Focus on the #StudyGood Programme Community of Practice

The Community of Practice was an innovative element of the #StudyGood programme and was based on the experience of its sister project #APConnect, which connects up and amplifies the work of Advanced Practitioners countrywide.

#APConnect has been phenomenally successful but like any creative project, it’s been a learning curve. We’ve learned that:

• Establishing a digital community takes a huge amount of facilitation at the start. There’s a point at which a critical mass is reached and a digital community ‘catches fire’ but that won’t happen automatically.
• In the early stages of a project, face to face relationships are vital. We held off launching the Community of Practice to allow mentor relationships to become established and cemented.
• The evidence-informed FAB Model provides an invaluable process for supporting individuals, which grows digital confidence, resilience and self-belief.

Digital communities are twofold. In the StudyGood programme, we had the ‘safe space’ of our #StudyGood Slack Workspace, where teams from the partner organisations could meet (also with mentors) and share experiences, good practice, solutions. Then there’s broader social media, particularly Twitter but also digital publications such as #JoyFE where participants can amplify the work they are doing.

You can find out more about the StudyGood prgramme here