Learning in a Twitter-based community of practice: an exploration of knowledge exchange as a motivation for participation in #hcsmca

ABSTRACT

Through participation in communities of practice (CoPs), those with a common interest can share in learning about and improving practices within their domain (Wenger, E. (2006). Communities of practice: A brief introduction. Retrieved from http://wenger-trayner.com/theory/). As CoPs move online, there is increased potential for more expansive and diverse membership. By providing a space in which a global population of members can engage with each other and access and contribute information and knowledge, social media may be used to support online CoPs. Although not originally designed for community development, Twitter is one social media platform that is being used in innovative ways to support communities. This study explores learning as a motivation for participating in the successful Twitter-based CoP Health Care Social Media Canada (#hcsmca). #hcsmca uses tweet chats (planned synchronous discussions aggregated by a hashtag) to engage in robust dialogues associated with learning and knowledge creation. Interviews with 24 #hcsmca community members show that learning is a fundamental motivator for participation in the community. Twitter was found to be a platform that enables learning for #hcsmca members, albeit not universally. Four thematic elements of learning in #hcsmca were identified. For interviewees, learning was a motivation for participating in the community because they were able to access and share expertise, discover who knows what within the healthcare community, access novel information through interactions with members who have diverse personal and professional backgrounds, and learn information that they could apply in their personal and professional lives.

KEYWORDS:

• Twitter
• social media
• online communities
• communities of practice
• informal learning
• social learning
• motivation
• tweet chats

Acknowledgements

I would like to extend a special thanks to members of the #hcsmca community for their interest in and support for this project, and in particular to those who gave their time to be interviewed. I would also like to thank Colleen Young for her enthusiasm and continued support throughout this project – from recruitment to presentation. I thank Caroline Haythornthwaite for her invaluable advice and feedback, and to the anonymous reviewers who provided insightful advice for improving this article. Finally, I would like to thank the Graphics, Animation, and New Media Network Centres of Excellence (GRAND NCE) for partial funding through the sub-project of SENSE-I, LearnSocial and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for partial funding through the project Learning Analytics in the Social Media Age, led by Anatoliy Gruzd and Caroline Haythornthwaite.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Sarah Gilbert is a PhD student at the iSchool at the University of British Columbia. Her research areas include participatory media, with particular emphasis on exploring why people contribute to online crowd and community enterprises, informal learning via social media, social network analysis, and Internet research. Sarah holds a BA degree (History) from Mount Allison University and an MLIS degree from Dalhousie University [email: [email protected]].

Notes

1. https://cyhealthcommunications.wordpress.com/

2. Twenty-three interviews with community members and one with founder, Colleen Young.

3. I asked quoted interviewees how they would like to be referenced. Most participants opted to be called by their real name or their Twitter handle. For those who expressed no preference or did not respond, I chose a pseudonym (Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, & Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2014, p. 60, 120, & 147).

Additional information

Funding

The author wishes to acknowledge the following agencies for funding the project : Graphics, Animation and New Media Network Centres of Excellence, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.