Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Nli 0531
Nli 0531
A Step-by-Step Guide for Designing & Cultivating Communities of Practice in Higher Education
Acknowledgments
How Do
Places?
Online
Communities
Become
Purpose Is Paramount
While almost every community evolves along a
lifecycle, every community is indeed unique, with
distinct goals, member characteristics and needs, and
purpose. All design choices (for technical or social
architecture) must be driven by purpose, so
community purpose is paramount. Successful and
sustainable communities have focused, well-defined
purposes that are directly tied to the sponsoring
organizations mission. Purposes should be defined in
terms of the benefits to the communitys stakeholders
and the specific needs that the community will be
organized to meet. Purposes can be categorized into
the following four areas of activity:
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Community/Practice/Domain
4. Create Knowledge in
the Domain
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The next two sections outline specific issues related to defining the appropriate social and technical architectures for
a given community. By providing questions that need to be answered at the beginning of each lifecycle stage,
community facilitators can apply best practices in community development to their own CoPs. In addition to these key
questions, a number of prescriptive activities are described that lead to specific work products. These include
documents and presentations that can be used for communication, planning, and the facilitation of the community
itself.
1. Inquire
Identify the audience, purpose, goals, and vision for the community.
Key Questions to Explore
Supporting Activities
X
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
2. Design
Define the activities, technologies, group processes, and roles that will support the communitys goals.
Key Questions to Explore
Supporting Activities
X
X
X
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
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3. Prototype
Pilot the community with a select group of key stakeholders to gain commitment, test assumptions,
refine the strategy, and establish a success story.
Key Questions to Explore
Supporting Activities
X
X
X
X
X
X
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
4. Launch
Roll out the community to a broader audience over a period of time in ways that engage new members
and deliver immediate benefits.
Key Questions to Explore
Supporting Activities
X
X
X
X
X
X
1.
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5. Grow
Engage members in collaborative learning and knowledge sharing activities, group projects, and
networking events that meet individual, group, and organizational goals while creating an increasing
cycle of participation and contribution.
Key Questions to Explore
Supporting Activities
X
X
X
X
X
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
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6. Sustain
Cultivate and assess the learning, knowledge, and products created by the community to inform new
strategies, goals, activities, roles, technologies, and business models for the future.
Key Questions to Explore
Supporting Activities
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
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Core
Technical
Features
Relationships
Learning
Action
Knowledge
Distributed
account
management
Member
networking profiles
Member directory
with relationshipfocused data fields
Subgroups that
are defined by
administrators or
that allow
members to selfjoin
Online
meetings/chat
Online discussions
User-controlled
delivery modes for
notifications and
information
Community activity
reports
Narrated
PowerPoint
presentations
E-learning tools
Assessments
Web
conferencing
and webcasts
Online meetings
Online
discussions
Web-site links
Interactive
multimedia
Variety of
community
member roles
and
responsibilities is
supported
Project
management
Task
management
Document
collaboration
File version
tracking
File check-in
and check-out
Instant
messaging
Web
conferencing
and online
meetings
Online
discussions
Individual and
group
calendaring
Subgroup
working
spaces
For a detailed set of draft functional requirements for use in evaluating community-oriented technologies, see
http://www.educause.edu/nlii/VirtualCommunities/944.
Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, & William Snyder, Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to
Managing Knowledge (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2002).
2
Wenger et al
3
Adapted from McDermott, 2002
4
Wenger, et al, p. 28
5
Wenger, et al, p. 39
6
See NLII web site, Mapping the Learning Space, for more information on deeper learning principles
(http://www.educause.edu/MappingtheLearningSpace/2594), and a related draft observation tool, Community
Learner-Centered Principles/Practices Guide at http://www.educause.edu/VirtualCommunities/944.
Step-by-Step Guide for Designing and Cultivating Communities of Practice
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