allowed institutions to overcome the physical restrictions caused by illness, isolation requirements, campus closures, and work-from-home mandates (Eldridge et al, 2021;Gachago et al, 2021;Grant & Organ, 2020;Harvey et al, 2021;Henriques & Hopkins Eyles, 2021;Ulla & Perales, 2021).…”