A discourse community I am in is a mathematics study group. We communicate through a group chat and the group chat is always open. There is no set time for us to interact and we can ask a question through the chat whenever we want to. The study group helps each other with homework or with reviewing lessons. If there is a concept a student doesn’t understand, the rest of us will help them understand it. The only requirement for the group is that we take math courses. Most of the topics we discuss revolve around calculus or pre-calculus, such as reference angles, SOHCAHTOA and other equations concerning triangles. One problem facing the group is how some members do not understand some concepts of math and struggle to do certain math problems. Another problem facing the group is how there is a barrier in communication. We can not quite convey what we mean to our peers and this causes many problems. Our advice usually gets misinterpreted.

Another discourse community I am in is an astronomy study group. We communicate through a group chat. We discuss our astronomy lessons and remind each other of what needs to be done by our next class. We help each other with whatever is needed. The requirement is to be in an astronomy class. We discuss the history which lead to our current understanding of astronomy, the three laws of Kepler and the beliefs concerning astronomy, such as geocentrism. One problem facing this group is our lack of camaraderie. We usually stay pretty professional with one another and it creates an awkward atmosphere in our chats. This causes less people to ask for help since they seem intimidated. Another problem is a difficulty in keeping up and understanding the materials. Since our astronomy classes cover so much information in one class, it becomes difficult to keep notes on the truly important bits of information.

The final discourse community I will talk about is my lab study group. We communicate through a group chat and there is no scheduled times for us to interact. We can speak in the chat whenever we want. We cooperate to finish our labs more efficiently. The only requirement for the group is to be in a physics course. One problem which our group faced was many members of the group were not keeping up with the work and were behind. Many members fell behind on their works and by the end of the last semester, many members only submitted about 5 labs. A few members and I compiled our labs and gave them to our peers to use as a reference for what to do. Another problem was time constraints. Some members feel as though they are not given enough time to do tests or labs.