Well-designed communities of practice (CoPs) in the ODeL environment: students' perspectives (original) (raw)
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A Communities of Practice (CoPs) is formed when two or more individuals come together voluntarily and informally to share expertise or ideas and are passionate about a common venture. However, the specific guidance to form CoPs in higher educational institutions (HEIs) doesn't exist. This longitudinal comparative action research study will investigate, explore, and describe ways and the feasibility to develop learning communities at higher education institutions in South Africa and Europe. This paper aims to investigate the students' willingness to share their range of resources, preferred forms of communications and readiness to accept tacit (knowing how) knowledge sharing in order to enrich their study methods and decision making skills. Furthermore, the aim is to explore the students' vision of CoP joint activities and discussions in building relationships, trust and an innovative knowledge base in their field of expertise. The researchers conducted an online e-survey of 20 close-ended questions using a five-point Likert-type scale amongst part-time and full-time postgraduate and undergraduate students in three faculties at higher education institutions. The estimated size of the sample for the survey is approximately 500.
Forming Communities of practice in Higher Education: a theoretical perspective
2013
Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. The current problem is that there is no specific guidance to form communities of practice (CoP) in higher educational institutions to guide learners' practical and theoretical knowledge and learning experiences. This comparative action research study will investigate, explore and describe ways of developing learning communities at institutions of higher education in South Africa and Europe, as well as determine the feasibility of doing so. In this research project entitled 'Women in research' the team of researchers who are predominantly women will focus on how learner learning can be stimulated through learning in communities of practice. Communities of practice recognise the diverse needs of the increasing numbers of learners entering university with different academic and cultural backgrounds and with varying social expectations and experiences. This study consists of six phases: developing a theoretical framework for communities of practice; exploring preliminary learners' attitudes toward communities of practice; forming pilot communities of practice; evaluating pilot communities of practice groups; implementing action research to pilot communities of practice; and applying the communities of practice model to other groups. The aim of this paper is to highlight phase one of the study, that of developing a theoretical framework for communities of practice. This paper also aims to derive criteria for judging the communities of practice in terms of the facilitation of innovative knowledge sharing in the higher educational environment. This paper takes the form of a literature study to determine theoretical constructs and those that are most suitable to shape a framework to support communities of practice. A significant finding of this study is fifteen criteria for evaluating communities of practice.
Communities of Practice and Virtual Learning Communities – An Exploratory Study
2011
The use of new information and communication tools such as; Web 2.0, social networks, wikis, blogs continues to grow for learning in higher education. More and more instructors worldwide have already started incorporating these tools for their course delivery and pedagogy. The growing literature suggests that virtual communities of practice (CoPs) and virtual learning communities (VLCs) are becoming common for collaboration and sharing resources due to the emergence of Web 2.0 tools and other social networks within higher education institutions. This exploratory study examines the existence of such communities of practice or learning communities in higher education particularly among business school instructors. The data is collected through phone and e-mail interviews with academic staff. The preliminary findings suggest that business schools professors have still not become part of CoPs and VLCs
Communities of practice: A sphere of influence enhancing teaching and learning in higher education
Power and Place: Refereed Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Conference 2008, 2008
Queensland (USQ). He specialises in e-learning pedagogies, communities of practice, multimodal design, visual and multiliteracies. His research focuses on two main areas, how best to engage both students and staff in the learning process, as calibrators, and how to best use technology enhanced learning environments to augment learning opportunities for students, particularly those studying at a distance.
2015
A virtual Community of Practice (CoP) is a network of individuals who share a domain of interest about which they communicate online. The practitioners share resources (for example experiences, problems and solutions, tools, methodologies). Such communication results in the improvement of the knowledge of each participant in the community and contributes to the development of the knowledge within the domain. A virtual learning community may involve the conduct of original research but it is more likely that its main purpose is to increase the knowledge of participants, via formal education or professional development. Virtual learning communities could have learning as their main goal or the e-learning could be generated as a side effect. Virtual communities of practice (CoPs) and virtual learning communities are becoming widespread within higher education institutions (HEIs) thanks to technological developments which enable increased communication, interactivity among participants ...
Developing communities of practice within and outside higher education institutions
British Journal of Educational Technology, 2008
Higher education institutions (HEIs) are largely built on the assumption that learning is an individual process best encouraged by explicit teaching that is, on the whole, separated from social engagement with those outside the university community. This perspective has been theoretically challenged by those who argue for a social constructivist learning theory and a more collaborative approach to learning. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) afford lecturers and students an opportunity for extending the boundaries of a learning experience, not merely beyond the lone individual, but beyond the limits of discipline boundaries within a specific university community and beyond the institution into the local community. This paper illustrates how a collaborative effort between lecturers and students from the Computer Science and Education Departments at Rhodes University, teachers from the local community, the provincial Department of Education and a non-governmental organisation developed into an unfolding virtual and physical community of practice which enabled ICT take-up in a number of schools in the Grahamstown District, South Africa. This discussion of what has become known as the e-Yethu project provides an example of how ICTs, underpinned by the insights of social constructivism, the notion of ‘community of practice’ and in particular Hoadley and Kilner's C4P Framework for Communities of Practice, can serve to help HEIs understand ways in which ICTs can provide opportunities for developing collaborative learning within HEIs, and between the HEI and the local community.
Creating learning connections via an online community of practice: A case study
The Digital and Collaborative Learning postgraduate programme of The Mind Lab by Unitec not only provides teachers with transformational approaches to 21st‐century learning, but also with opportunities to create connections with those who teach different student age groups, are from different teaching disciplines, or are from different regions of the country. More than 600 teachers from the four annual cohorts studied in this research provide a substantial pool of knowledge and practice to be tapped into. To realise this potential, we have sought to foster an online community of practice for the teachers to engage in learning and social interactions. A community of practice embodies a: shared domain, with mutual interest in transforming teaching practice via digital and collaborative learning; shared practice; and a shared community. Structured online interactions create a dynamic sense of engagement for members. A Google+ Community provides the online platform for the teachers to share their reflective practice. Our research questions centre around what impacts the online community of practice might have on participant learning. This paper presents an analysis of a survey of current students as well as alumni. The findings should provide insights for online course designers into how to effectively foster online communities of practice.
Foundations of communities of practice: enablers and barriers to participation
Journal of computer assisted …, 2009
This research draws upon community of practice theory to explore the factors that enabled or hindered participation in an online "Foundations of Communities of Practice" workshop--a course that is designed to align with Wenger's communities of practice perspective. The research used a mixed methods approach, drawing upon log-on and posting data, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to explore participant experiences. The findings show that five dimensions either enabled or constrained participation. These were emotion, technology, connectivity, understanding norms and learning tensions. As enablers these dimensions led to successful participation within an online community of practice, but as constraints, they led to peripheral participation. The findings highlight implications for tutors of such courses. These include the need to (1) assess the technical expertise of participants, particularly when a number of different technological tools are used; (2) find ways to identify and evaluate emotional responses so learners can be supported in managing these; (3) ensure that participants understand the norms of a community; and (4) develop clear induction materials and processes.