1. 1 Creating Communities of Practice for Higher Education Transformation NMC Annual Meeting 2004

2. 2 Speakers Soren Kaplan, co-founder of iCohere (http://www.icohere.com)http://www.icohere.com Vicki Suter, Director of NLII Projects (http://www.educause.edu/nlii)http://www.educause.edu/nlii

3. 3 Overview of key questions What is a “community of practice?” What is a “virtual community of practice?” Why is this an NLII key theme? How can VCOPs facilitate and foster knowledge sharing, collaborative learning and institutional change? What are some underlying theories, models and principles involved in cultivating communities of practice for these purposes? What are the functional requirements for selecting tools

4. 4 What is a “community of practice?” “Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion for a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis.” (Wenger 2002)

5. 5 What is a “community of practice?” “Communities of Practice are groups of people who come together to share and to learn from one another face-to- face and virtually. They are held together by a common interest in a body of knowledge and are driven by a desire and need to share problems, experiences, insights, templates, tools, and best practices” (American Productivity & Quality Center)

6. 6 What is a “virtual community of practice” a group of people (and the “place” that they collectively create) that relies primarily (though not necessarily exclusively) on electronic communication media to communicate, connect and carry out community activities

7. 7 Why is this an NLII Key Theme? VCOPs serve as one strategy to achieve the NLII mission (use technology to enable higher education that is active and learner- centered, dynamic and lifelong, collaborative, cost-effective, accessible and high quality)

8. 8 NLII’s Approach Involve all stakeholders necessary to achieve this transformation of higher education provide learning and knowledge creation environments for NLII members, and leverage their collective energy and imagination

9. 9 Underlying Assumptions Knowledge is constructed socially. Learning (at the individual, institutional, and collective levels) is the basis for transformation of practice Face to face experiences are: important, AND Bounded by space, time, and money.

10. 10 Underlying Assumptions about Technology Technology can provide an environment in which learners (students, faculty, staff, association members) can build their understanding and construct knowledge Web-based collaborative technologies can be used to overcome other barriers in the creation of broad-based, vibrant, and engaged academic communities

11. 11 Our Assertion VCOPs can facilitate and foster knowledge sharing, collaborative learning and institutional change

12. 12 Elements of a set of social processes for change A complex set of social processes leads to learning, to the creation of knowledge, and to positive change for individuals, groups and organizations VCOPs can facilitate these processes by supporting: Activities Social Structures Integration* *The process of bringing all parts together into a whole.

13. 13 VCOP Framework ActivitiesStructuresIntegration Connection Communication Interaction Reflection Shared context creation Collaboration Knowledge sharing & diffusion Knowledge creation Individual Team Work group Community of practice Learning community Institution or Organization Profession Integrated environment facilitates social processes and provides container for social structures Creates sense of place & identity through integrated experiences Bridges time, distance and differences for persistent presence of ideas, individuals, groups & community

14. 14 A brief shared inquiry Pair up, and take the next 20 minutes or so to interview each other, asking the questions in Sections 1 and 2 of the handout, and taking brief notes in the summary section. We’ll do some sharing of the three themes that stood out the most during the interviews.

15. 15 Case # 1: Catalyst for Change (Individual & Organization) “…within a month or so Robert began to change his attitude and style in our weekly face-to-face meetings. Somehow, participating in our online dialogue helped him realize that there could be some exciting benefit to sharing his ideas more widely before asking us to act on them – and listening to our responses to his ideas. Before long he even began to do that in his personal interactions with us as well as in our online interactions. The online interactions opened the door and he was willing to walk right through it! It was amazing to see that happen so quickly.” (From forthcoming chapter, Technology and OD in Practicing Organizational Development)

16. 16 Underlying Principles for Case #1 Communication Interaction Shared Context Creation Reflection

17. 17 Case # 2: Collective Practice Background & challenge: Emerging Technology (Electronic portfolios) - 2001 Technical development needed to be informed by pedagogy (reflection) Implications on practice for use of e-portfolios needed to be explored

18. 18 Background Long, elegant and well- documented history and well- established community of practice for portfolios Not enough interaction between tool-makers and tool- users John Ittelson, 2001 Fellow, took on eportfolios as his research topic

19. 19 E-PAC E-PAC developed into a community of communities Brings together technologists – the tool-makers - and practitioners (faculty and instructional designers) – the tool users in structured activities http://www.educause.edu/vcop/e_port.asp

20. 20 Results (Case #2) Vibrant community that connects various communities across institutions, conferences and meetings, professions, markets Shared conceptual framework (definition, pedagogical purposes, taxonomy) Knowledge sharing (project briefings) Knowledge creation (IMS technical specifications)

21. 21 Results (Case #2, cont) Facilitated the formation of sub-groups of members with similar interests (OSPI) and the ePortConsortium Organized a meeting at the AAHE Assessment Conference where members expert on assessment advised the OSPI developers on assessment-related functionality. Publicized and increased access to the products of events such as the Clemson Digital Portfolio Institutes and the ePortfolios 2003 international conference (three of the five keynote speakers were E-PAC members)

22. 22 Underlying Principles for Case #2 Bridging Persistent presence of ideas, individuals, communities Simultaneity Synchronicity

23. 23 Life Cycle - Communities of Practice (Adapted from: McDermott, 2002) Time Energy, Commitment & Visibility Inquire Design Launch Grow Institutionalize

24. 24 Functional Requirements Functional requirements shift slightly depending on the community’s purpose and lifecycle phase. Specific requirements are based on: Social StructuresCore FeaturesIntegrating Mechanisms Levels of openness Subgroups Role distinctions Presence Synchronous Communication Asynchronous Communication Resource/File Sharing Structured Data Sharing Scheduling & Coordination Finding & Searching User Interface Push-Pull Options System Compatibility Sustained continuity of action and activity Accessibility and representations of relationships among resources

25. 25 Discussion Questions With regard to the VCOP framework (slide 13), and the Functional Requirements matrix (slide 24) – What technology features and functionality Create an integrated environment & integrated experiences for community members? Sustain continuity of action/activity? Bridge time, distance and differences for persistent presence of ideas, individuals, groups & community?

26. 26 Contacts & URLs Soren Kaplan, iCohere (http://www.icohere.com)http://www.icohere.com Vicki Suter, Director of NLII Projects vsuter@educause.edu) (http://www.educause.edu/nlii)http://www.educause.edu/nlii More on NLII VCOPs – see http://www.educause.edu/vcop http://www.educause.edu/vcop