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A Design Framework for Building a Virtual Community of Practice

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Book cover The Challenges of the Digital Transformation in Education (ICL 2018)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 916))

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Abstract

Sustaining competitiveness in global market is dependent on organizations’ capacity to innovate; revelation of tacit knowledge and its incorporation in organisations’ structures and processes, comprise an important factor in exploring and implementing innovation. Virtual communities of practice (CoPs) and virtual learning communities are becoming widespread within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) thanks to technological developments which enable increased communication, interactivity among participants and incorporation of collaborative pedagogical models, specifically through information communications technologies (ICTs). This paper presents a design framework for building a Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP) incorporating company stakeholders, academics, researchers and school practitioners as prospect members of the community, who interact on the basis of knowledge sharing on IT technologies and engineering: the design characteristics, important concepts, structures and preliminary data are presented. Design research sets the methodological framework used, while, in the context of applying ethnographic practices, qualitative data have been collected to support the proposed design mechanism.

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Acknowledgment

Dr Olga Fragou is currently an Academic Tutor in Hellenic Open University. The research schema and protocols presented in this paper have been designed and conducted by the author during her research work (2016–2017) at Computer Technology Institute and Press- Diophantus (http://www.cti.gr), for Horizon 2020 Project “UMI-Sci-Εd: Exploring Ubiquitous, Mobile and Internet of Things Technology in Science Education”, GA 750183. The information and views set out in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the European Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece

    Olga Fragou

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  1. Olga Fragou
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Correspondence to Olga Fragou .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Carinthia University of Applied Sciences , Villach, Kärnten, Austria

    Michael E. Auer

  2. Department of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Thrasyvoulos Tsiatsos

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Fragou, O. (2020). A Design Framework for Building a Virtual Community of Practice. In: Auer, M., Tsiatsos, T. (eds) The Challenges of the Digital Transformation in Education. ICL 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 916. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11932-4_41

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