Supporting learners with a contextualised Community of Practice (CoP)

Communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Wenger 1998) are a commonly used concept in organisations combining learning and practice. Their implementation must be closely related to the shared domain (such as teaching and learning in our context), the context of the participants (such as adult learner, mostly having a substantial professional background and learning online), and the set of shared practices ( hhaving access to a set of high-quality modules, online practices, experts and tools). Any combination of domain, context and practice portrays a particular set of opportunities and challenges.

For example, OU learners have a rich and diverse professional experience through which they can contribute and enrich their cohorts, as well as the OU academic knowledge base. Second, the online learning environment holds many affordances for diverse types of interactions (which might suit working people), but also many limitations, especially in the areas of social interactions, which are essential for meaningful learning experiences, retention and attainment. The OU support mechanisms (comprising of study advisors, tutors, the student support team etc.) can go a long way with the backbone of a peers-educators partnering community to aid with establishing identity, increasing engagement and decreasing the sense of isolation.

Long-standing evidence from within and outside the OU consistently shows that insufficient interactions and a deficit of social learning practices are amongst the main barriers to online learners' engagement, retention and attainment.

In addition, to develop a sense of competence, engagement and intrinsic motivation, learners need opportunities to voice their points of view and actively partner with peers and educators.

The proposed study has two main aims:

1. To develop a Community of Practice (CoP) model, grounded in and building on the principles of critical digital pedagogy and open pedagogy, appropriate to combining learner and staff support, and complementing OU curricula pathways, with the aims of:

• Addressing loneliness and isolation, and providing a sense of connection, identity, and belonging
• Allowing leaners to co-create, with their peers and with educators, a collective practice-focused knowledge base integrating their existing experience and skills with new skills gained from their studies
• Providing a community to support the educators
• Achieving equitable societal impact by suppporting online learners who traditionally struggle to actively engage with their community
• Providing learners with a broader range of support opportunities than are typically available
• Making learners' communities resilient to potential disruptions (such as COVID or climate-related) disruption
• Connecting learners to the wider OU academic community and helping them network with alumni and extended communities relevant to their practice

2. Devising an evaluation framework to assess the efficacy of an online CoP, at the individual and collective levels, intended to inform evidence-based ongoing development of the CoP