Creating and Sustaining Community in a Virtual Environment - Information Communication Technologies for Human Services Education and Delivery - page 113

bulletin board, a Web site, or any combination
of these. These are places where the community
member receives informative emails (listserv)
about a particular topic of interest; a place where
members gather synchronously (chat room) and
have an ongoing dialogue—all participating at the
same time; a place where ideas are posted (bul-
letin boards) for the members of the community
to leave comments or ask questions; or a site on
the Internet (Web) where there is a interactive
component attached to it for contacting the de-
signer/creator of the site and receiving a response
back. All these contribute the life of a community
and being active within that environment. Each
of these areas mirrors what could be occurring in
a face-to-face setting but have been adapted to a
virtual environment.
When the community is ongoing and its mem-
bers are active there is a need to sustain the life
of the community and to meet the needs of its
participants. Special consideration must be given
to how the community can be nurtured within the
virtual environment. It is important to work to
expand communication and to facilitate greater
interaction among the members. Members need to
be able to articulate and to accept a shared vision,
goals, and aspirations of the community. They need
to know the purpose of the community being in
existence and they need to know how this purpose
is influenced by the group members.
When the community is ongoing its members
need to be able to articulate and apply the necessary
knowledge, skills, and attributes that facilitate the
development of the members and the evolution
of the community itself. The members of the
community need to be prepared to support the
other members so that a climate is fostered for
collaboration and interaction. Lock (2002, p.1)
raises three questions to consider for sustaining
a community:

2. What is required of the community members

to sustain the community? and

3. What is required to create a history and

sense of connection with those involved
in the community in the past, present and
future?

The sustainability of the community requires
the development of a philosophy of community
that embraces both continuity and change. It re-
quires the engagement of all involved—leaders,
instructors, participants, and spectators. It may
well be these individuals who take the current
community to new levels expanding upon the
original vision of the community when it was
first designed.
To be an effective community the members
and the leaders must accept such characteristics
as 'ownership, social interaction, group identity,
individual identity, participation and knowledge
construction' (Misanchik & Anderson, 2000,
p.146). Administrators of the technology, instruc-
tional designers, and the online participants in the
community play key roles in the building of rela-
tionships in the community setting. The fostering
of these relationships is what helps to solidify the
feeling of community in this environment. It is the
informed interactions of the members and leaders
of a community that influence and foster the vitality
and resiliency of the online community.
Intentional learning and participation involves
an awareness of one's abilities, preferences, and
understanding or lack thereof of the dialogue
within a community setting. It is important to
nurture this type of interaction in a community in
order for its members to gain a sense of worth and
growth. This is based on the premise that learners
can gain more knowledge with the help of the
proper tools and guides than they would if they
were working alone. In a virtual environment, the
members are the guides and influence each others'
ability to be active, on target, and learn.
In an virtual environment there needs to be
consideration of the diversity of knowledge and

1. Who is responsible for promoting and nur-

turing the longevity of the community?