A qualitative analysis of eLFOSS community of practice

Abstract

In 2007, the Autonomous Province of Trento (Italy) decided to expand its training offer for health workers through a distance learning network. For this purpose they sought the University of Trento’s help to coordinate and organize a project known by the acronym eLFOSS - eLearning Training for Operators of Health Services. The eLFOSS goal was to create a community where the “practice” would be that of designing socio-constructivist eLearning modules using new teaching/learning strategies (i.e. scripted collaboration, role playing, etc.) and the access to innovative training tools (i.e. wiki, concept maps).
 This paper presents the factors that made the community of practice birth possible; and the analysis of this process evolution through the qualitative data collected by means of a focus groups and the messages posted in the community’s forums.