Community of Practice Design - Report Example

?Topic:  Communities of Practice (COP) Definition A community of practice (CoP) is defined as the “group of people informally bound by shares expertise and a passion for a joint enterprise.” 1 The primary objective of this is to develop members’ capabilities as well as to build and exchange knowledge. Usually, the members who joined a particular CoP have shared the same expertise, passion, commitment, and identification which also served as the binder of the organization. Further, the group could last as long as the members are still enthusiast to maintain the group. The CoP could also meet on a regular basis or depends on the common availability of the members. Likewise, due to the advancement of technology, the members could also utilize the computer and internet, i.e. group sites, web pages, e-mail, blogs, wikis, podcasting, and/or file sharing to keep connected and updated.2 The practice of CoP had long been existed throughout the society. In fact, it had been observed and practiced in the classical Greece wherein the Greeks were subdivided and lived according to their shared common interests and beliefs. The people who have the same crafts such as the metalworkers, potters, masons, etc. belonged to the same group because they work and learn together. Each group had their own business function in which they were responsible to share their skills and spread the innovation through training and coaching apprentices/novices. Whilst, each group had shared social purpose wherein they “worshipped the same god and goddesses and celebrated holidays together.” 3The practice had been very common; however, the term was only coined recently by Etienne Wenger and Jean Lave. Originally, the term was used to name a group of traditional African tailors who couched and trained their apprentices. 4 Further, the two have concluded that learning could be a two-way process wherein the apprentices could learn from their masters/instructors and vice versa. Since then the two researchers have expanded the CoP concept and had been widely incorporated in organizations, government, businesses, teams, work groups, corporations and among others. Etienne Wenger and William Snyder have considered community of practice as an important instrument because it could improve organizational performance as long as it is implemented accordingly. The advantages of CoP have included its ability to drive strategy. Several organizations have proven this, i.e. the World Bank. Since, they had integrated in their management the concept of CoP; they become “knowledge bank”5 because they had provided their customers’ high-quality information as well as they gained know-how on economic development. Likewise, the CoP could also start new lines of businesses. An example of this was the one cited by Wegner and Snyder, wherein a group of consultants created a community and they decided to meet regularly at the airport after their engagement with their clients to discuss over their common interests. After a couple of years, this group had established a new line of business that offered financial services due to community of practice. The CoP could also used to solve problems quickly. The practical reason is that members of the CoP could share their problems and could ask the assistance of their co-members to find solution with their problems. In the same manner that their counterparts could extend their help because they knew the problem and they could identify the best solutions to common problems. For example, a man had asked from his CoP on how to improve his writing skills. Since, they share the same interest, many of his expert co-members have responded via net within 24 hours. Luckily, many of them have provided the best and easiest writing techniques. Further, it could also transfer best practices because they “do much more than work on specific problems. 6 In an organization or company, it was considered as the best and ideal venue for sharing and disseminating best practices and knowledge. One of the most successful examples of this was the experience of the Chrysler, a car company. In fear to lost their functional expertise and ability to keep up with leading –edge change due to the broke up of their functional department. The leaders of the company had established their communities of practice named as “tech clubs”7 which were composed of experts from different car company. As expected the club had provided the company with the best practices regarding car development. Until now, the club is maintaining a database which they called Engineering Book of Knowledge. The database is composed of information ranging from compliance standards, suppliers specifications, and best practices. The community of practice could also develop professional skills. This means that learning could also be acquired through interacting to people with shared interest, skills and knowledge and the availability of a person willing to serve as mentor and coach. Learning through interaction to people could include attending seminars, conferences, trainings, travels, socialization and among others. The community of practice could also help organization/company to recruit and retain talents because it provided project opportunities to the talents which is tailor-made to their interest and expertise. The reasons were the community of practice enabled the talents to develop new skills and find new clients. Methods to Build CoP A community of practice could be formed through a series of steps. This could start by considering the following methods to inquire, design, prototype, launch, grow and sustain. This is also referred as the lifecycle of CoP. The first process involved is to inquire to be able to explore, identify the audience, goals, and vision for the community. 8After the intended audience had been identified, the founder/s could start to brainstorm the common key issues as well as the nature of learning knowledge, and tasks that the community would share. After which, the community could now ready to state their purpose and vision. Further, other important details would also be tackled next such as the benefits that could be taken by the members, the specific needs of the members or the community, etc. Hence, in order to accomplish the first step, the following support activities should be implemented. Needs assessment should be held and it could be made possible by conducting i.e. informal interviews, surveys, and/or focus groups. It also suggested that benefits of the community should be defined clearly. It means that it must include all the persons involve ranging from stakeholders, individual sponsors, individual community members, subgroups, community as a whole and sponsoring organization. Further, the community should formulate their mission and vision statement as well as their core values in order to have guidelines and direction. The major areas of community content and exploration should also be determined so that the community could serve at their best. Likewise, it is also important to make a financial proposal and estimation that included all the necessary materials that would be used, i.e. community technology as well as for special technical development, facilitation, and support. After taken account with all the necessary activities for the first step, the founders could start recruiting a core team that will represent the community audience.9 The second step is to design the community and this could be extended from determining the group processes including the type of activities, technologies, and the roles of every members. The primary purpose of this is to support the goal of the community. 10 This step could be done through addressing the key issues in exploring the community. It is best to consider the type of activities, i.e. activity that could generate energy and support, as well as the rhythm of the activities to match and fit on the type of community. Likewise, it is also important to include in the list the communication and interaction process of the community. Further, take account on the learning goals of the community and how could it be supported. During the initial development of the community, it is necessary to identify the external resources for the knowledge sharing. The external resources included the people, publications, reports, etc. Most importantly identify ways on how these resources would be shared whilst access by the members of the community. The roles and social structures as well as the collaboration process of the community should also be determined. Hence, in order to achieve the community’s goal it is suggested to support it with activities such as assigning roles, i.e. facilitator and task to the members, scheduling and lay-outing tentative meeting, conferences, etc. Further, it is also important to include in the activity the designing of folder structure and directory to enable to organize the discussions, documents and resources. Also, include setting a timeline for the community’s development. 11 The third method in building CoP is to perform prototype. It could be done through conducting a pilot test from the selected group of key stakeholders. The primary purpose of this is to assess the commitment of the members as well as to improve the strategy in order to ensure the success of the community. The important things to consider in this step are following: short-term pilot goals, community-oriented technologies, brand image, metaphor, community identity, communication, tone of interactions, and measurement of success. This step could be accomplished by conducting support activities. The community should make sure that their technologies are the most appropriate and able to support the pilot goals. Likewise, conducting a case study through having a group test in a designed community environment should also be considered. The community metaphor should be decided including its appearance and the procedure for its presentation to the community. While, the pilot test is on going, also take note to give access to the core team and take feedbacks from the pilot audience. Events and activities should also be facilitated to exercise the prototype but make sure that they are focused on the short-term goals. Identify the roles of the pilot participants so that it will be clear and make sure that everything including the support structures are in place. Further, it is also important to measure the success of the prototype and the results should be reported to sponsors and stakeholders. 12 Meanwhile, if the prototype becomes successful, the community could proceed to the fourth step – to launch the community to the wider audience. Hence, the key issue that should be tackled included the reasons of the members in joining the community, the benefits, business model behind the community, community norms and among other. This step could turn successful as long as the results and experienced from the prototype are incorporated. The feedbacks taken from the other sources, i.e. online discussions, links, databases with best practices and other information, online meeting spaces should also inserted to make room for community improvement and development. Likewise, the mission, vision, goals, core values and agreements should be well articulated among the members in order to establish the community charter. The roles of the members should be applicable to their desired level of participation and commitment, personal goals and previous experience. It is also always important to develop effective communications as well as strategic marketing plans. In recruiting members, their profile/directory structure should be identified and determined in order to ensure that they served as an asset to the community. The webpage design should be do-it-yourself, so that the new members could be able to easily access and join the membership and group affiliations. As a common practice, the new members should be provided with an orientation regarding the organization. The community calendar of events should be posted and accessible to all the members so that they will be updated and informed. Most importantly, the community should provide communication channels and opportunities like posting news, announcements, newsletters, and integration of face-to-face meetings.13 The fifth step is to let the community grow which could be made possible by encouraging the members to actively participate in various community activities such learning and knowledge sharing activities, group projects, and networking events. While the community is developing, it is also high time to take account to various key issues. One is to identify the emerging benefits of the members, subgroups, sponsors and other stakeholder. In addition, to determine the emerging roles in the community as well as the groups that could be applicable for those roles. Also take account the kind of work products that member could contribute and provide and make sure that these contributions are recognized and rewarded. Whilst the community identity and presence should also be created in order to be distinct from other communities. Further, the emerging culture, policies and procedures should be identified and should be discussed accordingly either on online environment or face-to-face meetings. After identifying the key issues, it is then applicable to conduct some support activities. First, facilitate effective communication to ensure that the activities are implemented according to the plan. For the continuous growth of the community, the members should be encouraged to share successful stories to improve some practices. Likewise, emerging community roles should be determined and immediately recruited to fill the positions. Provide support to the emerging group activities through assigning members from subgroups. It is also important that the community knows exactly their advantages, disadvantages, and needs, and it could be made possible through performing a resource inventory. The purpose is to be aware and able to provide some improvements and remedies to meet the goals. To encourage and motivate the members to participate recognition and awards should be incorporated in any activities. The community culture, technology, processes and practices should be properly and clearly discussed to the members so that they know their opportunities as well as their limitations. Further, every activity should be evaluated and measured to know the present condition of the community. In addition to the evaluation process, the feedbacks of the audience should be noted. This could be done through conducting focus groups, interviews, surveys and other data collection methods.14 Meanwhile, the most important step is on how to sustain the community in order to last long. Hence, it requires addressing several important matters such determining the ongoing processes and practices that significantly maintain the engagement and enthusiast of the members. It is also necessary to identify the support of the community to each member base on their wide range of roles. Further, to sustain the community it is also important to identify, develop and support the potential community leaders either official or unofficial. Whilst the community should identify ways on how it could improve its job in order to serve its intended audience. It is also important to note on how to return investment of the sponsors as well as on how to share knowledge and products beyond the community. After identify these key issues in sustain the community, it is also important to take support actions. First, the community should provide new opportunities to the members i.e. reshuffle roles to experience new roles, introduce new activities, new practices, and new technology features, so that the members would grow and develop new skills and knowledge. A recognition program should also be integrated in the calendar of activities in order to give tribute and appreciation to the hard works of the members. Support infrastructure such documentation, mentoring should also be developed. Likewise, the community procedures, practices, and the technology should be accessible for data sharing to the members as well as to the non-members. As much as possible the community is encouraged to document its projects and other important matters for the evaluation in order to check whether or the goals are met. The community should also flexible enough in order to easily adjust to the changing needs and expectations of the members and non-members. 15 Technologies/Tools The advancement in technologies such as the use of computer and internet has led to the emergence of World Wide Web. The web has become the popular venue in establishing a community of practice because it makes the communication of the members easier and faster. It also enabled them to keep connected despite of their physical boundaries, updated and active in the community because they could interact through utilizing the various social networking group sites such as, blogs, Facebook and MySpace, conferencing on the web (COW), caseweb and INSITE. Blog Blog is a social network site commonly and widely used in CoP since it could be easily maintained and requires only basic computer knowledge. Blog is an online journal that could allow the user to constantly update and revised his/her post.16 It is considered as online interactive because it allows the guests to give feedbacks or comments to the posted journals, pictures, captured videos or audio recordings. By giving comments, discussion and exchange of ideas and thoughts would be encouraged. It is also open and accessible to the public and are created by people and intended for people with common interest, passion and skills. Further, blogs are used by CoP because of its distinctive features i.e. it has its own set of objectives, regulations and formats. In fact, Shih-Hsien Yang cited in her study that blog is “like a learning community”17 because it could make use of the other internet resources that contain other information. Hence, the rationality of this is that the more links, the more information and knowledge would be provided and acquired by the followers and/or guests. MySpace and Facebook Another popular online social network sites widely used in CoP are the recently launched MySpace and Facebook. These two social sites enables people to connect and share with others their interests, activities whilst enable them to explore the interest and activities of others. Like blogs these two social networks also provide the participants to engage in a variety of communication forms i.e. verbal, written and or visual. It could also be used for information sharing since it allows the user to upload video clips, pictures and among other. Furthermore, it could also provide hyperlinks to other sites and resources, i.e. web pages, blogs, e-mail and other discussion groups. In addition, these sites also enable the members of the community to discuss and inform via chat messaging and webcams. 18 Conferencing on the Web (COW) COW is a computer conferencing tool which designed to enhance learning through offering vital socialization opportunities and extending a sense of community among its participants. 19 Further, it could also provide opportunity to the members to discuss important issues on the web whilst could able to receive advise and/or response from other members, peers, mentors worldwide. Cow could be access publicly or privately depending on the choice of the conference moderator. This web-base conference is consists of 3 basic levels: conference level, topic level, and conversation and case level. The interaction of the members of the community could occur at the conversation level by introducing a topic to discuss. The members could join the discussion through entering his comments. From that point, the other participants and members could start replying to the conversations of their other co-members. The trend of the conversation could be easily understood and traced because the username of the members and the date would appear when they reply to the conversation. 20 Caseweb Caseweb is also a computer conferencing tool that was developed from COW. It is especially open to anyone in the world to use21. The primary advantages of the tool included its ability to modify the pedagogical features of a posted case. It could also tally those questions and cases that seem interested and have captured the attention of many participants. Likewise, it modified or enhanced those underutilized cases to come up a good set of best questions. In the caseweb, posted cases would be permanent; however, it would only be deleted or removed if the web board would change the HTML code. In addition, caseweb could also create counter cases and could provide critical commentary from experts as long as it is designed with hyperlink or connection to other sources. This is the only way that the caseweb could gain comments and invite discussion from outside sources or other groups with similar point of interests. The purpose of this is to allow the people to review the case as well as to provide alternative solutions, case commentaries or suggest related links and among others. Hence, this section of the caseweb is called “invited reviewer section.”22 INSITE INSITE is a sophisticated text support tool on the web commonly used for educational sharing and learning. This tool has several features that include useful course resources, field experiences, activities and opportunities. The website also contains other useful materials such as journal reflection questions, power point slides, self-test questions, field observation, sample cases, technology citations and demonstration. Like the other websites, it could also provide links to other webs and sources. It could also allow the members of the web to contribute hence it provides a “contributor corners.”23 Every member has their own place in the website for their own personal profiles, stories and web link suggestions whilst everyone in the group are allowed to interact and provide comments and suggestions on the files of the others. In addition, it is also designed with a web-based discussion forum. The purpose of this is to provide help and assistance as well as enhance learning among the members. Theories The early community of practice theory was developed similarly to the situated learning theory as discussed in the previous part of this paper (definition part). However, the development of the CoP has also led to the introduction of various constructive critique of the CoP theory. Among the most popular critique of the theory are the Foucault’s theory and the actor-network theory. Nevertheless, these two theories have significantly contributed to the improvement and development of the community of practice theory.24 Hence, they were considered in this study. Foucault Theory Foucault theory was from the idea that “power and knowledge are indisociable from one another, hence crucial to the recent sociology of knowledge.”25 Further, this theory explained that “power is not the possession of some people who wield it over others, dominating and constraining them. Instead power is relational and productive.” In addition, this theory also emphasized that power is not found on somebody’s hands or in the class of social actor’s possession whilst it is very important because without power nothing would be achieved. The difference of this theory to the CoP theory is that theorizing existence is what analysis should seek to explain by reference to nest of practice. On the other hand, the COPT presumes the existence of an objective socio-historical context and the existence of macro-actors on the stage. Actor-Network Theory The actor-network theory was formulated as a contribution to the sociology of knowledge in early 1980s. This theory emphasized that power is “an active, resistive and reactive force.”26 This theory considered active/reactive because a successful command issues from a central source and it would be implemented through the chain of commands. It also added that power cannot explain anything that happens around. This actor-network theory also viewed organizations or communities also grow and learn because as the organization reaches a certain stage they discover new things and able them to put it into practice in order to improve their skills and knowledge. Likewise, this theory viewed that networks of humans and non-humans learn. The non-human played a role in the building up and breaking down of the researcher’s network. For example, a researcher has suggested to the community that this is good to solve your problems or issue. At first, the community would obey and followed those suggestions, but later they would resist following. Perhaps, it does not work on them or they have find or discovered new ideas or practice that is best suited for the community. Hence, this theory further emphasized that in order for an actor to grow “it must enlist and mobilize all kinds of heterogeneous links.”27 The actor-network also looks at how practitioners act as one piece with an assemblage of actants both human and non-human, to build networks or chains which achieve certain ends. In addition, it also recognized that both human and non0human materials have resistive agency, the capacity to act back as well as granting or refusing translation. References Cambridge, D., Kaplan, S., & Suter, V., Community of Practice Design Guide:A Step-by-Step Guide For Designing and Cultivating Communities of Practice in Higher Education, 2005, pp.1-8. Bonk, C.J., et al, We’re in Title to Dream: Envisioning a Community of Practice, The Intraplanetary Teacher Learning Exchange, Cyber Psychology & Behavior, 3/1 (2000), pp.25-39 Fox, S., Communities of Practice: Foucault and Actor-Network Theory. Journal of Management Studies, 37/6(September, 2001), p.853-867. T+D, The Long View: Etienne Wenger, 65/4, April 2011, pp. 97-98. Wenger,E.C., & Snyder, W.M., Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier, Harvard Business Review, 78/1 (2000), pp. 139-145 Wenger, E., Organically Grown, T+D, 55/6 (2001), pp. 40-42. Wilson, M., Technology, Networks and Communities: An exploration of network and community theory and tecnosocial forms, Information, Communication & Society, 13/5 (August 2010), pp. 747–764 Yang, SH., Using Blogs to Enhance Critical Reflection and Community of Practice, Educational Technology and Society, 12/2 (2009), p. 13. Read More