Learning Community Ideas

Robert's Learning Community Ideas

Dungeons and Dragons

 One of the first learning communities that came to mind was D&D players. D&D is a pen and paper tabletop rpg with countless rules, items, races, places, fighting systems, and monsters. It is an incredibly fun and deep game that can take people years to "finish." At a distance D&D is anything but inviting, if you want to play the standard way it takes hours of prep work and studying for a D&D game to even work properly. So many who are interested are turned off by the high learning curve, even more so when none of their friends play it. This not only hurts new player experiences but it also means there are less people out there for current D&D players to connect with. There are hundreds of books on D&D it's hard to know where to start and some of these books have prices as high as fifty dollars. For someone interested in D&D, but are unsure if they will like it, fifty dollars may be too large of an initial investment. This is why most people who play D&D learn it from friends or family rather than on their own. This has made D&D a very difficult hobby to get into.

College Cooks

For many, college is their first experience with cooking. It also becomes an essential skill for those who live in apartments and for all students who graduate. When students need to learn how to cook they are away from their family, meaning they need to figure it out on their own. Not only do they have limited knowledge but a low budget to boot. So what do you do when you have a low budget, no cooking experience, and are unsure where you can get the cheapest groceries? What happens more often than not is college students helping other college students in a similar situation. They get tips on local grocers including some local farm to table distributors, recipe ideas, and in the end form a lasting friendship. Not many things can bring people together like food can. Almost every one cooks so why not ask a neighbor. During this pandemic, asking a neighbor isn't so easy anymore, so one must find a way to ask a neighbor without contact. You can no longer go to a friends house and have them teach you in person. So a once great source of information is stifled by the current pandemic leaving many college students to fend for themselves in the culinary world.

Grace's Learning Community Ideas

Road tripping

Many people enjoy traveling, but now that flying is not the first option for people road tripping has become super popular. If people want to take a trip but don't want to fly, a learning community of road trippers could help them learn the tips and tricks to road tripping. Some things that are essential for a good road trip are the route you take, the music, where to eat or stay and what to pack. The route that is taken is very important and can effect the time it takes you to get to your destination and the amount of traffic or gas that you use. For example, if the person does not want to take tolls they need to choose a route with no tolls or if a person doesn't want a lot of traffic they would choose a route that goes through less busy areas. People within the community could post their route or let others know what areas they found to be busy. The route you pick also plays into the places you pass on the way to your destination. People usually map their route and look at places they will pass so they know where they can stop to eat that won't add a ton of time to their trip. People in the community can post their favorite places from along their route to let others know what places take the least amount of time off the route and the quality of those places. Some other things to think of on a road trip are music and what to pack which others can say what they have listened to or how they have packed in order to help others. 

DIY

DIY or "Do it Yourself" projects have become extremely popular over the years. It has become so popular that many have devoted their time to creating videos either weekly or monthly on different DIY projects that others can do. The projects range from indoor and outdoor home decor to life hacks to gifts you can create for friends and family. Some DIY projects are created to take a few minutes while others might take a few days to do. Many people even opt to create something on their own to look like something they would spend more money to buy. The projects also range from easy to difficult, as someone could be creating something as easy as crayon art to as difficult as creating a desk or bed. Now especially during quarantine people have been getting into doing more home projects and creating things themselves rather than buying it. Stores such as Michaels and AC Moore sell items that contain the materials to create DIY projects. If a learning community was formed people could share the projects they make with others and pictures of their finished project. Another helpful thing to share would be tips in creating the projects since sometimes the steps can be confusing or the amount of materials you need might be wrong in the DIY steps from the Internet.