Communities of Practice are a great way to learn! A social form of learning, CoPs bring people together on an ongoing basis with a common purpose or passion to learn from each other.
CoPs can also take place online, but before you embark on an online community of practice, there are a few things that you might want to consider.
Here are five things you should take into account when planning an online CoP.
1. Picking a time
Find a convenient time to run the CoP, whether that be during the day or on an evening. One hour is an optimal time to schedule your CoP for. This provides a good length of time to explore a topic but also enables conversations to tail off naturally, rather than prolonging the discussion.
2. Selecting a platform
There are many different platforms available to host your CoP and most provide a range of similar features. So, choosing which platform to use is likely down to personal preference, as long as the platform has easy access for those taking part and is secure.
Some features are worth considering:
3. How to facilitate… or not!
As part of your CoP, you may have a facilitator – someone who helps to provide some structure and guide the discussions. When planning your CoP, you will need to consider whether to have a facilitator or not and who this might be. The facilitator doesn’t have to be the person who set up the CoP, it can be anyone involved. It also doesn’t have to be the same person each time.
As part of the planning phase, it is useful for the facilitator to consider what they would like attendees to do during the CoP, such as ask questions, contribute thoughts and ideas or perhaps even just listen. These expectations can then be relayed to attendees at the start so that everyone gets the most out of the CoP.
4. Selecting a topic
A big question you might need to answer is how to decide on the topic(s) of conversation at the CoP. Should there be a pre-determined topic or is it better to leave it more open and fluid to let people discuss what they would like to?
If there is a pre-determined topic, people know what to expect and can think about what they might want to contribute. A pre-determined topic may also help the facilitator to come up with a structure for the session or questions to pose to encourage discussion. Alternatively, a pre-determined topic might prevent people from joining if they think the topic isn’t relevant to them.
5. Choosing a format
Some structure of timings/activities for your CoP can be useful as they help to keep people on track and ensure that your CoP covers everything you set out to do. For example, the first 10 minutes might be used by the facilitator to outline the purpose of the discussion and to kickstart the conversation before getting into the discussion. Planning an element of flexibility is also important though to ensure conversations are fluid and your CoP meets members’ needs.
Using an expert to present their findings or ideas can be useful but be careful this isn’t just a presentation in disguise! Allowing questions to the expert can be really valued by those taking part.
On the other hand, some of the richest experiences come about through discussing members’ questions, reflections and sharing real-life experiences. From sharing resources, to ideas for practice, the immediate impact of this can be great. Conversely, some people tend to not contribute at all in this scenario. This could be due to a lack of interest, relevance or both.
Another idea for a format is to host a reflection session about the topics covered in previous CoP meetups. This is something that can work well for familiarity, revisiting topics and allowing reflection or application of the topics to provide a stimulus for discussion.
The format should suit the audience and what they want and need at that moment. For example, people need to be currently practicing to input real problems, and the experience level of the group can impact on the ideas and solutions generated.
No matter the format, setting the scene at the start of the CoP helps to frame the conversation before starting the discussion.
The use of a priming stimulus can be useful to provoke thought and ideas. However, be careful not to overload people with too much to do here. For example, a research paper to read might be welcomed by some but put off others.