Community, domain, practice: facilitator catch cry for revitalising learning and teaching through communities of practice

Project report


McDonald, Jacquie. 2012. Community, domain, practice: facilitator catch cry for revitalising learning and teaching through communities of practice. Sydney, Australia. Australian Learning and Teaching Council Limited.
Title

Community, domain, practice: facilitator catch cry for revitalising learning and teaching through communities of practice

Report TypeProject report
Authors
AuthorMcDonald, Jacquie
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
Number of Pages71
Year2012
PublisherAustralian Learning and Teaching Council Limited
Place of PublicationSydney, Australia
ISBN9781922218797
Web Address (URL)http://www.olt.gov.au/resource-community-domain-practice
Abstract

This Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Teaching Fellowship 'Community, Domain, Practice: Facilitator catch cry for revitalising learning and teaching through communities of practice' contributes to ALTC's aim to advance learning and teaching in higher education through a program of activities designed to build the capacity of Facilitators of Communities of Practice at the University of Southern Queensland. Communities of practice (CoPs) are cited in higher education literature and ALTC applications as a successful way of building and sharing a scholarly approach to enhancing learning and teaching practice. This fellowship builds on the Teaching Fellow, Associate Professor Jacquie McDonald's, CoP leadership role at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), where the first CoP started in 2006 to provide a space for academic staff to build a community, increase their knowledge and share learning and teaching practice.

Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2002) describe communities of practice as:
Groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis. Over time... [t]hey become a community of practice (pp. 4-5).

CoPs operate differently from institutionalised higher education work groups, as they are located in the immediate practice field, usually membership is voluntary, and the agenda and outcomes are member driven. The CoP Facilitator role differs from the familiar chairperson roles, so investigation of the complexity and different aspects of the role and development of activities and resources to support and grow the Facilitator role were the focus of the Fellowship. CoPs epitomise distributed leadership (Jones, Lefoe, Harvey & Ryland, 2012), and investigation of, and capacity building of leadership within CoPs contributes to this ALTC priority area.

Aims and deliverables

The Fellowship was designed to build on USQ CoP Facilitators and the Teaching Fellow's knowledge of USQ CoP processes to:

• Identify of the key aspects of a USQ CoP Facilitator role
• Increase the knowledge and capacity of existing USQ CoP Facilitators through workshops and resources
• Establish a Facilitator CoP for the USQ Facilitators to share and grow their practice
• Develop resources to provide a sustained Fellowship legacy
• Engage with national and international CoP practitioners to develop and evaluate activities and resources for CoP Facilitators
• Disseminate Fellowship knowledge and resources across the sector
• Promote ALTC Fellowship activities across the sector

The Teaching Fellowship was focused on building the capacity of USQ CoP Facilitators, so the majority of planned activities and resources have a USQ focus. A distributed leadership approach is a basic operating principal of how the Fellow engaged with, and continues to engage with, both academic and professional staff evolved in Communities of Practice (CoPs). An action research approach used qualitative date collected through semi structured interviews (2010) with fifteen USQ CoP facilitators to identify roles, experience and critical incidents. Grounded theory analysis of the interviews identified key features and issues of the role and a comparative analysis with USA data (2009) identify themes to inform subsequent workshop and resource design. Within the action research cycle, ongoing collaboration with the external evaluator and analysis of summative evaluation feedback informed the planned Fellowship activities. USQ CoP Facilitator capacity was built through these workshops, resources, the establishment of a community of practice for Facilitators and ongoing interaction with the Teaching Fellow.

Dissemination

The Fellow has engaged in round table discussions, seminars and workshops to both develop CoP Facilitator capacity and to disseminate activities to a wide audience. These included:

• Engagement with senior management and CoP champions
• Seminars, round table discussions and workshops
• Refereed conference papers
• ALTC sponsored Fellowship and Leadership forums
• Media releases
• Fellowship resources website <http://www.usq.edu.au/cops/resources/altcfellowship>

The Fellowship web resources include links to the workshop resources, workshop videos and interview audios. The links to the contents page the Miami Facilitator's Handbook, distributed at the February 2011 two and half day facilitator workshop, Designing, Implementing, and Leading CoPs, provide a significant resource and Fellowship outcome. Additional Facilitator resources for establishing and sustaining CoPs are linked to the Phases and Key Issues of a Nurtured Higher Education CoP developed by Star & McDonald (accepted for publication). These resources provide CoP facilitators with ideas and practical resources at different CoP phases <www.usq.edu.au/cops/resources/altcfellowship>.

Recommendations

Significant changes are continuing to occur in the ways universities are governed and managed, moving to more corporate and business-like structures, with significant flow-on in terms of academic roles, their working arrangements and staff morale. Within this context, it is recommended to cultivate CoPs as a way of creating a bottom-up, member-driven approach to engage in generative dialogue around learning and teaching practice. Further research is recommended into both the practical aspects of growing and sustaining Higher Education CoPs, and the best approach for identifying and cultivating the leadership role of CoP facilitors. The ALTC Fellowships and leadership grants have generated many excellent resources and academics and institutional leaders are encouraged to make the time and rewards available to ensure their application across the sector.

'With communities of practice – I know I'm not alone.' University of Southern Queensland Community of Practice member

ANZSRC Field of Research 2020390303. Higher education
390409. Learning sciences
Byline AffiliationsLearning and Teaching Support Unit
Permalink -

https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q2q8x/community-domain-practice-facilitator-catch-cry-for-revitalising-learning-and-teaching-through-communities-of-practice

Download files


Published Version
  • 2550
    total views
  • 495
    total downloads
  • 1
    views this month
  • 2
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

Learning in the palm of your hand: an exploration of the value of online education-related X/Twitter chats for professional learning
Mercieca, Bernadette Mary, McDonald, Jacquelin and Carpenter, Jeffrey Paul. 2024. "Learning in the palm of your hand: an exploration of the value of online education-related X/Twitter chats for professional learning." Professional Development in Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2024.2306995
A Review of the Trends and Challenges in Adopting Natural Language Processing Methods for Education Feedback Analysis
Shaik, Thanveer, Tao, Xiaohui, Li, Yan, Dann, Christopher, McDonald, Jacquie, Redmond, Petrea and Galligan, Linda. 2022. "A Review of the Trends and Challenges in Adopting Natural Language Processing Methods for Education Feedback Analysis." IEEE Access. 10, pp. 56720-56739. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3177752
Identifying, building and sustaining leadership capacity for communities of practice in higher education
McDonald, Jacquelin, Star, Cassandra, Burch, Tony, Cox, Milton, Nagy, Judy, Margetts, Fiona and Collins, Emily. 2012. Identifying, building and sustaining leadership capacity for communities of practice in higher education. Sydney. Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.
Sustaining the momentum: a cross-institutional community of practice for research supervisors
Cater-Steel, Aileen, McDonald, Jacquie, Albion, Peter and Redmond, Petrea. 2017. "Sustaining the momentum: a cross-institutional community of practice for research supervisors." McDonald, Jacquie and Cater-Steel, Aileen (ed.) Implementing communities of practice in higher education: dreamers and schemers. Singapore. Springer. pp. 3-17
Leading institutional change through learning and teaching communities
Newman, Tara, McDonald, Jacquelin, Partridge, Helen, Jolly, Lesley and Sheppard, Karen. 2015. "Leading institutional change through learning and teaching communities." 12th Annual Conference of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL2015). Melbourne, Australia 27 - 30 Oct 2015
Leading at the coal-face: the world as experienced by subject coordinators in Australian higher education
Holt, Dale, Cohen, Lynne, Campbell-Evans, Glenda, Chang, Paul, Macdonald, Ian and McDonald, Jacquie. 2013. "Leading at the coal-face: the world as experienced by subject coordinators in Australian higher education." Educational Management Administration and Leadership. 41 (2), pp. 233-249. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143212468346
Identifying and building the leadership capacity of community of practice facilitators
McDonald, Jacquelin, Nagy, Judy, Star, Cassandra, Burch, Tony, Cox, Miton D. and Margetts, Fiona. 2012. "Identifying and building the leadership capacity of community of practice facilitators." Learning Communities Journal. 4, pp. 63-84.
Digital communities: context for leading learning into the future?
Reushle, Shirley and McDonald, Jacquie. 2012. "Digital communities: context for leading learning into the future?" Brown, M., Hartnett, M. and Stewart, T. (ed.) 29th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE 2012). Wellington, New Zealand 25 - 28 Nov 2012 Wellington, New Zealand.
A comparative study of software to aid the development of a conceptual framework for instructional design theory
Reushle, Shirley and McDonald, Jacquelin. 2001. "A comparative study of software to aid the development of a conceptual framework for instructional design theory." Kennedy, G., Keppell, Michael, McNaught, C. and Petrovic, T. (ed.) 18th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE 2001). Melbourne, Australia 09 - 12 Dec 2001 Melbourne, Australia.
Charting the role of the online teacher in higher education: winds of change
McDonald, Jacquie and Reushle, Shirley. 2002. "Charting the role of the online teacher in higher education: winds of change." Williamson, Andy, Gunn, Cathy, Young, Alison and Clear, Tony (ed.) 19th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE 2002). Auckland, New Zealand 08 - 11 Dec 2002 Auckland, New Zealand.
Bridging international boundaries: integrating and mentoring teaching roles in an online environment
Reushle, Shirley, McDonald, Jacquelin and Lowe, Wendy. 2003. "Bridging international boundaries: integrating and mentoring teaching roles in an online environment." Crisp, Geoffrey (ed.) 20th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE 2003). Adelaide, Australia 07 - 10 Dec 2003 Wollongong, Australia.
Community learning: member's stories about their academic community of practice
McDonald, Jacquelin, Collins, Pauline, Hingst, Raymond D., Kimmins, Lindy, Lynch, Bernadette and Star, Cassandra. 2008. "Community learning: member's stories about their academic community of practice." 31st Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Annual Conference (HERDSA 2008). Rotorua, New Zealand 01 - 04 Jul 2008 Sydney, Australia.
The challenges of building an academic community of practice: an Australian case study
McDonald, Jacquelin and Star, Cassandra. 2008. "The challenges of building an academic community of practice: an Australian case study." 31st Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Annual Conference (HERDSA 2008). Rotorua, New Zealand 01 - 04 Jul 2008 Sydney, Australia.
New models for learning flexibility: negotiated choices for both academics and students
Nagy, Judy and McDonald, Jacquelin. 2007. "New models for learning flexibility: negotiated choices for both academics and students." Atkinson, Roger J., McBeath, Clare, Soong, S. K. A. and Cheers, C. (ed.) 24th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE 2007). Singapore 02 - 05 Dec 2007 Singapore. Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE).
A conceptual model and evaluation process for educational technology learning resources: a legal case study
McDonald, Jacquie, McPhail, Janelle, Maguire, Michael and Millett, Bruce. 2004. "A conceptual model and evaluation process for educational technology learning resources: a legal case study." Educational Media International. 41 (4), pp. 287-296. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523980410001680914
Designing and implementing online discussion forums: an Australian case study
McDonald, Jacquelin. 2009. "Designing and implementing online discussion forums: an Australian case study." International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations. 6 (5), pp. 518-531. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJNVO.2009.027394
Supporting women in engineering, science and technology: the Go West Project
Cater-Steel, Aileen and McDonald, Jacquie. 2010. "Supporting women in engineering, science and technology: the Go West Project." Hudson, Peter, Chandra, Vinesh, King, Donna and Lee, Kar-Tin (ed.) 1st Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in Education Conference (STEM 2010). Brisbane, Australia 26 - 27 Nov 2010 Brisbane, Australia.
Online teaching and learning in higher education: a case study
Postle, Glen, Sturman, Andrew, Mangubhai, Francis, Cronk, Peter, Carmichael, Ann, McDonald, Jacquie, Reushle, Shirley, Richardson, Lesley and Vickery, Bruce. 2003. Online teaching and learning in higher education: a case study. Canberra, Australia. Commonwealth of Australia.
Engagement in web-based education: designing for models of student learning
McDonald, Jacquelin and Reushle, Shirley. 2000. "Engagement in web-based education: designing for models of student learning." Indian Journal of Open Learning. 9 (3), pp. 287-298.
Online pedagogy as a challenge to the traditional distance education paradigm
McDonald, Jacquelin and Reushle, Shirley. 2001. "Online pedagogy as a challenge to the traditional distance education paradigm." Montgomerie, Craig and Viteli, J. (ed.) World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications (ED-MEDIA 2001). Tampere, Finland 25 - 30 Jun 2001 Chesapeake, VA. United States.
Responding to the perfect storm: impetus to create an edgeless university?
Reushle, Shirley and McDonald, Jacquelin. 2010. "Responding to the perfect storm: impetus to create an edgeless university?" Tait, Alan and Szucs, Andras (ed.) EDEN 2010 Annual Conference: Media Inspirations for Learning: What Makes the Impact?. Valencia, Spain 09 - 12 Jun 2010 Budapest, Hungary.
Go WEST - supporting women in engineering, science and technology: an Australian higher education case study
McDonald, Jacquelin, Loch, Birgit and Cater-Steel, Aileen. 2010. "Go WEST - supporting women in engineering, science and technology: an Australian higher education case study." Cater-Steel, Aileen and Cater, Emily (ed.) Women in engineering, science and technology: education and career challenges. Hershey, PA, United States. IGI Global. pp. 118-132
Determinants of students' acceptance and use of learning resources on CD-ROM
Rose, Janelle and McDonald, Jacquelin. 2005. "Determinants of students' acceptance and use of learning resources on CD-ROM." Shehadie, Elias (ed.) Australasian Business and Behavioural Sciences Association Conference 2005 (ABBSA 2005). Cairns, Australia 05 - 07 Aug 2005 Australia.
What do instructional designers do in higher education? A written symposium
Dempsey, John V., Albion, Peter, Litchfield, Brenda C., Havard, Byron and McDonald, Jacquelin. 2007. "What do instructional designers do in higher education? A written symposium." Reiser, Robert A. and Dempsey, John V. (ed.) Trends and issues in instructional design and technology, 2nd ed.. Upper Saddle River, N.J.. Prentice Hall. pp. 221-233
Evolution and emerging trends of university writing groups
Galligan, Linda, Cretchley, Patricia, George, Lucy, Martin-McDonald, Kris, McDonald, Jacquie and Rankin, Janet. 2003. "Evolution and emerging trends of university writing groups." Queensland Journal of Educational Research. 19 (1), pp. 28-41.
Transformation through technology-enhanced learning in Australian higher education
Reushle, Shirley, McDonald, Jacquie and Postle, Glen. 2009. "Transformation through technology-enhanced learning in Australian higher education." Mayes, Terry, Morrison, Derek, Mellar, Harvey, Bullen, Peter and Oliver, Martin (ed.) Transforming higher education through technology-enhanced learning. Heslington, York. United Kingdom. Higher Education Academy. pp. 58-71
Developing research supervisors: breaking down internal barriers and drawing on resources from the Australasian academic community
Cater-Steel, Aileen and McDonald, Jacquie. 2009. "Developing research supervisors: breaking down internal barriers and drawing on resources from the Australasian academic community." iPED 2009: Researching Beyond Boundaries: Academic Communities Without Borders. Coventry, United Kingdom 14 - 15 Sep 2009 Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
An exploratory qualitative study to determine factors influencing the adoption of mobile learning for tertiary education
Gururajan, Raj, McDonald, Jacquelin, Gururajan, Vijaya and Genrich, Rohan. 2007. "An exploratory qualitative study to determine factors influencing the adoption of mobile learning for tertiary education." International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society. 2 (6), pp. 33-40.
Priority areas for research in open and distance education in the 21st century
Taylor, J. C., Postle, G., Reushle, S. and McDonald, J.. 2000. "Priority areas for research in open and distance education in the 21st century." Indian Journal of Open Learning. 9 (1), pp. 99-104.
Online learning: transcending the physical
Reushle, Shirley and McDonald, Jacquelin. 2004. "Online learning: transcending the physical." Effective Teaching and Learning Conference (ETL 2004): A Conference for University Teachers. Brisbane, Australia 04 - 05 Nov 2004 Brisbane, Australia.
Moving an Australian dual mode university to the online environment: a case study
Reushle, Shirley and McDonald, Jacquelin. 2000. "Moving an Australian dual mode university to the online environment: a case study." Bourdeau, Jacqueline and Heller, Rachelle (ed.) World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications (ED-MEDIA 2000). Montreal, Canada 26 Jun - 01 Jul 2000 Chesapeake, VA. United States.
Web-based student learning: accommodating cultural diversity
Reushle, Shirley and McDonald, Jacquelin. 2000. "Web-based student learning: accommodating cultural diversity." Indian Journal of Open Learning. 9 (3), pp. 351-359.
Attitudes of distance education students towards compulsory virtual teamwork in an undergraduate business course
Birch, Dawn and McDonald, Jacquelin. 2007. "Attitudes of distance education students towards compulsory virtual teamwork in an undergraduate business course." e-Journal of Business Education and Scholarship of Teaching. 1 (1), pp. 14-23.
An exploratory study to determine students' perceptions of the value of interaction in an Australian classroom context and the perceived impact on learning outcomes
McDonald, Jacquelin, Birch, Dawn, Gray, Anthony, Gururajan, Raj, Hingst, Raymond D. and Maguire, Michael. 2005. "An exploratory study to determine students' perceptions of the value of interaction in an Australian classroom context and the perceived impact on learning outcomes." CRLL 2005: What a Difference a Pedagogy Makes: Researching Lifelong Learning and Teaching. Glasgow, Scotland 24 - 26 Jun 2005 London, United Kingdom.
Embedding successful pedagogical practices: assessment strategies for a large, diverse, first year student cohort
Star, Cassandra and McDonald, Jacquelin. 2007. "Embedding successful pedagogical practices: assessment strategies for a large, diverse, first year student cohort." International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning. 3 (2), pp. 18-30.
The changing role of an instructional designer in the implementation of blended learning at an Australian university
McDonald, Jacqueline and Mayes, Terry. 2007. "The changing role of an instructional designer in the implementation of blended learning at an Australian university." Keppell, Michael J. (ed.) Instructional design: case studies in communities of practice. Hershey, PA. United States. IGI Global. pp. 170-192
The role of online discussion forums in supporting learning in higher education
McDonald, Jacquelin. 2007. The role of online discussion forums in supporting learning in higher education. Doctorate other than PhD Doctor of Education. University of Southern Queensland.
Making meaning of women's networks: a community of practice framework
McDonald, Jacquelin and Star, Cassandra. 2007. "Making meaning of women's networks: a community of practice framework." Albion, Majella J. and Collins, Pauline (ed.) 2007 International Women's Conference: Education, Employment and Everything... theTriple Layers of a Woman's Life. Toowoomba, Australia 26 - 29 Sep 2007 Toowoomba, Australia.
Designing the future of learning through a community of practice of teachers of first year courses at an Australian university
McDonald, Jacquelin and Star, Cassandra. 2006. "Designing the future of learning through a community of practice of teachers of first year courses at an Australian university." Philip, R., Voerman, A. and Dalziel, J. (ed.) The First International LAMS Conference: Designing the Future of Learning (2006). Sydney, Australia 06 - 08 Dec 2006 Sydney, Australia.
Role of the educator in supporting learning in an online environment: vision for the future
Reushle, Shirley and McDonald, Jacquelin. 2004. "Role of the educator in supporting learning in an online environment: vision for the future." McKay, Elspeth (ed.) International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE 2004): Acquiring and Constructing Knowledge Through Human-Computer Interaction Creating New Visions for the Future of Learning. Melbourne, Australia 30 Nov - 03 Dec 2004 Melbourne, Australia.
Students' perceptions of a virtual team assessment item (VTAI): An Australian case study
Birch, Dawn and McDonald, Jacquelin. 2005. "Students' perceptions of a virtual team assessment item (VTAI): An Australian case study." 7th ODLAA Conference. Adelaide, Australia 09 - 11 Nov 2005
Engagement by design: marrying pedagogy and technology for better learning conversations via asynchronous electronic discussions
Dorman, Marilyn and McDonald, Jacquelin. 2005. "Engagement by design: marrying pedagogy and technology for better learning conversations via asynchronous electronic discussions." Son, Jeong-Bae and O'Neill, Shirley (ed.) Enhancing learning and teaching: pedagogy, technology and language. Flaxton, Australia. Post Pressed. pp. 101-118
Pedagogically challenged: a framework for the support of course designers in an Australian distance learning university
McDonald, Jacquelin and Mayes, Terry. 2005. "Pedagogically challenged: a framework for the support of course designers in an Australian distance learning university." Caldwell, Joanne, Cleary, Paula, Crossan, Beth, Edwards, Richard, Gallacher, Jim, Gray, Peter, MacFarlane, Karen, McGavock, Karen, Mayes, Nicholas, Miller, Kate, Osborne, Mike, Remedios, Richard, Smith, June and Toman, Nuala (ed.) CRLL 2005: What a Difference a Pedagogy Makes: Researching Lifelong Learning and Teaching. Glasgow, Scotland 24 - 26 Jun 2005 Glasgow, Scotland.