Title: A research methodology for studying distributed communities of practice

Authors: Ben K. Daniel

Addresses: Educational Technology Group, Higher Education Development Centre, University of Otago, 65-75 Union Place West, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand

Abstract: Distributed community of practice (DCoP) is a type of a focused virtual (web) community which aims at fostering knowledge sharing and professional development. DCoP as a theoretical framework offers a way of describing and understanding how different sectors and groups can collaborate and work together under distributed circumstances on issues of shared concern. Many disciplines have used DCoP to identify ways of fostering effective collaboration and knowledge sharing with a considerable level of success. For instance, DCoP was used to describe a collaborative platform for engaging clinicians, researchers, policymakers, students and communities to work together in addressing complex clinical problems. Drawing from previous research, this article first describes the notion of DCoP as a knowledge sharing platform. It then presents a research methodology for studying DCoPs.

Keywords: distributed CoP; communities of practice; DCoP; stakeholder analysis; stakeholders; virtual communities; learning communities; web based communities; online communities; coding schema; manifest analysis; knowledge sharing; professional development; collaboration; complex clinical problems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2014.065397

International Journal of Web Based Communities, 2014 Vol.10 No.4, pp.506 - 516

Published online: 31 Oct 2014 *

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