By value creation we mean the value of the learning enabled byWenger, Trayner and deLaat view communities of practice and networks as simply two different aspects of social learning. Ccmmunities of practice (COP) are defined as groups of people gathered together learning about specific topics, and networks are social networks that may or may not be joined technologically, but connections and relationshps are used to share and solve problems, as well as make further connections. Both structures may promote learning.
community involvement and networking. Therefore we focus on the value that networks or communities create when they are used for social learning activities such as sharing information, tips and documents, learning from each other’s experience, helping each other with challenges, creating knowledge together, keeping up with the field, stimulating change, and offering new types of professional development opportunities. (Wenger, Trayner, DeLaat, 2011)
• The network aspect refers to the set of relationships, personal interactions, and connectionsamong participants who have personal reasons to connect. It is viewed as a set of nodes and links with affordances for learning, such as information flows, helpful linkages, joint problem solving, and knowledge creation.
• The community aspect refers to the development of a shared identity around a topic or set of challenges. It represents a collective intention – however tacit and distributed – to steward a domain of knowledge and to sustain learning about it. (W,T,D, p. 11)COP offers collective learning and creates a history that participants share, but can become complacent in its perspectives and outlooks. Network participation does not, however, require shared commitments to the learning, "...learning in a network does not have to have an explicit collective dimension. For learning to occur in a network, the individual resolve and responsibility becomes key. Individuals learn to sort out, and take time to sort out, "noise" versus significants events or knowledge. Networks and community structures can serve to complement each other in the service of learning. Social learning structured with both network and community fosters deeper learning.
Community stories or narratives
The community or network audience are the participants, but may also include umbrella organizing organizations or sponsors. Some of the learning acquired may be useful short term, and some is relevant later in time. The community or network becomes a larger learning resource over time as shared experience and connections increase.
personal network=ego
complete network=social network
Network participants may not understand the collective narrative, whereas community participants are likely involved around creating the collective practice that is, in essence, the community itself.
"As illustrated in Figure 3.1, the tension between these two narratives creates a space for learning and
for deciding what is worth learning. We locate the assessment and promotion of value creation
through social learning in the space between the everyday and aspirational narratives. The next
section refines the definition of this space by describing five cycles of value creation that connect
everyday and aspirational narratives. (WTD, p.19)
Cycle 1. Immediate value: Activities and interactions
Communities help each other, create stories, share tips, or conduct research. Networks make new connections by meeting new people, asking questions, posting, sharing information.
Cycle 2. Potential value: Knowledge capital
Knowledge capital can include personal assets or human capital, relationships and connections or social capital, resources or tangible capital, collective intangible assets or reputational capital, and transformed ability to learn or learning capital.
Cycle 3. Applied value: Changes in practice
Using capital by applying and using in different ways by adapting to new situations is leveraging capital. The applied value is constituted by practice changes made by levereging knowledge capital.
Cycle 4. Realized value: Performance improvement
Critiquing the changes in practice for improved performance is important reflection on the effects the application of new knowledge has on the members of the community or the network.
Cycle 5. Reframing value: Redefining success
The last cycle, defined and added to the previous structure of Kirkland, causes changes that reframe goals, strategies or values. It redefines success for the individual, collective or organization.
The above cycles may not be linear, but rather dynamically constructed as learning. These cycles serve as a framework of aspects of value creation and as process by which assessment and measurement may be conducted.
Format of a value creation story:
"It starts with a community or network activity--
such as a community meeting, a project, or the propagation of an inquiry through network links – and
how productive it was (cycle 1). The story then highlights a resource, such as a response to an
inquiry, an idea, a piece of advice, a document, a procedure, a model, or a relationship which came
out of the activity (cycle 2). It then explains how this resource was applied in the practice of the
storyteller and with what effects (cycle 3). The effect on practice can then be linked to an outcome,
such as a measure of performance in the organization or for a person (cycle 4). Finally, there is
always the possibility that current measures of performance are found inadequate to fully account for
the new development so that in some cases; a story might even involve a reflection on the definition of success and new considerations to frame the expectations of value creation (cycle 5)."
The following guiding questions provide a simple frame to construct the stories:
Communities and networks can generate all sorts of quantitative and qualitative data about their
activities. It is therefore important for our framework to support the inclusion and triangulation of
multiple sources and types of data.
The assessment process goes back and forth between indicators and stories to develop an account of value creation. It is the combination of the cycle data available that gives a true picture of the community or network value creation that occurred.
Immediate value → Productive activities
Stories about exciting activities and their effects provide useful indications about what members find good value for their time. This information can help community and network leaders in their efforts to foster social learning. In addition, stories that follow activities beyond the context of the community or network can also reveal the usefulness of activities whose immediate value was not apparent at the time.
Potential value → Robust resources
The significance of a document in multiple contexts supports the claim that the information it contains is likely relevant, useful, and valid more generally. Similarly, the applications of an insight or an idea in a number of different circumstances confirm its significance and its transformative potential.
Applied value → Promising practices
Documenting the wide adoption of a change in practice with stories that link it to results comes close to establishing it as a “best practice” or “common knowledge,” even if some communities are often somewhat suspicious of such absolute terms. At the very least the accumulation of evidence suggests that it is a "promising practice".
Realized value → Return on investment
Combining stories that affect a performance outcome can demonstrate a “return on investment” for resources invested in communities or networks (including time). In many cases value-creation stories can even contribute directly to quantitative measurements. For instance, if a number of stories claim that significant time has been saved by the reuse of a document or quick access to relevant information, one can ask for estimates of that time and calculate the monetary value of the number of hours or days saved. Combining a set of stories with monetary value can yield a quantitative return on
a community or network.
Reframing value → New framework
If many stories question the relevance or validity of a measure of performance or suggest a new definition of success, a good case can be made that the system in which such measures or definition operates needs to consider its strategic framework. Or it may lead to transforming existing systems or setting new systems.
ncludes a theoretical framework and toolkit for helping professionals
to tell stories on the value that networks and communities create when they are used for learning and
to articulate how these activities result in desired outcomes that improve teaching practice. I hope that
professionals of other contexts will also find it helpful.
References
•Wenger, E., Trayner, B., deLaat, M., Promoting and assessing value creation in communities and networks: a conceptual framework, Ruud de Moor Centrum, Open Universiteit, rdmc.ou.nl, 2011.
•Kirkpatrick, D.L. (1976). Evaluation of Training. In R. L. Craig (Ed.), Training and Development
Handbook: A guide to human resource management (2nd ed., pp. 301-319). New York: McGraw-Hill.
•Kirkpatrick, D.L. (1994). Evaluating Training Programs: the four levels. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
•Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W.M. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: a guide to managing knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
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