UofG Communities of Practice Toolkit

 A Community of Practice or CoP is “a group of people who perform similar functions and share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly”.  The concept was developed by Etienne Wenger in the 1990s with its roots in social learning theory. 

This toolkit aims to guide and inspire you through the process of setting up and sustaining communities of practice.

UofG CoP Toolkit

Our UofG CoP Toolkit has been development from good practice, sector research and our pilot project to understand 'what works'.  

This toolkit will provide you with information around how CoPs work in practice and how they are different to other groups.

It will also help guide you through the process of establishing and most importantly, sustaining a CoP.  It is based on the premise that CoPs are most successful when they establish and renew themselves on a cyclical basis.

There are five stages in the cycle of a CoP:

An image of the cyclical life of the COP stages, which are: Find the energy, Set up or Renew, Launch and initiate, Deliver projects and learning activities and Understand impact, then back to Find the energy.