Creating the Learning Community in Workplace Health Promotion.

1. Creating the Learning Community in Workplace Health Promotion. presented by Dr Ravi S. SharmaWee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Launch of Health @ Work Portal 6-Feb-07

2. Outline • What is a learning community? • An architecture for e-learning. • Strategies for the learning community. • Good Practices from the NHS. • Lessons Learnt from edveNTUre.

3. Learning Communities • Learning Organization. Learning organizations are those that have in place systems, mechanisms and processes, that are used to continually enhance their capabilities and those who work with it or for it, to achieve sustainable objectives - for themselves and the communities in which they participate. [David Skyrme] • Community of Practice (CoP). A network of people who share a common interest in a specific area of knowledge or competence and are willing to work and learn together over a period of time to develop and share that knowledge. [NHS] A Learning Community is hence a hybrid of a LO and CoP. And learning is essentially a social activity, best done in groups.

4. Architecture Voluntary membership • Whereas teams and work groups are formed by management, membership of a learning community is voluntary; Specific focus • Teams and work groups are formed to focus on a specific objective or activity, while learning communities may have some stated goals, but are more general and fluid; No expectation of tangible rewards • Teams and work groups are required to deliver tangible results, whereas learning communities find the journey rewarding; Existence defined by group members • Teams and work groups are disbanded or reorganised once they have achieved their goals, while learning communities of last as long as their members wish.

5. Getting Started Launch - organic and self-organising; should emerge naturally; may be “seeded”; area or function where knowledge is not evenly distributed is a potential. 1 Defining the scope • What is the domain of knowledge? - Workplace Health, but ... 2 Finding participants • Who are the subject experts, and possible co-ordinators, facilitators, and librarians and/or knowledge managers? Will membership be open or by invitation only? 3 Identifying common needs and interests • What are the core issues? What are members interested in and passionate about? How do they hope to benefit from membership of the community? 4 Clarifying the purpose and terms of reference • What are the specific needs or problems that need to be addressed? What is the community setting out to achieve? How will the community benefit its organisational members?

6. Good Practices Developing and sustaining - after initial enthusiasm, communities can easily wane and fade away unless… • Coordinator must constantly generate interest and participation: ensuring that members meet face to face regularly to keep personal relationships alive; allowing time for socialising; ensuring organisations support members; motivating and rewarding contributions; introducing new and challenging perspectives in the subject in a timely manner. 2 Growing the community: members will come and go, and ongoing recruitment is essential; responsibilities must be rotated between members over time; ongoing success affected by integration of new members. 3 Developing the body of knowledge: more proactive and formal stage with typical activities including creating knowledge maps, organising knowledge resources, identifying and seeking to fill knowledge gaps; 4 Moving the agenda forward and adding value: communities thrive when supported and valued; important that a community develops in alignment with overall goals, rather than to its own agenda.

7. Lessons Learnt • Creating a learning community is a journey. • A portal is a necessary but not sufficient starting point. • Content and search are critical for explicit knowledge. • Emerging communication and collaboration tools such as blogs and wikis are more amenable to tacit knowledge sharing. Expertise locators (or yellow pages) seem passe. • Engaging in reflective writing • Facilitating learning via peer review and feedback • Encouraging critical thinking and creativity • Collaborating on online with peers • Creating shared resources by authoring content, linking to external resources, contributing opinions and analysis, and reframing existing content. • Recognising group participation

8. References • S. Foo, R. Sharma & A. Chua, Knowledge Management Tools and Techniques, Prentice Hall, Singapore, 2007. • UK NHS KM Specialist Library: http://www.library.nhs.uk/knowledgemanagement/ • David Skyrme Associates: http://www.skyrme.com/ • The KM Resource Centre: http://www.kmresource.com/exp_periodicals.htm