This article describes what a Community of Practice (CoP) is, its features, and how admins can leverage a Community of Practice to engage learners during and between courses.
What is a Community of Practice?
The Community of Practice is a team learning environment designed to provide a space where people can collaborate and share knowledge around a designated purpose. Communities of Practice are formed around a shared purpose, such as pursuit of mastery in a topic area. They are designed to provide curated resources and information to help learners as they pursue mastery and include informal spaces to help connect and encourage grass-roots connections and the co-construction of knowledge.
Why use a Community of Practice?
Communities of Practice provide opportunities during and between courses or programs for continued collaboration and information sharing among learners and leaders. While courses provide a formal setting to learn about a topic amongst peers, the learning and collaboration should not stop when the course ends.
Additionally, Communities of Practice provide the informal space for learners to continue sharing best practices and learning from each other, as well as for leaders to disseminate key information and engage with learners. Building a strong community signals to all employees that creating a learning culture is important to the organization.
Community of Practice features
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