A collaborative tool for communities of practice to share best practices

Abstract

Traditionally, members of communities of practice collaborated through traditional means: word of mouth, conferences, lectures and hand written notes. However, the emergence of online environments, have led to the use e-mails and other web-based tools. However, communities of practice members have a variety of different technological skills and varied access to technology which limits novice users from expressing themselves comfortably despite their limited technological skills. This research focuses on presenting an environment that is easy to use, effective, efficient, and satisfying for all members. The webOS (cloud) tool to foster K-12 teachers and 4-H club communities provides the best framework to share best practices with easy, efficiently, and with satisfaction. The experimental portion involves a list of tasks that provides design experts an opportunity to assess the usability, usefulness, and efficiency of design. The users' post-questionnaire provides a feedback on the overall usability of the system for novice users. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.