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The advantages to a partnership between FCCNA and FCC are many. Due to FCCNAs
strong ties to the business community, FCCNA can raise public awareness about the program
and obtain funding to support its development and ongoing maintenance. Businesses understand
the importance of a stable society and feel a social responsibility to supporting those
organizations that help keep society stable (Berman, 2010). Consequently, I am optimistic that
the local business community would be willing to help financially support a nonprofit leadership
training program. The FCCNA can also provide subject matter experts to assist with course
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content development and instruction. FCC, on the other hand, can provide the learning
environment with the requisite administrative, technological, and student support services. FCC
already has an established online learning program, so they are equipped to deploy and
implement this curriculum. Specifically, FCC has a customized training division that would work
with the FCCNA to develop and teach this program. This division of the college produces
courses designed specifically to meet the needs of businesses
(http://www.frederick.edu/workforce-continuing-education/customized-training.aspx).
Online Training
Our intended audience of nonprofit leaders are adults who typically work full time.
Online training offers many advantages to students who work full time. Online training allows
students to learn anytime, anywhere, and at their own pace. Students do not have to attend a class
at a given day and time on a regular basis. Online training also lends itself to different forms of
learning that give the student more control over what and how they are learning. For this
proposal, I suggest that we utilize the Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) theory as defined by
Harasim (2012) to inform our training courses.
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purposeful judgment (Facione, 1990; Facione & Facione, 1994, para. 1). Harasim (2012) says
group collaboration and discourse is essential to stimulating critical thinking and building
knowledge. Finally, OCL allows the instructor to step back and act as facilitator, moderator, and
mediator so the students can construct their own knowledge within the boundaries set by the
teacher.
Since online learning is the basis of OCL, this theory facilitates the use of online
technologies to collaborate asynchronously or synchronously. I suggest we use Web 2.0
technological tools that Lee and McLoughlin (2010) say promote collaboration and sharing of
knowledge and content among users (p. 61). Specifically, I propose two technologies: (a) a
group discussion board that provides a shared space within which the students can
asynchronously discuss topics with other students; and (b) a video conferencing tool that allows
students to synchronously collaborate face-to-face. FCC uses Blackboard to support their online
courses with functionality, such as asynchronous discussion boards and synchronous virtual
classroom for collaboration (http://www.frederick.edu/blackboard/index.aspx).
A Community of Practice
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knowledge. Siemens (2005) says members of a community of practice gain new knowledge,
identify relevant information, and remain current in their field. The community of practice
proposed here is informed by the Connectivism theory. The principles of Connectivism are:
I suggest a senior member of the FCCNA facilitate and manage the community of
practice. Harasim (2012) explains that this individual can introduce new topics, facilitate and
motivate the discussion, and help members reach a conclusion. According to Wenger,
McDermott, and Snyder (2002), our goal should be to design the community of practice to
evoke aliveness (p. 2) and grow organically.
To implement our community of practice for nonprofit leaders, I suggest we use the Ning
Glam Media environment, which allows users to construct communities and web sites
(http://www.ning.com/about-us/). Members will have their own login and be able to create their
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own webpage with a detailed profile. In addition to asynchronous discussion forums, the Ning
Glam Media environment will allow us to host synchronous online webinars, chats, and face-toface conferences. Ning Glam Media archives webinars for future viewing, and provides a feature
called LiveBinder that includes links to additional sources of information provided by the
featured speaker and participants.
In Conclusion
To conclude, I would like to present a plan for how we should proceed. Assuming both
parties agree to this partnership, I suggest that representatives from both FCCNA and FCC meet
to begin to develop a strategic plan that includes:
the cost to fund the development, and an estimated amount to be contributed by each
partner; and
As of 2012, there were 950 nonprofit organizations in Frederick County (Austell, Rogers,
& Wrightson, 2013). As nonprofits are such a significant part of our community, I hope you will
agree that every effort must be made to ensure their continued success and growth. Both FCCNA
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and FCC are in the unique position of offering that level of support. Thank you for considering
this proposal, and I look forward to hearing back from you soon.
References
Austell, J., Rogers, C., & Wrightson, M. (2013). 2013 Nonprofits by the numbers. Retrieved
from Maryland Nonprofits website: http://marylandnonprofits.org/dnn/Portals/0/2013MD-Nonprofits-By-The-Numbers-web.pdf
Facione, P.A. (1990). Critical thinking: A statement of expert consensus for purposes of
educational assessment and instruction. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED315423
Facione, P. A., & Facione, N. C. (1994). Holistic critical thinking scoring rubric. Millbrae, CA:
California Academic Press.
Harasim, L. (2012). Learning theory and online technologies. New York, NY: Routledge.
Lee, M. & McLoughlin, C. (2010). Beyond distance and time constraints. Applying social
networking tools and Web 2.0 approaches in distance education. In G. Veletstianos
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Mendel, S. C. (2014). A field of its own. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 12(1), 61-62.
Retrieved from http://www.ssireview.org/
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W.M. (2002, March 25). Seven principles for cultivating
communities of practice. HBS Working Knowledge. Retrieved from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/