Transcript Creating and Fostering e-communities of Practice (e

Creating and Fostering ecommunities of Practice
(e-CoPs): Theory and
Practice
Thang Siew Ming, UKM
[email protected]
What is a community of practice?
Abbreviated as CoP
 refers to the process of social learning
that occurs and shared sociocultural
practices that emerge and evolve when
people who have common goals interact
as they strive towards those goals.
 Situated Learning(Lave & Wenger, 1991)

Difference between learning
communities and CoPs
Learning communities are built around
specific learning contexts whereas CoPs are
work based communities that focus on
organisational learning and are often more
open-ended.
Nonaka and Takeuchi’s model
This
model argues that organisational
learning is usually accomplished through
peers, individuals with similar occupational
backgrounds, goals and problems.
They socialise to exchange knowledge,
experiences, support and best practices.
Mostly through face to face interactions
Diagramatic representation of model
Tacit knowledge
Tacit
knowledge
Explicit Knowledge
Socialization
Externalization
Internalization
Combination
from
Explicit
knowledge
Knowledge Creation Cycle
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Converted from tacit to explicit through forces of
socialisation, externalisation, combination and
internalization
Externalization (tacit to explicit): applying
personal knowledge to a new problem;
Combination (explicit to explicit): bringing two
pieces of information together in a new way;
Internalization (explicit to tacit) learning by
experience;
Socialization (tacit to tacit) learning by sharing
experiences.
Evaluating E-Communities of Practices
Simplest way is by counting:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Number of community participants
Time spent per community participant
Growth in number of community participants
Number of goals or checkpoints met by the committee
Number of emails or discussion threads posted
Number of participants using and returning to use the
community
Improved job/skills performance
Number of new ideas generated within community
(Allen et al 2003)
Knowledge Creation Cycle
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Converted from tacit to explicit through forces of
socialisation, externalisation, combination and
internalization
Externalization (tacit to explicit): applying
personal knowledge to a new problem;
Combination (explicit to explicit): bringing two
pieces of information together in a new way;
Internalization (explicit to tacit) learning by
experience;
Socialization (tacit to tacit) learning by sharing
experiences.
Characteristics of Successful of eCoPs
1. A common goal or purpose
 the need to have common, recognised
and shared needs
 the existence of common practice
 the goal to gain new or to improve
existing competencies
Leadership and moderation
(organisation, social & intellectual)
Having involved leaders/moderators is
very important (Bourhis, Dube & Jacob,
2005)
 Necessary support from organisations
management (Allen et al 2003)
 Clearly communicated rules, norms and
standard help to reduce anxiety &
uncertainty (Archidivili et al 2003)

Trust and relationship
Trust that posted information will not be
misused
 Trust in reliability and objectivity of
information
(Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2003; AlAlawi, Al-Marzooqi, & Mohammed, 2007)
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Motivation and rewards of
community members
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Motivators for sharing of knowledge more
likely to be intrinsic rewards (e.g peer
recognition, self esteem boosting, altruistic
motives) than extrinsic rewards (e.g.
monetary and administrative)
(Ardichvili, Page, & Wentling, 2003
Participation (Salmon,2000)
Three groups of users:
1/3 read and contribute
1/3 reads contributions
1/3 neither reads nor contributes

Others factors contributing to the
success of a e-CoP
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Availability of Time
Face to face interaction (at a regular basis)
National and organisational culture – too
traditional then inhibits the flow of knowledge
Providing valuable information and knowledge –
tacit knowledge, practical experiences, hands on
solutions etc (Hinton, 2003)
ICT and Technology (easily available
technology)
Examples of successful e-CoPs
Web design (www.sitepoint.com)
 A programming language
(www.zend.com/forums/)
 Software development (www.the
scripts.com/forum/)
 Moodle

Characteristics of these communities
Mainly forums
 Membership informal
 Visitors welcome to browse, find support
and pose questions
 Informal code of conduct
 Provide general coding guides, solutions,
discussion regarding good practices
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Egs of three controlled e-CoPs
(1) Engaging Diversity project in UK
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A project by the School of Education, University
of Wales
aims at delivering effective diversity awareness
training in Wales to a large number of people in
a short period of time
Training delivered through a series of different
modules
Training to addressed these diversity subjects
– race, disability, age, religion, beliefs, gender,
welsh languages & sexual orientation
Types of modules
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Multimedia presentation mixing photos, video,
audio, voice-over narration & animations
Supported by an interactive quiz
Modules delivered by 11 partners organisation
that includes several councils across Wales &
public funded organisations
Training by training coordinators within each
organisation who will also be moderators of the
e-Cops.
Findings from interviews
Numerous comments indicating the users
enjoyed the images & movement, music &
the narrative.
 Significant increase in awareness
 Create attitudinal changes
 Feeling part of a bigger community
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(2) Study in a Japanese university
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Schalow (2009) tried to establish a vibrant online
social network at a Japanese university.
Participation was through blogs, video and
audio resources, and profile information via the
social networking software.
Initially a failure. Students participated in the
network, but they were reluctant members
Seemed they believed their mobile telephone
networks effectively met all of their information
needs.
Reasons
According to him the failure was due what
he called the "learning culture" (or actually
its lack) created by the Japanese school
system.
 The American educational system is able
to nourish inquisitive minds.
 He posits that this is lacking in the
Japanese educational system which puts
teachers and textbooks as authorities.
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(3) The CPDelt project
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School Improvement project for Malaysian Smart
schools to address problems currently faced by
Smart schools.
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Lee Kean Wah (2007) pointed out the Smart
School CPD succeeded in raising awareness
about the innovations but appeared less
effective in equipping them with a clear
understanding of the practices needed in the
classroom level.
Research framework
Based on the Improvement Quality
Education for All (IQEA) action
research framework extensively used
in the UK as a vehicle for school
improvement (Hopkins et al., 1996).
e-CPDelt hub & spoke model
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A critical relationship between a number of
school-based cadres of change–agents (spokes)
and a Higher Education Institutions (HEI)-based
research team (hub).
Spokes -- 5 schools with four teachers (of
English, Maths & Science) from each school.
Hub – Researchers from three universities: The
National University of Malaysia, University
Nottingham, UK & University of Sabah, Malaysia
e-CPDelt hub & spoke model
Cadre 1
Cadre 4
Cadre 2
HEI
Cadre 4
Cadre 3
Online Communities of practice
approach
English
Teachers at
School A
English
Teachers at
School B
English
Teachers at
School C
English
Teachers at
School E
English
Teachers at
School D
Methods of sharing
Face to face interaction – workshops
 Online blog activities
 Online posting of video clips using an
Interactive Virtual Platform (ViP) followed
by online sharing of best practices and
problems
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Poor response to blog activity
Communities No. of
Members
No. of Blog
Entries
No. of
Comments
English
6
5
1
Science
9
4
0
Mathematics
5
5
4
Reasons?
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Is it a cultural problem as proposed by Schalow?
Participants attributed it to lack of time. Is this
the real deterrent factor?
Maybe need more active participants from
moderators, Would that help?
More guided activities/modules. Would that ease
the transition?
Remedial steps taken
More online support from moderators
 Face to face discussion and training
session
There seems to be some improvement but
still far from satisfactory. So, is it a cultural
thing?
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In conclusion
Needs to further investigate and
experiment to find solutions
 The effect of culture on the success of eCoPs in the Asian context need to be
given serious consideration.
Thank you
