All Communities of Practice on the IS/IDeA communities platform are made up of members, who comprise the group, and special members called facilitators, who manage membership and generally help their colleagues to effectively share what they know with each other. It is a good idea to have a number of facilitators for the group, so that you can share the responsibility for facilitating your group. Being a facilitator can also help members feel a greater sense of ownership of the collaboration space. You can have up to six facilitators at any time, and can set these yourself.
Being a facilitator of a Community of Practice can be a rewarding experience when your colleagues use it as a place to go to for help, support and advice from each other, but it also brings some responsibility and you should be prepared to spend a little time each day on helping your group to get involved. There are lots of hints and tips available from the facilitators' CoP and the Scottish Knowledge Management Network CoP , but we also have a dedicated resources page for facilitators.
What to expect after you submit your application for a collaboration space
After we receive your application, we will contact you to discuss any particular requirements you may have. Once we are satisfied that a collaboration space is the best way forward for your group, we will contact you when it is ready to be used. You will then have access to your group's space which will incorporate up-to-date collaboration tools such as discussion forum, blogs, RSS feeds, wikis, tagging, people finder and document sharing. To find out more about all these tools, see what we offer.
What are the responsibilities of a facilitator?
In addition to the usual responsibilities of a regular group member, Community of Practice facilitators receive membership applications, and have the responsibility to approve or deny membership to their group on behalf of their members. This process is very straightforward - all you have to do is click on the hyperlink in the email that you get, and approve or deny membership. Full instructions on accepting or denying membership requests are available and suggested content for acceptance and rejection messages can be found in the Facilitators' Resources.
Facilitators of communities get a facilitators' tools menu which standard members do not. You can find these when you are logged in to the IS/IDeA communities site, on My Home, in the middle of the right hand side of the page.
Facilitators also have to set a good example to regular group members. Ensuring that your Profile is comprehensive and up-to-date, setting and responding to alerts, and posting content and feedback are all easy ways to do this.
What help can facilitators expect?
As a facilitator, you can get access to the Facilitators' CoP on the IDeA/IS platform. This has lots of useful hints and tips for facilitators, and lots of experienced facilitators who are eager and happy to help. We strongly recommend that you apply for membership and have a look around this community. You must state in your Profile that you are a facilitator for your group, or you will not get membership to this group.
We would also be very happy to welcome you as a member of the Scottish Knowledge Management Network Community of Practice (SKMN CoP ).
