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Communities of Practice Communities of Practice

to Improve Knowledge Management andto Improve Knowledge Management and

eLearning in SMEseLearning in SMEs

SIMPEL - Improving eLearning in SMEs

Final Conference 14.04.08

Anke Petschenka, Steffi Engert (University Duisburg-Essen)

Ileana Hamburg (IAT Gelsenkirchen)

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Table of Contents

1. Definition and Specifications of CoPs

2. eLearning and VCoP

3. Idea of CoP for SIMPEL

4. Conclusions

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The term „Community of Practice“ was first used in 1991 by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger

1. Communities of Practice – an approach to learning

Jean Lave Etienne Wenger

1991

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1.1 Communities of Practice (CoP)

„We all belong to communities of

practice. …

At home, at work, at school, in our

hobbies, we belong to several

communities of practice at any

given time.“

Etienne Wenger 2001

Emphasis: learning situations in daily life, at work, at home and throughout society.

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„Communities of Practice are

formed by people who engage in a

process of collective learning in a

shared domain of human

endeavour.“

Etienne Wenger 2004

1.2 Communities of Practice (CoP)

Emphasis: learning peer-to-peer

interacting/collaborating in a social network focussed on practice and exchange of experience.

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1.3 Communities of Practice (CoP) nach E. Wenger

http://www.4managers.de/fileadmin/4managers/folien/communityofpractice_01.pdf

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its members share a domain of interest and they are committed to this domain voluntarily

they collect and share information resources

shared or complementary competences among members

common ideas and/or joint activities

absence or near absence of hierarchies

orientation towards exchanging experiences on

developing best practice/agreement on standards for best practice

Web 2.0 applications and concepts regarding „social networking“

1.3 Specifications for CoPs

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Informal learning can be characterized as follows:

it does not take place in special educational establishements apart from normal life and professional practice

it has no curriculum and is not professionally organized

it is not planned in a pedagogically conscious, systematic manner according to subjects, test and qualification

CoP allow informal learning and facilitate knowledge management

1.4 Informal Learning

!!! Jay Cross (2006) pointed out that formal trainings and

workshops account only for 10-20% of what people learn at work!!!

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new media technologies enable time and place independent exchange

fast transfer of knowledge

efficient organisation of workflows

reduction of workload

documentation: collecting and accessing information repositories

eCommunication, eCooperation

Communication channels (synchronous/asynchronous)

2 eLearning - VCoP

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CoPs often start in face-to-face-settings

benefit from information technologies for collecting and accessing information repositories

many CoPs grow into a VCoP or work in a “blended“ mode, combining the best of both worlds

2.1 face-to-face meetings and VCoP

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members can access the community and share their work largely independent of time and location

it is easy to bring together people of different backgrounds and levels of expertise

it is cost-effective

people may be less inhibited to take part in the discussion than in face-to-face situations

2.2 Working in a VCoP has a number of advantages

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to keep up motivation may be harder than in a CoP meeting face-to-face

missing face-to-face meetings may give rise to feelings of social isolation

a certain level of technical equipment and technical expertise (‘e-competence‘) is required from the community members.

2.3 Working in a VCoP has to be balanced against possible disadvantages

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CoP took place on a model of a “blended“ CoP combining workshops, seminars and “virtual“ collaboration (LMS MOODLE)

especially the elaboration of the “Guidelines on eLearning in SMEs“

cumulated eLearning experiences by SIMPEL partners

cumulated eLearning experiences of wider expert network

3 The idea of CoP for SIMPEL

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Learning Management System Moodle to house the SIMPEL CoP

Philosopy: Social constructivist pedagogical concept and not primarily developed out of software-development considerations

The community was used for

Distributing information materials on CoPs and other issues

Presentation of successful models of e-learning

Elaboration of the Guidelines by using the Moodle WIKI

Documentations of events (workshops, conferences)

Toolbox: links to tools for e-learning; manuals for Moodle

3.2 Learning Management System: Moodle

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combining face-to-face meetings with ongoing work on a virtual platform

CoP can easily be started to build a community of knowledge exchange, know-how and problem-solving ideas

it is important that the members of the CoP are networkers conversant with training conceptions, blended-learning methods and eLearning

Networking

in an individual SME or department between several SMEs on a branch or a regional level from different levels might network into a kind of „meta-CoP“.

CoPs can fulfill an important function as part of the training strategy

4. Conclusions

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Thank you for your attention!

University of Duisburg-Essen

Institute for Work and Technology

http://www.uni-due.de/e-competence http://www.iat.eu