Learning community

Created: Nov 05, 2021. Last updated: Nov 05, 2021.

A learningLearning
Learning is one of my passions. I have been in some form of school non-stop since kindergarten ;) I love to learn, whether it is learning how to sing, how to play beat saber at expert+ level, or ho...
community (a.k.a. a community of practice) is where different people come together to learn and develop on a specific topic. This can be a key factor in continuous learning and developing your expertExpert
As a relatively young [[research line]] in the group on relatively young topics such as XR and persuasive technology, an interesting question is: When can we call ourselves experts in these fields?...
ise.

In our lectorate (UAS research group), we think learning communities can be a great way to further develop your own expertise together with others. These others can also be people from other research groups, teachers, students, and even people from companies that work in the same area of expertise. As the name insinuates, connecting people is an important aspect, aside from learning. The goal of a lectorate is to bring innovations to education and local companies, so a learning community seems to be a fitting way to go about this (aside from standard activities such as joint projects).

How do you create a sustainable learning community?

Cambridge & Suter (2004) prepose 6 steps, from inquiry to identify audience, vision and goals, via a steadily wider roll-out, to sustain. Key aspects here are that (1) it is very much bottom-up, driven by what the people want and need, and (2) there is ongoing interaction both online and in person. What are fitting collaborative learning, knowledge sharing, networking and project activities to engage in?

Further reading