Online communities of practice: are they principled and how do they work?

In 2006 the Academic Development and Support (AD&S) Unit at a Melbourne university was faced with the dilemma of providing support to an academic member of staff relocating to Brunei. This paper looks at how AD&S worked with the academic to establish an online community of practice to meet her learning and teaching needs. All three members gained invaluable knowledge and experience from participating in this venture and Wenger’s seven principles of design for establishing successful communities of practice naturally evolved throughout the project. Their shared interest in online technologies allowed them to safely explore new strategies for teaching online and gave them an opportunity to come up to speed with tools such as Skype, blogs, wikis, video clips, and mp3 sound bites. The skills gained from participating in this community, and the sharing of experiences, allowed each member to confidently look beyond the group to trial and share their new knowledge and experience in a variety of new educational contexts.