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Laura Howard
OMDE 610 9040
Assignment 4- The National Association of Agricultural Educators OCoP
4/2/16

The National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) online community of practice

provides agricultural educators the opportunity to interact by providing and exchanging
educational resources, information, knowledge and guidance
(http://communities.naae.org/welcome; http://communities.naae.org/community/help). The
NAAE, as an organization consists of over 7,800 members that encompasses all areas of
education to allow educational professionals to display content, knowledge and ideas to benefit
the community (http://www.naae.org/whoweare/index.cfm). It also provides resources, programs
and services to enhance agricultural professionals in the field
(http://www.naae.org/whoweare/index.cfm). The NAAE consists of six different regions across
the United States that have their own events and administrators
(http://www.naae.org/whoweare/index.cfm). The NAAE created an online community of practice
that is has over 3,600 members sponsored through an agricultural business supplier called Zoetis
(http://www.naae.org/index.cfm; http://www.naae.org/; http://www.zoetis.com/aboutus/index.aspx; http://www.zoetis.com/products-services/index.aspx), as specifically indicated on
NAAE (http://www.naae.org/) website. The NAAE created this community of practice to
welcome agricultural educators in exchanging information and resources with others in the
agricultural community (http://communities.naae.org/welcome).

The NAAE OCoP visually appears to set up well and properly maintained through a number
of observations (http://communities.naae.org/welcome). It has a professional appearance and an
organized way of presenting features to participate in the community
(http://communities.naae.org/welcome), which are traits important in an online community

environment as described by Harasim (2012). This community has to accept you as a member
after reviewing some basic information that you provide (http://communities.naae.org/createaccount.jspa). The membership criterion is one of the traits Harasim (2012) explains, that helps
in studying and determining the function of a community (Harasim, 2012). Although you have
to be approved to be a member (http://communities.naae.org/create-account.jspa), the
atmosphere appears inviting to allow questions and requests for assistance, advise and resources
(http://communities.naae.org/message/1882#1882).
What appears to be a very prominent feature in the achievement of this OCoP is the
environment of support which incorporates the connectivist and constructivist approaches, which
are theories that Siemens (2004; 2007) and gsiemens (2012) explains and distinguishes
(Siemens, 2004; Siemens, 2007, gsiemens, 2012). Siemens (2004) explains that, behaviorism,
cognitivism and constructivist approaches do not deal with dilemmas of structuring knowledge
and transfer (Siemens, 2004, Connectivism section, para. 3). However, the idea of allowing
communication and networking between the members to occur through the features of this
environment is part of the connectivist and constructivist theories (Harasim, 2012; Siemens,
2007; Drexler & Drexler, 2008; gsiemens, 2012). The community creates an environment of
people that are available to give various forms of media and content to contribute to the
community, resulting in more opportunity for connections to form knowledge capability (Drexler
& Drexler, 2008; Siemens, 2004; Siemens, 2007). This also encapsulates Downes (2005)

explanation that, knowledge that is connective must have an interaction (Downes, 2005, Types
of Knowledge section, para. 6). There appears to be an administrative facilitator who participates
regularly within the community to provide information and comments to other members
contributions (http://communities.naae.org/welcome), which is one of the acheivement
determiners explained by Harasim (2012). There also appears to be a lot of opportunities and
tool features for group collaboration and projects to be developed within the community of
practice, using the online environment features, which could encompass constructivist ideals,
since that could incite learning from experience gained (Harasim, 2012) and connectivism
(Harasim, 2012; Drexler and Drexler, 2008). Recent activity is apparent in this community as
many posts were just contributed every couple of hours (http://communities.naae.org/welcome).
This OCoP appears to have a very extensive and intricately organized structure using online
collaborative capability features (http://communities.naae.org/welcome). It uses an outlined list
of various categorized subject forums for people to select and provide information and
communicate specifically under each category (http://communities.naae.org/welcome), which is
a component used in the OCL theory (Harasim, 2012). People can view a members post and
correspond with feedback or other forms of media, such as documents, pictures and links
(http://communities.naae.org/welcome). You can invite people to participate in your
conversations and extensively communicate with other colleagues
(http://communities.naae.org/communications). It allows you to see other members
(http://communities.naae.org/people) and see what they are interested in through their
individualized top content selection choices (http://communities.naae.org/people/lat3cc/activity).
There are a lot of features and capabilities in this online community to explore and discover
(http://communities.naae.org/welcome).

The NAAE supports the components to utilize communication between colleagues,

professionals and other people interested and affiliated in agricultural education
(http://communities.naae.org/welcome). The community posts information in a number of ways
that supply and support knowledge creation. The community can create an environment that is
enriched by member contribution and participation in the discussions on certain subjects and
exchanging of content and media that can offer assistance and ideas to people in the agricultural
education field (http://communities.naae.org/welcome), which an important component in the
connectivist ideology (Siemens, 2004; Siemens, 2007). If looking at this from a connectivist
approach this community provides available access to link to other people (Siemens, 2004;
Siemens, 2007; Drexler & Drexler, 2008). The community should be able to provide an
extensive amount of information and opportunity to gain insight, information and people that
may provide useful resources and knowledge which should help to benefit the agricultural
education community (http://www.naae.org/whoweare/index.cfm; Harasim, 2012) again, which
are all components that contribute to connectivism (Siemens, 2004; Siemens, 2007).
Analyzing the achievement of the NAAE should have the ability to be regulated and
evaluated efficiently, with the proper and adequate online tools (Harasim, 2012). Since the
community appears to using an online collaborative tool/environment, it should be equipped to
run digital queries and reports, which are tools explained by Harasim (2012) to gain and analyze
data (Harasim, 2012). There are various information components that would be useful in
examining the reports and usage tools (Harasim, 2012). Harasim (2012) explains looking at the
amount and time of postings and contributions from the members (Harasim, 2012). If people are
posting and contributing information consistently, that may be a valuable indicator of the
achievement of the community (Harasim, 2012). Also, looking in-depth to the information and

content that is being contributed to the community through transcript analysis is also another idea
explained from Harasim (2012). If the information is relevant and appears to receive good
reception from the other members, that may be another great indicator (Harasim, 2012).
Harasim, (2012), also discusses how transcript assessment tools, could be useful tool for
evaluating the more in-depth analysis of the contributions and communication of the members
(Harasim, 2012). If there are tools and features for people to individually provide reviews and
evaluation of the community, that should be helpful also in gaining important information on the
community (Harasim, 2012).

References
Downes, S. (2007, November 27). An introduction to connective knowledge [Web log post].
Retrieved from http://www.downes.ca/post/33034
Drexler, W., & Drexler, A. (2008, November 26). The networked student [Video file]. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA
gsiemens. (2012, June 3). What is the theory that underpins our moocs? [Web log post].
Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2012/06/03/what-is-the-theory-thatunderpins-our-moocs/
Harasim, L. (2012). Learning theory and online technologies. New York & United Kingdom:
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. doi: 10.4324/9780203846933
National Association of Agricultural Educators. (2007-2011). [Online community of practice
website]. Retrieved from http://communities.naae.org/welcome
National Association of Agricultural Educators. (2016.) Retrieved from http://www.naae.org/
Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age [Web log post].
Everything elearning. Retrieved from
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Siemens. G. (2007, September 2). The conflict of learning theories with human nature [Video
file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=xTgWt4Uzr54&feature=youtu.be
Zoetis. (2013-2016). Retrieved from http://www.zoetis.com/