ECoP Tutorial

Electronic Communities of Practice, or eCoPs, support Action Teams in their work. They are password protected areas of InspireNet's website and content is not available to anyone outside of the Action Team's membership.

If at any time you're having trouble or need to ask a question, contact us: patherton@inspirenet.ca.

To Access your eCoP

To access your eCoP, login to the website (blue button, top right hand side) and click the My Teams tab. The list of Action Teams you're subscribed to as well as those you can join will appear. Select the Team's eCoP you want to visit. In the left hand navigation box, you'll see the following features of the eCoP.

eCoP Content

Team Name

Create Poll
Create Blog
Create Discussion
Create Event
Create Shared Document
Create Team Page
Create Wiki

What's the difference between a blog and a wiki? Check out these easy-to-understand YouTube videos (about 6 minutes in total):

• Blogs in Plain English
    
• Wikis in Plain English

Adding Content

To add content, select one of the content types. 

If you want to copy and paste from a Microsoft application, be advised that Microsoft documents contain hidden codes that will garble your post. To avoid this, copy the text you want to include in your team's wiki, and at the top of the Body box in the wiki, click the icon that looks like a clipboard (next to the word "Source") to paste the content as plain text.

If you do not want Team members to receive a once-per-day email notification about what you've added or changed, click the box next to: "Do not send notifications for this update."

►Poll
Create polls to obtain feedback from team members (responses can only be multiple choice).

►Blog
Use this to publish content that others can't edit but can comment on. An example of blogging is that used by the Vancouver Sun reporters: http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/blogs/index.html

►Discussion
Use the discussion if you want to hold an asynchronous discussion with Action Team members.

►Event
This option allows you to add an event of interest to your team, such as a next team meeting.

►Shared Document
Use this feature to upload a document that is of interest to team members, such as a Word document, a .pdf or a PowerPoint presentation. Note that copyright law precludes InspireNet members from uploading documents which are copyright protected (instead, use a wiki to contribute to a Team reference list).

To upload a document to your team's eCoP:

• Select 'Create Shared Document' from the left hand navigation
• Enter a Title
• Select Browse
• Locate the file on your computer, and click Upload
• Enter a Description
• Click Save at the bottom of the page

To edit a Shared document in MS Word from your team's eCoP:

1. Download a copy of the document (click the document link, then click Open)

2. In MS Word, turn on track changes, make your changes, then save a copy to your computer.

3. Upload your edited version to the same page you found the original document on (see above for uploading instructions).

Another way to collect feedback on a document is to use the Comments section at the bottom of the page where the document has been saved.

An alternative to MS Word document collaboration:

An easy way to collaborate on a document is to provide the text (text only, no formatting or images) as a wiki (instead of a Shared Document), which everyone can edit by clicking Edit at the top, then Save at the bottom of the wiki page. The final text can then be copied and pasted into a Word document.

►Team Page
Creating a team page provides you with the ability to put up a static webpage that others can't reply to, comment on, or edit. This would be useful for a content where you aren't looking for feedback but instead want to inform (like most webpages on www.inspirenet.ca). This page is accessible only by members of your Team's eCoP.

►Wiki
Use a wiki to create a document that all team members can contribute to. Click Edit to add to an existing wiki. Remember to click Save after making any changes.

If you have any trouble, contact us.

Other components of your eCoP

►#  members
Clicking this will show the members of this team's eCoP, along with their avatar (small photo), if they've added one through their profile.

►Manager: xx
The manager of the team is the individual who initially set up the team on the website.

►My membership
By clicking this, members can unsubscribe from an eCoP if they wish.

Changing content

If you want to change content, for instance, adding information to a wiki, or commenting on a blog, locate the item you want to change and click the Edit tab. Change the text, then click Save.

Finding Content

You remember it's there, but how do you find it? To find information in your eCoP from the home page of the eCoP, perform one of the following:

• The easiest way to find any content on the website is to use the site's powerful search engine. When logged on to the site, the search function includes your team eCoPs in its search. Use the box in the top left hand of any webpage labelled 'Search this Site' to enter your search term.
• On a long page full of text -- on any page on the internet -- you can find text by holding down the Ctrl button and pressing the F button (Command+F on a Mac). This will pop open a finder for you to enter your search term and allows you to search the enter webpage for this word or term.
• Scroll down through the list of content items. Content is listed in the order it was added, the same way that Facebook and Twitter add content. Or,
• Use the drop down box to filter the content into the type you are looking for. If it was a document that someone uploaded that you want to find, you would select "Document to Share" in the drop down box, resulting in only documents being shown in the list.

Content notifications

Team members receive one email that provides a list of the new content in their eCoPs, based on the frequency you've selected in your Inspirenet.ca account (default = daily digest). To change the frequency, login to the website, select Edit in your account and scroll down to Messaging and Notifications settings, Default send interval. You can select from

• Immediately
• Every hour
• Twice a day
• Daily
• Weekly

Click Save to save your changes.

About email notifications: you need to first be logged in to the website, then click the link in the email notification after 'Read More". You will be taken directly to the new content without having to find it.

Team Leaders / eCoP Administrators

Administrators are Action Team leaders and have some unique abilities in their eCoPs, all through the top navigation of your eCoP.

►View
This allows you to see all content in the eCoP.

►Add members
Use this function to add a new member, or set of new members to your Team's eCoP. Enter their username, which is their first name and last name (i.e. Mildred Pierce) and click Add users. To add more than one new member at a time, separate user names with a comma.

►Manage
Use this function to perform actions on your Team members as identified in the drop down options.

►Edit
This feature allows the eCoP to be edited. Please contact us to do this for you: patherton@inspirenet.ca.

►Broadcast
This feature gives administrators the ability to 'broadcast' an email message to all Team members without using separate email distribution lists.

Team Leaders looking for more information about leading virtual teams may want to review the following resources:

• Communities of Practice: a brief introduction (Wenger, 2006)
• Wenger's Digital Habitats book and accompanying blog: http://technologyforcommunities.com/
• Wenger's Action Notebook, an excerpt from Digital Habitats (.pdf)

Webconferencing

Is your team interested in webconferencing to meet virtually? InspireNet eCoPs are provided free use of WebEx, a real-time, web-conferencing application that allows users to share and collaborate on documents, to record sessions, and to broadcast video images via webcams. The audio component of a WebEx session is carried out through the use of a toll number on your telephone, or by your computer with your microphone and speakers/webcam (recommended).

For more information about booking and using WebEx, contact: patherton@inspirenet.ca.