We present didactical considerations to prepare students for livelong learning and to connecct them during university studies with communiites of practice. A first qualitiative evaluation among alumni show the long term effect of the concept on carreer.

1. Communities of Practice
and Higher Education
Social Media 2015, 10-12 April 2015 / HongKong
Pia Sue Helferich & Thomas Pleil

2. About
▪ Pia Sue Helferich
▪ Consultant E-Business-Lotse
Darmstadt-Dieburg (Competence
Center for Social Media & E-
Learning)
▪ PhD Candidate
▪ @pshelferich, ebusinessinfo.de
▪ Prof. Dr. Thomas Pleil
▪ Director Institute for Communication
& Media
▪ Head of study program Online
Communication (B.Sc.)
▪ @tp_da, thomaspleil.wordpress.com,
mediencampus.h-da.de
Helferich / Pleil 2015

3. Agenda
Introduction
Higher Education
and Lifelong
Learning
Communities of
Practice in Higher
Education
Case Study:
Connecting
Students with
External
Communities of
Practice
Conclusion
Helferich / Pleil 2015

4. Introduction
▪ Universities: education as self-
contained phases
▪ Further qualification:
responsibility of the employer
and the employees
▪ Employees’ challenge:
continuous development of
qualifications (Gornik &
Tomaschek, 2011)
è Universities have to prepare
for informal and lifelong
learning
Example
Type
Formal
Education
School /
University
Informal
Learning
Communities
of Practice Reading
Formal
Learning
Courses /
Trainings
Life-
long
Lear
ning
Global Knowledge society
Helferich / Pleil 2015

5. Lifelong Learning
▪ The ongoing (re)qualification of
practitioners: lifelong learning
▪ Lifelong learning: “purposeful
learning, occurring among adults on
an ongoing basis with the aim of
improving skills or acquiring
knowledge or competencies” (Head,
Van Hoeck, & Garson, 2015)
▪ Lifelong learning can occur in the
workplace, personal or civic life
(Head et al., 2015)
Helferich / Pleil 2015
▪ Permanent changes and new
requirements in the job demand to
keep up-to-date (Arnold & Rohs,
2014)
▪ Changing jobs during career
requires broadening expertise
▪ Ongoing education and training of
employees as a key competitive
factor for companies (Jongbloed,
2002, p. 416)

6. Relevance of Lifelong learning
▪ Students have to get prepared for
fast changing environments &
knowledge (Jongbloed, 2002)
▪ Universities should convey skills
and methods to handle this
(Jongbloed, 2002)
è Students have to shape individual
learning environments
▪ Higher Education has to respond to
these changes and to the
continuous need for lifelong learning
(Jongbloed, 2002).
Helferich / Pleil 2015

7. Communities of Practice & Higher Education (1)
▪ Communities of Practice (CoPs)
(Wenger, 1998) as an answer to the
need for lifelong learning
▪ CoPs can be defined as “groups of
people informally bound together by
shared expertise and passion for a
joint enterprise” (Wenger, 2000, p.
139).
▪ Educational scholars have
transferred the concept of CoPs to
Higher Education for example for
architecture classes (Morton, 2012).
Huge body of research dealing with
Higher Education and CoPs (Lea,
2005),
è Focus: The class or the students
themselves form the CoPs.
Helferich / Pleil 2015

8. Communities of Practice
& Higher Education (2)
▪ Our Approach: students
should also be trained to
connect with existing external
CoPs within their future
profession in order to be
prepared for lifelong learning
challenges in their future jobs.
è Learning as a networked
process (Siemens, 2005)
Helferich / Pleil 2015
Educators
‘ Weblog
Textdepot
Course Blog
PR-
Fundsachen
Social
Bookmarks
(Group Archive)
Public
Wiki
PR-Wiki
Private
Wikis
PR-Blog
PR-Blog
PR-Blog PR-Blog
PR-Blog
PR-Blog
(other
students
)
Others‘
Bookmarks
PR-Blog
(other
students
)
I
M
Educato
rs‘
Twitter

9. Communities of Practice in economy (1)
▪ CoPs in companies: most studies
focus on internal CoPs
è Not adequate to all professions
▪ Social media give the opportunity to
enrich networking and
communication (Koch & Richter,
2008), not only within large
organisations but also for smaller
organisations and freelancers with
professionals in their field
Helferich / Pleil 2015
▪ Examples are expert blogs, XING,
LinkedIN or Facebook Groups

10. Communities of Practice in economy (2)
▪ The use of social media leads to a
differentiation of CoPs
è CoP in times of social media may
be cross border of organizations,
are more self-organized and fluid
than traditional CoP
è Connecting with such CoPs needs
special training with web literacy as
a basis
Helferich / Pleil 2015
Picture: Flickr @Doug Belshaw

11. Case Study: Hochschule Darmstadt
▪ Programme: Online Journalism,
optional focus on Online PR
▪ Challenge: Fields change quickly
▪ Avoid to degree students with
yesterday’s knowledge
è Scientific foundation, project based
learning
è Topic centred usage of social
media
as a means to participate in CoP
è CoP on campus
Helferich / Pleil 2015

12. Case Study: Hochschule Darmstadt
Activities (starting 2005)
▪ (pr-wiki.de: A wiki on PR)
▪ pr-fundsachen.de, a group blog on
the future field of occupation (+ FB,
Twitter)
▪ Presentations: 5 minutes on a
current self-selected topic
▪ Workshops and barcamps:
Students’ presentations & live
communication
▪ Do-Camps: working together with
professionals on a nonprofit project
Helferich / Pleil 2015

13. Case Study: Hochschule Darmstadt
The students shall learn to
▪ identify experts in their future
occupational field
▪ connect with them (following, reading,
sharing, publishing, discussing, working
together)
▪ identify relevant online places, events &
networks with relevant discussions
▪ set up an personal learning environment
▪ identify current topics of their industry
▪ present themselves online (personal
branding)
Helferich / Pleil 2015

14. Research Questions
1. Which networks do graduates use
for lifelong learning?
2. Which effects has the connection
with external CoPs during the
study programme for lifelong
learning?
? ?
?
?
?
? ?
?
Helferich / Pleil 2015

15. Research Methodology
▪ Qualitative interviews with former
public relations students
▪ We coded and analysed the
interviews with the software
package MaxQDA and focused on
open as well as process coding
(Saldaña, 2013)
▪ From about 170 former students we
conducted eight interviews.
▪ Five work in communications
agencies, two are founders of
communication agencies
▪ One participant works part time in an
agency and part time as a freelancer
for other agencies
▪ We covered six cohorts from the
graduation years 2012, 2011, 2010,
2009, 2007 & 2005.
▪ Participants were 24 to 35 years old
and speak German as their native
language
▪ Working area of all participants: online
communication
▪ Fast changing conditions, high
demand for lifelong learning
Helferich / Pleil 2015

16. Findings
We structure our results into two parts
according to our leading questions:
1. networks for lifelong learning and
2. effects of the connection with CoP
in the study programme
Results
Networks for lifelong
learning
Effects of the
connection with CoP
in the study
programme
Helferich / Pleil 2015

17. Networks for lifelong learning: Internal
Networks
Networks
Internal
Networks
External
Networks
Networks of
Former Fellow
Students
▪ Six of eight participants build
learning networks with their actual
working colleagues
▪ All participants said, that they
realised the importance of learning
on the job on a regular basis
▪ Four former students: face-to-face
meetings with presentations and
discussions on current development
▪ Strategies learned during the study
programme are still being used to
stay up-to-date
Helferich / Pleil 2015

18. Networks for LLL: External Networks
1. Networks with other professionals
▪ Five participants are using social media
extensively to stay in contact with professionals
of their field (esp. Twitter, Facebook, XING)
▪ All participants: Social Media shape individual
networks, no identification with a traditional CoP.
▪ Four participants: Being part of a web
community in general, but no specific CoP
▪ Different approaches in connection with other
professionals
▪ Online complements offline connections
2. Knowledge transfer networks
▪ Four former students noted that they built up a
network of online resources (blogs, export websites
etc.) during their study programme, which they still
use today
▪ Success factor: trust
Networks
Internal
Networks
External
Networks
Networks with
other
professionals
Knowledge
transfer
networks
Networks of
Former Fellow
Students
Helferich / Pleil 2015

19. Effects Connecting Students with External CoPs
▪ Three former students noted they
learned about the relevance of
networks at university
▪ Five participants: the connection
with external CoPs via social media
and through events had clear effects
▪ Five former students: learned
general strategies to participate in
networks at all, like the reflection of
media usage, being open-minded
and to try things like new tools
Effects
New Job / Job
Change
Faster work
routines
Cooperations
in Projekts
Staying up-to-
date
Lifelong Learning
Networks (external, internal) Strategies
Helferich / Pleil 2015

20. Limitations & Conclusion
▪ Our case study is limited as it refers to
a certain study programme and a
certain profession, where the need to
stay up-to-date might be higher than in
other professions
▪ Nevertheless, we think the case study
may support didactical considerations,
e.g. on the use of social media in
education and to help to develop
further study programmes
▪ We found some confirmation
connecting students with external CoP
might improve career opportunities as
well as it supports lifelong learning
▪ Our findings on two groups of external
networks (relationships and resources)
support the idea of network learning
(Siemens, 2005)
Future research:
▪ … on other professional fields
▪ … on conditions for acceptance of
students within CoPs
▪ …. on the long-term social media
usage and details about the learning
process itself,
▪ … will have to be on a broader basis in
terms of participants
Helferich / Pleil 2015

21. References
▪ Arnold, R., & Rohs, M. (2014). Von der Lernform zur
Lebensform. In K. W. Schönherr (Ed.), Lebenslanges
Lernen. Wissen und Können als Wohlstandsfaktoren (pp.
21–28). Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
▪ Gornik, E., & Tomaschek, N. (2011). Prozesse für Lifelong
Learning ermöglichen - eine Kernaufgabe der Universität der
Zukunft. In N. Tomaschek (Ed.), The Life-long Learning
University (pp. 7–14). Münster, Westf: Waxmann.
▪ Head, A., Van Hoeck, M., & Garson, D. (2015). Lifelong
learning in the digital age: A content analysis of recent
research on participation. First Monday, 20(2).
▪ Henderson, M. (2015). The (Mis)Use of Community of
Practice: Delusion, Confusion, and Instrumentalism in
Educational Technology Research. In S. Bulfin, N. F.
Johnson, & C. Bigum (Eds.), Critical perspectives on
technology and education (pp. 127–140).
▪ Jongbloed, B. (2002). Lifelong Learning: Implications for
Institutions. Higher Education, 44(3/4), 413–431. doi:
10.1023/A:1019825803857
▪ Koch, M., & Richter, A. (2008). Social-Networking-Dienste im
Unternehmenskontext: Grundlagen und Herausforderungen.
In A. Zerfass, M. Welker,, & J. Schmidt (Eds.),
Kommunikation, Partizipation und Wirkungen im Social Web
(Vol. 2 ; Vol. 3, pp. 352–369). Köln: Halem Verlag.
▪ Lea, M. R. (2005). Communities of practice in higher
education: useful heuristic or educational model? In D.
Barton & K. Tusting (Eds.), Learning in doing. Beyond
communities of practice. Language, power, and social
context (pp. 180–197). Cambridge, N.Y.: Cambridge
University Press.
▪ Morton, J. (2012). Communities of practice in higher
education: A challenge from the discipline of architecture.
Linguistics and Education, 23(1), 100–111. doi:10.1016/
j.linged.2011.04.002
▪ Saldaña, J. (2013). The coding manual for qualitative
researchers (2nd ed). Los Angeles [i.e. Thousand Oaks,
Calif]: SAGE Publications.
▪ Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning,
meaning, and identity. Cambridge, U.K, New York, N.Y:
Cambridge University Press.
Helferich / Pleil 2015

22. Thank You!
Looking forward to the discussion
Helferich / Pleil 2015

23. Roles for Educators (Siemens 2007)
§ Educator as network administrator
§ Helping students to construct
networks
§ Educator as master artist
§ Enculturation into a practice
è Very open spacy
§ Educator as curator
§ Expert with advanced knowledge
§ Creating learning resources
è Great in an ideal world. Problems:
Motivation, proactivity
§ Educator as concierge
§ Directing learners to ressources
§ Incorporating traditional lectures
§ Permitting learners to explore on
their own
è Striking the balance

24. Lessons (Example)
Learner Generated Content:
Short presentations (topic
chosen by students), discussion
èArticles in a Wiki
Educator Generated Content:
Body of Knowledge: Lectures,
Excercises
Discussion:
Hot topics within the Social
Web
------------1,5to3hours-----------

25. Lessons (Example)
Learner Generated Content:
Short presentations (topic
chosen by students), discussion
èArticles in a Wiki
Educator Generated Content:
Body of Knowledge: Lectures,
Excercises
Discussion:
Hot topics within the Social
Web
------------1,5to3hours-----------
Bringing the
Social Web into
the classroom
Opening
classroom to
the Social Web
Continuing
Learning
outside the
classroom