A model for enhancing creativity, collaboration and pre‑professional identities in technology‑supported cross‑organizational communities of practice
Journal
Education and Information Technologies
Date Issued
December 2023
DOI
10.1007/s10639-023-12295-2
Abstract
This research proposes that technology-supported cross-organizational (universityindustry)
Communities of Practice (CoPs), which are integrated into the Design
Studies curriculum in Higher Education, can foster robust university-industry collaborations.
These can help bridge the reported gap between the actual versus the
expected soft skills and personae of young graduates transitioning to the creative
industries today. CoPs are groups of people who share a common interest in an
area of ‘endeavor’ and connect to co-create competence in that area through their
practice.
This paper makes two overarching research contributions. First, it informs about
the design, enactment, and evaluation of a student CoP in an undergraduate Design
course which was expanded to include members from the industry as clients,
alumni mentors, and expert evaluators. Drawing from rich empirical data, the paper
explains the designed and emergent learning phenomena of CoP participation and
its effects on the students’ creative and socio-epistemic outcomes, as well as their
pre-professional identities. Second, it presents a governance model with three sets
of actionable guidelines, namely the Set (technology), the Social (collaborative), and
the Epistemic (learning) components. The entire body of work validates the critical
interlocking of these components to form a robust social learning model that
appropriates the complex practices of cross-organizational CoPs in Higher Education
Design studies.
Communities of Practice (CoPs), which are integrated into the Design
Studies curriculum in Higher Education, can foster robust university-industry collaborations.
These can help bridge the reported gap between the actual versus the
expected soft skills and personae of young graduates transitioning to the creative
industries today. CoPs are groups of people who share a common interest in an
area of ‘endeavor’ and connect to co-create competence in that area through their
practice.
This paper makes two overarching research contributions. First, it informs about
the design, enactment, and evaluation of a student CoP in an undergraduate Design
course which was expanded to include members from the industry as clients,
alumni mentors, and expert evaluators. Drawing from rich empirical data, the paper
explains the designed and emergent learning phenomena of CoP participation and
its effects on the students’ creative and socio-epistemic outcomes, as well as their
pre-professional identities. Second, it presents a governance model with three sets
of actionable guidelines, namely the Set (technology), the Social (collaborative), and
the Epistemic (learning) components. The entire body of work validates the critical
interlocking of these components to form a robust social learning model that
appropriates the complex practices of cross-organizational CoPs in Higher Education
Design studies.
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