A Community of Practice for E-Learning (COPE-L) brings together all areas that intersect with online learning and online students at a university. At UIS this group includes faculty, both full-time and part-time, program coordinators who support online students, faculty development staff, instructional designers, and student support offices like the career center and learning center.

The Community of Practice for E-Learning (COPE-L) at UIS began in the Fall of 2006 as a result of a meeting between faculty members with leadership responsibilities for online degree programs and leaders from the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service (COLRS). COPE-L was seen as a way to reduce faculty time on the learning curve and to facilitate sharing of knowledge about online learning across academic and technology department silos.

Etienne Wenger and associates have written extensively about the knowledge sharing benefits of communities of practice (cops). They describe cops as “informal groups of individuals who share a concern, a set of problems or a passion about a topic and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in the area by interacting on an ongoing basis.” For cops, social participation is key, enabling contextualized learning through social interaction rather than through individual acquisition of knowledge.

COPE-L’s purpose is broader than simply providing faculty learning opportunities. As a community of practice, we pursue the following goals:

1. Share knowledge and effective practices related to e-learning.
2. Develop informal networks and mutually helpful relationships among community members.
3. Identify problems and seek solutions to problems shared by community members.
4. Provide opportunities to explore and innovate in the area of e-learning.

Starting a COPE-L: Faculty Champion and Steering Committee
In our experience, it is critical that this effort be organic and not driven by the administration or faculty development offices. At UIS, COPE-L has become a community of interested and engaged colleagues who strive to innovate and improve the online learning experience and who feel a sense of responsibility for its success. Thus, it is important to find a faculty member who will champion the effort.

While a steering committee will provide leadership for the group, at least one person has to be willing to initiate meetings and convene the group. Steering committee members should be thought leaders within their own departments and willing to encourage their colleagues to participate in cop events.

At UIS, the COPE-L steering committee is comprised of

• 8-10 faculty members who have experience and interest in e-learning
• Online program coordinators who provide online student services
• Leaders from the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service

The steering meets regularly to identify issues and interests for consideration at COPE-L events. Since each committee member has a network of department and/or discipline-based colleagues, issues bubble up from a wide group of faculty and staff members involved in online learning. Members of COPE-L will also bring up topics at regular COPE-L meetings.

Events
In recent years, COPE-L has evolved from considering single session topics to dedicated semesters exploring a single theme such as online learning assessment techniques or multimedia applications useful for online learning.

One of the unique things COPE-L does on a periodic basis is to invite students who are enrolled in online programs to speak anonymously to faculty. The panel of students join the COPE-L event through a web conferencing platform and address the concerns they face and answer questions posed by the COPE-L audience. This event never fails to provide valuable feedback for online faulty.

Other popular COPE-L sessions have included:

• Emerging Teaching Tools
• Online Student Panels
• Mobile Apps for Online Learning
• Managing Instructor Workload
• Information Literacy for Online Instructors
• Pechu Kucha presentations on Assessment Strategies for Online Instruction

Retreats
Annual retreats for online faculty and staff are also organized by COPE-L. At these events, a topic is selected for in depth exploration and discussion. External guest speakers with expertise on the topic are selected by the steering committee. At COPE-L retreats, keynote presentations are followed by small group discussions designed to implement the ideas with existing resources and assignments.