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A three-phased intervention was designed to stimulate teachers’ learning in networks at five schools for primary education in The Netherlands, drawing on insights from literature on what works in learning in networks. The aim was to study how learning networks could emerge using the existing social networks within the organization. The three-phased intervention consisted of 1) awareness: creating network awareness and accessibility, 2) ability: providing teachers with tools for developing networking skills and 3) appreciation: assessing the network value to create a greater organizational recognition for learning in networks. Eight learning networks were established between five schools, resulting in more learning ties between teachers, new perspectives for participating teachers on the nature of learning and an overall greater recognition of the emancipatory role of networked learning.

In this chapter we will focus on communities of practice (CoPs) and their impact on the appreciation of informal professional development in organizations. Our perspective on informal professional development is participation-based, situated in shared work practices. We will first explain how this perspective is rooted in the idea of CoPs. We will then discuss how recent organizational developments such as ‘new ways of working’ (NWOW – see Chapter 47 in this volume) and the use of social media change the organizational landscape into open practices where professionals work, learn and innovate. These emerging open practices stimulate critical reflections about the meaning of CoPs, shifting our ideas to a more dynamic perspective coined as networks of practice (NoPs). In light of these developments we will reflect on the challenges that communities face and how they balance dealing with increased openness, networking and demonstrating the value they create.

nrpages: 110 status: published

Examining how OER (Open Educational Resources) communities come to live, function or learn can support in empowering educators in the use of open educational resources. In this paper we investigate how an OER community functions through its networked learning activities. Networked learning activities enable the development of a space (a social configuration) for shared activity, in which learning by participants is situated. Following existing research on the social configuration of learning communities, we operationalize this space into four superordinate dimensions: (1) domain and value creation, (2) practice (3) collective identity and (4) organisation. We argue that these dimensions add to an understanding of the functionality of learning communities, in this case OER communities. An in-depth case study was conducted of the OER university (OERu) (www.wikieducator.org/oeru). The OERu is a virtual collaboration of institutions committed to creating flexible pathways for OER learners to gain formal academic credit (WikiEducator, 2013). A mixed-methods approach was used combining data from social network analysis, content analysis, and contextual analysis. Both volunteers and academic contributors from the 26 partner institutions were involved in the study. The results show how networked learning activities are associated with the social configuration (domain - identity - practice - organisation) of the community and that, through the investigation of this configuration, valuable insights can be gained into why networked learning activities are occurring. We see for example that shared domain could provide a solid ground for networked learning activities within a community and that different identities within the community can result in different networked learning activities. By analysing the organisation of the community, different social configurations were unravelled with different roles, goals and learning platforms. These insights may support the OERu community and other OER communities to develop their networked learning activities further in a sustainable way.

In dit hoofdstuk bespreken we hoe de context waarin netwerken ontstaan, beter begrepen kan worden en welke dimensies van sociaal leren mede invloed hebben op de wijze waarop een groep aan het leren is. Begrip voor de situatie waarin netwerken ontstaan en de wijze waarop netwerken zich organiseren zal helpen om de ruimte waarin netwerken leren te optimaliseren.

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of informal workplace learning in contemporary face-to-face and virtual environments. Informal learning is an important driver for professional development and workplace learning. However powerful informal learning may be, there is a problem when it comes to making it a real asset within organizations: Informal learning activities are mostly invisible to others, sometimes the learners themselves might not even be aware of the learning that occurs. As a consequence informal learning in organizations goes undetected, remains off the radar of HR departments and is therefore hard to asses, manage and value [1]. This problem poses an interesting challenge for the field of Learning Analytics, namely finding ways to capture and analyse traces of (social) informal learning in every day life and work networks. Therefore empirical research and tools are needed that can raise awareness about informal learning activities to make it surface the radar, amplify the benefits of it and strengthen the social relations through which it occurs. In this paper we introduce a tool that aims to facilitate exactly this and we hope to stimulate to widen the discussion on Learning Analytics by expanding the field from a predominantly educational focus to informal and workplace learning. In this paper we will discuss methodologies that Learning Analytics can draw upon to make informal learning more explicit and accessible to analyse and to share amongst professionals.

ispartof: pages:254-255 ispartof: Online Educa Berlin. 15th International Conference on Technology Supported Learning & Training. Book of Abstracts pages:254-255 ispartof: Online Educa Berlin location:Berlin, Germany date:2 Dec - 4 Dec 2009 status: published

ispartof: A Procura de Inovações no Processo Ensino-Aprendizagem em EAD. Identificando e Disseminando Inovações em Educação a Distância ispartof: 15th CIAED - Congresso Internacional ABED de Educação a Distância location:Fortaleza, Brasil date:27 Sep - 30 Sep 2009 status: published

ispartof: pages:1151-1154 ispartof: Interactive Computer Aided Learning. International Conference pages:1151-1154 ispartof: ICL Conference location:Villach, Austria date:23 Sep - 25 Sep 2009 status: published

9pp. on website http://www.ou.nl/Docs/Campagnes/ICDE2009/Papers/Final_Paper_337Schreurs.pdf ispartof: pages:80-80 ispartof: Flexible Education for All: Open-Global-Innovative. Abstract Book pages:80-80 ispartof: 23rd ICDE World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education including 2009 EADTU Annual Conference location:Maastricht, the Netherlands date:7 Jun - 10 Jun 2009 status: published

ispartof: pages:542-549 ispartof: Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2009 pages:542-549 ispartof: ED-MEDIA Conference location:Honolulu, Hawaii date:22 Jun - 26 Jun 2009 status: published

ispartof: Lifelong learning in higher education: networked teaching and learning in a knowledge society ispartof: EADTU Annual Conference 2008 location:Poitiers, France date:18 Sep - 19 Sep 2008 status: published

ispartof: pages:175-177 ispartof: 14th International Conference on Technology Supported Learning & Training. Book of Abstracts pages:175-177 ispartof: Online Educa Berlin location:Berlin, Germany date:3 Dec - 5 Dec 2008 status: published

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the role of employees’ underlying implicit person theories in the relationship with innovative work climate and proactive behaviour at work. First, the authors study how an employee’s implicit person theory (IPT), or the domain-general implicit belief about the development potential of people’s attributes, relates to learning goal orientation and proactive learning and entrepreneurial behaviour at work. Second, the authors investigate how employees’ perception of their work climate is associated with this IPT. Design/methodology/approach The authors set up an exploratory study relying on survey data from a sample of 498 professionally active Flemish adults and analysed a correlational path through SEM. Findings The authors found that holding an incremental IPT (i.e. believing in the development potential of people’s attributes) positively relates to proactive learning and entrepreneurial behaviour. Moreover, the authors found that employees working in an innovative work climate are more likely to hold an incremental IPT. Originality/value This study offers indications that IPT is a relevant explanatory variable in the relationship between innovative work climate on the one hand and learning goal orientation, learning work behaviour and entrepreneurial work behaviour on the other hand. As such, this study suggests that IPT is a promising concept that can be actively endorsed as a relevant underlying psychological process variable for fostering learning and entrepreneurial behaviour in organizations.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the extent professionals from the vocational sector are networked individuals. The authors explore how professionals use their personal networks to engage in a wide variety of learning activities and examine what social mechanisms influence professionals’ agency to form personal informal learning networks. Design/methodology/approach This study applied a mixed-method approach to data collection. Social network data were gathered among school professionals working in the vocational sector. Ego-network analysis was performed. A total of 24 in-depth, semi-structured, qualitative interviews were analyzed. Findings This study found that networked individualism is not represented to its full potential in the vocational sector. However, it is important to form informal learning ties with different stakeholders because all types of informal learning ties serve different learning purposes. The extent to which social mechanisms (i.e. proximity, trust, level of expertise and homophily) influence professionals’ agency to form informal learning ties differs depending on the stakeholder with whom the informal learning ties are formed. Research limitations/implications This study excludes the investigation of social mechanisms that shape learning through more impersonal virtual learning resources, such as social media or expert forums. Moreover, the authors only included individual- and dyadic-level social mechanisms. Practical implications By investigating the social mechanisms that shape informal learning ties, this study provides insights how professionals can be stimulated to build rich personal learning networks in the vocational sector. Originality/value The authors extend earlier research with in-depth information on the different types of learning activities professionals engage in in their personal learning networks with different stakeholders. The ego-network perspective reveals how different social mechanisms influence professionals’ agency to shape informal learning networks with different stakeholders.

In this article we want to understand in more detail how learning networks emerge in online networked learning environments. An adage in Networked Learning theory is that networked learning cannot be designed; it can only be designed for. This adage implicitly carries the idea that networked learning is seen as learning in which information and communication technology is used to promote (emergent) connections between learners and their peers, learners and tutors and learners and learning resources. Emergence entails a self-organizing component. However, there is no comprehensive understanding of how self-organizing network effects occur in networked learning environments, how they influence possible learning outcomes and how these network effects can be enhanced or frustrated by the design elements of different networked learning environments. By means of a review we investigate how the three most known self-organizing network effects occur in networked learning environments, namely preferential attachment, reciprocity and transitivity. Results show that in most studies self-organizing network effects are significantly present. Moreover we found important (design) elements related to the people, the physical environments and the tasks of the learning networks that could influence these self-organizing network effects. Studies that looked at learning outcomes are limited. Based on the review study future research directions for the field of Networked Learning are addressed Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Informal learning has become an important driver for professional development and workplace learning. Yet, however powerful informal learning may be, there is a problem when it comes to making it a real asset within organizations: Informal learning activities are spontaneous and mostly invisible to others. The aim of this study is to develop a method that helps raise awareness about these activities using a learning analytics approach. This method concentrates on detecting and visualizing informal professional social networks and finding ways in which their presence and accessibility can be improved. This study shows that the presented methodology is a promising research-driven intervention. With this methodology we can detect multiple (isolated) networks in organizations, connect ideas, and facilitate value creation. Using this approach, organizations can link with existing informal networks of practice and unlock their potential for organizational learning by giving them a voice and making their results more explicit within the organization usc Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Social network analysis (SNA) has become a popular method for understanding and visualizing patterns, structures and dynamics in online networks and communities, particularly where data can be gathered and analyzed automatically. This chapter examines theoretical, methodological and research issues that can be addressed by applying social network perspectives and analytical techniques to the study of e-learning. The chapter begins with an overview of the social network analytic perspective and what it can tell us – or lead us to ask – about e-learning. The chapter continues with examples from research studies using SNA to examine learning processes and structures at the individual, group and network levels.

By investigating how educational practitioners participate in activities around open educational practices (OEP), this paper aims at contributing to an understanding of open practices and how these practitioners learn to use OEP. Our research is guided by the following hypothesis: Different social configurations support a variety of social learning activities. The social configuration of OEPs is investigated by an operationalization into the dimensions (1) practice, (2) domain, (3) collective identity, and (4) organization. The results show how practitioners of six different OEPs learn, while acting and collaborating through a combination of offline and online networks. The findings of our study lead to practical implications on how to support participation in OEP, and thereby stimulate learning in (online) networks of OEP.

Informal, networked learning is used to solve work-related problems.Informal learning is plagued by the invisibility of learning efforts and gains.The Network Awareness Tool developed minimises data under-representation.The Network Awareness Tool heightens the visibility of informal learning efforts. Professionals often initiate informal learning in an effort to solve work-related problems. This paper focuses mainly on research methods for visualizing informal networked learning for teachers. Drawing upon Social Network Theory and Analysis and such notions as Social Capital, Networked Learning, and Communities of Practice we create a theoretical model to underpin the design of our web 2.0, Network Awareness Tool NAT.NAT address several problems connected with informal networked learning research in organizations, such as the informal learning paradox. Advanced Search and Signalling Features can overcome the problem of under-representation of the data. Authorship minimises the problem of unrealistic representation of data. Making use of user profiles and allowing them to (re)enter and improve data on both online and off-line (and combinations thereof) networked activities offers an alternative approach to the name/resource generating (Van der Gaag & Snijders, 2005) and position generating strategies (Lin, Fu, & Hsung, 2001) often used for collecting social network data. The implementation of a profile page, tags and ratings provides the opportunity to triangulate data on the needed multidimensional level, representing informal learning in the dimensions covered by the theoretical model. NAT could impact on our current understanding of informal networked learning.

The Network Awareness Tool (NAT) is a Web 2.0-based tool that enables professionals to become aware of existing networked learning relationships (within or between organizations) that can help them with real, urgent, workrelated problems that are part of their daily practice. In most cases, such problems arise unplanned, ad hoc and are usually dealt with informally. However, these problems serve as a kind of ‘social hub’ that brings together professionals in order to develop a solution that allows them to continue working (De Laat 2012). These everyday work-related problems provide not only an opportunity for professionals to seek each other’s help, and build meaningful networks; they are also a catalyst for informal learning. Informal learning tends to deal with implicit knowledge, embedded in day-to-day practice, and is a result of spontaneous learning activities (Billett 2001, Davenport and Prusak 2000, Eraut 2000, Marsick 2001, Boud and Hager 2012, Hargreaves and Fullan 2012). While observable, explicit knowledge is relatively easy to obtain, through reading or training courses, informal learning in the workplace allows for the acquisition of deeper, tacit components of knowledge (Lane and Lubatkin 1998).

Social Learning Analytics (SLA) are designed to support students learning through social networks, and reflective practitioners engage in informal learning through a community of practice. This short paper reports work in progress to develop SLA motivated specifically by Networked Learning Theory, drawing on the related concepts and tools of Social Network Analytics and Social Capital Theory, which provide complementary perspectives onto the structure and content of such networks. We propose that SLA based on these perspectives needs to devise models and visualizations capable of showing not only the usual SNA metrics, but the types of social tie forged between actors, and topic-specific subnetworks. We describe a technical implementation demonstrating this approach, which extends the Network Awareness Tool by automatically populating it with data from a social learning platform SocialLearn. The result is the ability to visualize relationships between people who interact around the same topics usc Refereed/Peer-reviewed