How to run an online community: course

Posted Tue, 22/12/2009 - 16:44 by Helen

This course provides an introduction to the skills required to set up, plan, manage and moderate an online community. It is designed to give participants the opportunity to explore usable and practical ideas about the creation and management of communities for a variety of purposes.

Suitable for anyone who would like to know how to run a lively and successful online community, this course provides participants with the key skills to recruit and engage community members, initiate content-generating conversations, and implement the community tools available to monitor and assess the interactions in the community as a basis for further planning.

The course is based around the successful Reach Further model for sustainable community-based online networks, and our over twenty years’ combined experience in running online communities. It does not depend on particular technologies, but we explore the use of blogs, forums, Ning and other social networks, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media tools to support your community.

This is a 5-week course, taught online in a community learning environment, or as two one-day workshops or webinars with two weeks' online activity in between. You should expect to spend 3-5 hours per week on the course. Public or bespoke courses are available.

By the end of this course you will be able to:

  • Understand the potential of online collaboration
  • Use a variety of community models appropriately
  • Use a variety of collaborative and social media technologies
  • Write appropriate, engaging online messages
  • Enable and support contributions from others
  • Weave & summarise
  • Engage and interact with people online
  • Value diversity with cultural sensitivity, explore differences & meanings

Indicative course content:

Week 1: Community introduction

  • Introduction to online learning
  • Induction/arrivals e-tivities
  • Models of online participation
  • Community policies and planning
  • Discussion: ground rules

Week 2: Participating online

  • Getting people communicating
  • Motivation to participate
  • Dealing with lurkers
  • Building on offline skills
  • Social media
  • Discussion: Collaboration

Week 3: Developing moderating skills

  • Encouraging interaction
  • Weaving
  • Summarising
  • Writing online
  • Discussion: Technology we use

Week 4: Successful communities and networks

  • Challenging & questioning
  • Social networking
  • Learning and communities
  • Monitoring and evaluating
  • Trolls and flaming
  • Discussion: What constitutes a successful community?

Week 5: Planning your community

  • Best practices in community management
  • Choosing etechnologies
  • Creating and delivering a community engagement plan
  • Final messages
  • Discussion: reflecting on the maintenance of community

Throughout the course participants will gain practical experience in moderating interactions within a community.

Either way, during the online unit you should aim to be online several times a week. The course can be accessed from any computer with internet access (home or work) and there are no set times: you can log on and work at times to suit yourself.

For more information, please contact us