Chapter 13: Does Size Matter?: Support for Large Group Virtual Faculty Learning Communities

Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) have been shown to be effective professional development and community building experiences. Given the virtual nature of today’s workforce, Virtual Faculty Learning Communities (V-FLCs) have become more mainstream. This chapter will focus on the size of V-FLCs. The researchers explore participation and engagement rates for traditional sized V-FLCs as well as large sized V-FLCs. Throughout the chapter, there is a focus on a rationale for increasing the size of the V-FLCs, the process for developing V-FLCs, what variables were used to determine if there was a difference in engagement between a traditional sized V-FLCs and a large sized V-FLCs, and future research on this topic. This research determined that there was no statistically significant difference in engagement between traditional sized V-FLCs and large sized V-FLCs. This information has the opportunity to impact the way FLCs are developed in the future.