Requesting Community Groups for specific content areas
Dividing the Community by "Industry" categories does not reflect a useful reality for me. I work with modern language and ESL instructors and I want to be able to interact with others who do too. But both here and on the previous Community site it was (and is) incredibly difficult to find each other.
Case in point: I work with language teachers at the Higher Ed level, but the needs of our instructors have a lot in common with those of language teachers in K-12 and Corporate language ed contexts. We all need students to practice their listening, or to show us their oral proficiency, or to demonstrate their acquisition of particular vocabulary items and grammatical structures. We all need to work seamlessly with audio and video, to create challenging and interesting assignments (using tools available in the platform), and to develop engaging interactive learning materials where students can practice their language and show us what they have learned.
But right now we're doing this in a vaccuum. We, as language teachers, need a space where we can connect with one another to discuss (and share solutions to) the unique challenges we face.
Several years ago, when our institution first migrated to BrightSpace, I asked D2L Community managers if they would create a group like this for language teachers. At the time, I was told that is not how the Community is organized. With the launch of the New Community, the time seems appropriate to ask again.
And the value of this approach need not only be limited to language instructors. I have seen numerous posts on the PIE especially related to the unique challenges faced by math and STEM instructors. Perhaps they too could have a group. Nursing faculties as well seem to share many common challenges and limitations. And so on.
Generic categories like "Instructional Design Best Practices" or "Teaching & Learning" are just not going to cut it. If this Community is truly going to become a community, we need an easier way to find our people within it. Community Groups seems the obvious place to make this happen.
Answers
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Thanks a ton for this very valuable feedback! We truly appreciate you sharing details about your professional situation and recommendations for how the Community could be an even more helpful space for peers to connect and learn from each other. It is always our intention to create spaces for connection and to share resources with those who are in a similar field.
We would love to continue this conversation. You have some really great thoughts and we'd love to learn more from you! With your permission, can I set up a time for us to connect?
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Sure, please DM me to set it up. Thanks.
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