Work-learning in informal online communities: evolving spaces

Purpose - This paper seeks to explore how workers engage in informal online communities for work-learning. Although online communities may facilitate learning and knowledge creation, much of the literature is situated in formal online courses, suggesting a need to better understand the nuances of more informal learning spaces online. Design/methodology/approach - Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 own-account self-employed workers (contractors and consultants who do not have staff). Findings - Participants engaged in ways that fit with expectations, leveraged fluidity, played with boundaries, and meshed with work. These workers attempted to (re)configure online spaces to create the degree of connection and learning needed, although not always successfully. This study explores how participants participated in much less pedagogically inscribed spaces and foregrounds several issues related to online engagement: managing exposure, force-feeding community, and navigating multi-purpose spaces. Research limitations/implications - There are indications that these workers are moving toward more networked architectures of online participation. How the notion of online community continues to evolve warrants further research. Practical implications - Although turning to an online community is sometimes the only viable learning option, online presence brings challenges to be addressed by practitioners and policy makers, including attending to the nature of relationships in and between different cyberspaces, information and media literacies required, and the implications of such extensive connectivity between people and their web-technologies. Originality/value - By exploring how adults reach out to others in "informal" online communities for learning purposes, this paper encourages researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and citizens to consider tensions and questions associated with cyberspace collectives.