OFFLINE PEER GROUPS

Adding an offline component to your course can be very exciting, but tricky if not all members are involved. An offline group of peers live near each other - allowing them to meet in person to work on course material. If other peers in the course aren't involved, we recommend that the offline group should always present its activities to the online group in a timely manner. If the group is technically advanced enough to rope distant peers into the live meetings - all the better! 

Offline groups in the School of Social Innovation

SoSI in particular emphasizes local, in-person study groups called "citizen circles"– small, offline peer groups who meet locally to conduct the courses and focus on transforming their communities and themselves- because developing and practicing social innovation skills like cooperation, teamwork, and empathy, most of the time, requires real human interaction.  These local groups can create their own study groups or connect and share with many other local groups as part of larger topics in SoSI.

Planning a study group that includes offline collaboration

In general, when planning a study group that combines online and offline components, it helps to think about organizing tasks in terms of:

- Tasks best done individually (e.g. keep a journal)

- Tasks best done in a small in-person group (put on a small play to practice applying the concepts you learned this week)

- Tasks best done collaboratively between many groups globally (both synchronous options like chatting or Skyping, and asynchronous options like collaboratively editing a mind map together).

Activity Idea: Draw a three circle ven diagram on a large piece of paper (or use an equivalent tool online, such as a prezi) and label each one "Online" "Offline" "Individual."  Add tasks to each appropriate section of the diagram and then build the plan for your learning plan by selecting a few from each bubble for each week.

Some Examples:

- During SoSI pilot course, Social Innovation in Education, in the Fall of 2010, participants divided the class into two "sections" based on time zones and schedules for conference calls on Skype.  Each citizen circle, in seven different countries, met at one of those two scheduled times each week, had some discussion before and after the conference call (in person), and then got to discuss their work with other participants from around the world on Skype.  

- One new topic in Spring 2011 (Women as Social Innovators) asked each local citizen circle to pair up with a "partner" circle somewhere else in the world for their weekly discussions by Skype.  

- Another new topic (the Sustainability Studio) elected to have discussions by Skype only a few times throughout the seven weeks of the course (introductions, guest facilitators, and the "studio show" at the end to celebrate accomplishments), while project work was happening mostly face-to-face in between those larger meetings.  

- Yet another topic (Creativity as a Vehicle for Social Change) took the opposite approach: Skype calls were held once a week, but participants were not required to have any additional meeting time outside of those calls (though participants were encouraged to come together face-to-face for the calls if possible).

How big should my group be?

It depends on your goals.  For a historical precedent, study circles such as those organized by the Chautauqua Institute in the U.S. and in Sweden over the last century have not typically been bigger than 15-20 people. 

If your group is intended to emphasize discussion where every member is an active participant and your time is limited, you may want to keep your group small.  For example, if you have six participants in a group, you should be able to just get through three discussion questions in one hour where every participant gets a chance to speak.  If you add more participants than that, this might be because your overall format is different (for example, based on more physical movement or interaction, longer meetings, etc.).  

Another reason to keep groups small is that this gives every participant a chance to facilitate or organize at least one of the meetings out of a 6-8 week work or study plan together.  

Bringing groups together in your city

Some cities have hosted "launch parties" to introduce potential local study group participants in each area and form their groups.  When bringing large groups together, consider planning a few activities to help get the group started.  You can also "seed" the event by having participants who have already formed study groups be prepared to say a few words at the launch event about the topic they are studying as well as talk the plans they have already made, the members that have already joined, and who else they are looking to bring along.

It also helps to plan a second event and announce the date from the start- for example, a show-and-tell evening- so that participants have a specific date to try to complete the work their study group set out to complete. 

There are a two main paths to creating a new study group from such events:

Theme First: Decide on a theme you would like to explore (I.E. sustainable dining, improving early childhood education at your local school, doodling for social change) and recruit people who are interested in the theme as well.

After you decide on a theme, think about existing networks that would have people interested in your theme as well and advertise your idea, for example:

Sustainable Dining – Cooking clubs, friends that you go to lunch or dinner with, local farmers markets.

Improving early childhood education at your local school – parents of young children in your community, teaching students studying early childhood education, pre-K-3 teachers.

Doodling for social change – Art enthusiasts, your friends, educators. 

Group First: Identify individuals or a small group of people that you would like to create a study group with (I.E. your co-workers, your friends) and decide on a theme together.

Once you have identified individuals or a small group of people you want to create a study group with, talk with them about it one-on-one and then as a group. Think about the common interests that you share and how that can translate into a theme, such as:

- Friends that you go to lunch or dinner with, interested in environmental issues and sustainability: Sustainable Dining

- Friends who are interested in education, fellow parents, fellow educators: Improving early childhood education at your local school.

- Friends who you enjoy spending time with, enjoy art and drawing: Doodling for Social Change.

Activity Idea: Mapping your shared interests

1. Have your group sit around a large sheet of paper on the floor between you.  
2. Go around the circle to share types of projects or interests each of you have.  Have one person write these down in bubbles around the outside edge of the paper, as if they are protruding onto the paper from the people.
3. Go around a second time and ask if you anyone can a question, topic, or skill they could explore that connects two or more bubbles.
4. Continue to connect and refine new bubble as they emerge in the center of the paper.  You may end up with one theme all of you share, or with 2 or 3 different themes different groups may explore.

Planning a large group to combine many offline study groups 

We have not had an opportunity to test a massively distributed global course with hundreds of offline groups working together, but we hope to do that.  You could be the first!

For example, if 1,000 participants formed study groups under the topic of Conflict Resolution, we believe it would be possible to organize a larger "course" around that topic at once with a few large meetings at the beginning, middle and end of the course using technology like UStream, Google Moderator, and Big Blue Button to manage a large number of participants and get each individual study group started, and break out into many smaller sections on specific focus areas, proposed and coordinated by each local study group.  We can't wait to test out a course of this scale. 

Paying it Forward

There are many ways to pass on the experience you had in an offline groups for others to share. You may nominate a member of your study group as your group's rapporteur to write up a blog post with some "field notes" about what you tried, what worked, and what didn't in your group, for example.  You may even record or broadcast your meeting.

☜Return to Course Design Handbook Overview