Are paid communities worth the value?

 Earlier this summer, I attended ASU's Remote session, "the connected faculty summit."  I appreciated several of the programming items.  I went back in this morning to watch some of the on demand programming that I hadn't been able to view. One of them talked about an online community, Lumen Circles.  This is virtual community that faculty can join to share teaching practices. The website suggests that many participate through an institutional membership although individual paid participation is available. 

This caused me to reflection on communities of practice I have participated in before, before social media communities. 

I have participated in communities of practice in the past through professional orgainzations both local, state and nationally.  I don't think I really thought of them as a community but I believe they were. 

The fact that this community requires a payment made me wonder...

What do you think about paying for communities? 

The discussion on this site suggests that paying is worth it.  The discussions suggests that paid communities are often higher quality, participants are more serious, and a smaller number of engaged individuals produces better discussion.

I am a bit frugal and I like that you can try out communities in a free environment rather than wasting a year membership - which I have done.  However, I would probably be more likely to participate versus lurk if I paid. 

For me I think purpose will dictate what I pay for. In an article by Sarah Prestridge (2019), she discusses the difference between professional development and professional learning.  While this difference was presented earlier in the semeter, her discussion of how people approach professional learning as more self-directed to their interest resonated with me.  Since I am paying to return for this degree, I suppose I am willing to pay quite a bit more for what interests me. 

What do you think? Do you think there is a difference between free and paid comminuties? What are you willing to pay for?

Prestridge, S. (2019). Categorising teachers’ use of social media for their professional learning: A self-generating professional learning paradigmLinks to an external site.. Computers & Education, 129, 143-158. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.11.003