Applying the community of practice approach to individual IT projects

Abstract

This paper reports a study of utilizing the action research educational method to the application and evaluation of the Community of Practice (CoP) principle to individual postgraduate project courses in IT at the Australian National University.Two CoPs were formed, comprising the students enrolled in research and implementation project courses and the project co-ordinator (the author) of the first semesters of 2006 and 2007. The 7 students in the 2006 CoP were predominantly local students, whereas the 10 in the 2007 CoP were almost all international students, having significantly different language and cultural backgrounds. The action research method was applied over two phases each semester, the first in weeks 1--7 (involving 5 meeting sessions), and the second in weeks 10--15 (involving 4 meeting sessions), and also between semesters.Data for evaluation includes student feedback (including an entry and exit survey, and anecdotal remarks), observation of the CoPs, and evaluation of student performance in relevant aspects of their project work.The results of the evaluation indicate that the CoP approach, combined with the action research method, was very effective in teaching research skills and significantly improved the students' project experience. There was consistent evidence of desirable group behavior emerging, including the establishment of a mutually supporting environment. Even through the projects were individual, the commonality of learning research skills and peer feedback was sufficient to establish a cohesive and effective community. A number of design principles and factors that are important to achieve positive results are identified. While this was a limited trial of the approach, we feel that it is promising to apply to technical student projects in other areas, and it is a valuable approach in supporting research-based education.