Framing New Questions Here

So, I need to do this once again lest I get lost in the rubble of existing theories.

My questions:
1) What does the UPOU community site mean to its current users/ adult learners?
2) Do adult learners get a sense of community through the site?
3) In what way can this virtual community evolve into or contribute to a community of practice within UPOU?


Layers of Review of Research:
-virtual community: what does current research say about how adult learners use and make meaning out of a virtual community outside an online learning community?
-adult learners and sense of community: what does current research say about how valuable a sense of community is among adult learners? is it automatic in an online learning community?
-communities of practice: how does it evolve? what can be explicitly done for a virtual community to evolve into a community of practice?


Gray areas which I need to clarify:
-will this be ethnography or phenomenology?
-will narrative inquiry work as data gathering method?