Constructing a community of practice to improve coursework activity

Students can practice skills and construct knowledge by carrying out coursework. However, every student is assigned the same problem in general hands-on coursework activities, with no consideration for learners’ diversity. Hence, some students do not take the task seriously when producing their coursework. Furthermore, what one has learned – that is, the knowledge constructed by learners – cannot be shared efficiently during traditional coursework activity. This paper proposes the construction of a journal-publishing community, connecting through a publication called Coursework Journal, in a web-based coursework environment designed to improve the efficiency of knowledge sharing for a programming course by endowing learners with roles. This paper extends the organizational development concept of a community of practice to the web-based coursework environment, following the definition of a community of practice for situated learning described by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, who suggested sociocultural theories of learning as alternatives for cognitive theories of learning. Results of data analysis and questionnaires indicate that the Coursework Journal can promote knowledge sharing effectively, improve the quality of students’ coursework, and advance learning performance accordingly.