Why do people join communities, and what makes them stay?

We want to create vibrant and safe community spaces. Spaces where people are heard, understood, and feel supported. We also want our communities to succeed. Whether that’s working together to solve shared problems, improve student outcome, or challenge out-of-date thinking. By creating resources and sharing good practice together for everyone’s benefit. How do we meet […]

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Co-creation Top tips

Collaborative content projects – what we’ve learned so far

I have been interested in how to co-produce content with communities for a long time. I know that there are many benefits of facilitating communities, as a space for conversation, mutual support, and learning, to name a few. For me there is something about producing collaborative content that takes it to another level. My first […]

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Top tips

Providing safe spaces for conversation and support (with MFA)

Our trusted communities help members to learn together, provide peer-to-peer support, and empower them to make informed decisions. It’s important that we keep providing a safe space to convene community conversations and for you to share resources. To maintain these community spaces, we have decided to enable multifactor authentication (MFA) for all shared Teams spaces […]

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Top tips

Tips for facilitating online community meetups

I was recently asked to run a workshop for community facilitators to help with fresh thinking about facilitating online meetups. These are people who regular facilitate meetings of our members, and want to keep improving what they do. They are looking to avoid those ‘tumbleweed moments’ and maximise engagement. When writing the session, I turned […]

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Champions Digifest

Evidencing the impact of community

Jisc’s annual conference, Digifest is a splendid celebration of innovation in teaching, learning and research. I was there hosting a group of community champions, people who actively share learning outside of their institutions. The champions facilitate communities of practice, they share their knowledge and experience with peers, or they support projects that bring together multiple […]

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Top tips

Ten ideas for online community engagement

Anyone who has tried to build an online community knows that it’s far from ‘build it and they will come’. That idea is a myth. Behind every successful online space there are people working hard to create the energy needed for engagement to thrive, particularly in the early days. But I promise you it’s worth […]