Gather round for some Rumour, Hearsay & Scuttlebutt

What’s it all about? “The beauty of having real relationships with other institutions is that you’re forced to listen to others’ viewpoints and hear about new practices. It goes back to a way of learning where you have to change your way of thinking, and getting to know someone else quite closely, you’re more likely to be inspired by them” “CAMEL has been great … for understanding my own situation and institution – it’s been very interesting to hold my institution up as a mirror against other institutions” “listening to other people with a bit more intensity is probably better than going to conferences”

Developing a feeling of community Appropriate facilitation can help to support community development Consider if you need to maintain enthusiasm and momentum between face-to-face meetings – via online events? Recognise the importance and implications (!) of openness and being willing to share.

A community of practice? “I think it’s a short term community, I wouldn’t have said it’s a CoP, but I’m not convinced I know what a CoP is … A network, yeah” “When you’re selling your wares, you’re always wary that someone else is just going to think it’s a joke” “there’s something about strutting your stuff as an institution, but also throwing your doors open”

Getting to know each other “It’s something you can’t skimp” Build in time for individuals to introduce themselves, and their institutions Actively set aside time to get to know each others’ backgrounds Encourage partners to actively review what is happening with e-learning at home - give them a five-minute slot to share their findings Develop good practice guidelines or benchmarking grids; or support the use of existing tools - CAMEL information grids?

A start-up meeting? “an initial meeting or residential event at a neutral venue would have been beneficial … to establish agendas for later meetings … allow people to really get to know each other … people giving a short presentation of their wares at that residential and then follow up discussions about ‘that’s boring’ or ‘that’s interesting’ or ‘never heard of that before’ to set more specific agendas”

Online events Include a mix of asynch and synch online sessions using a range of tools Seek volunteers early on to organise online events between study visits Event organisers provide guidance on new tools, protocols and topics for discussion in advance to enable preparation by participants.

Or an online resource? “some sort of open source tool, … possibly a wiki, is going to be the best way forward in trying to maintain that contact between meetings … a rich resource which has our presentation materials … something that’s got a bit of structure but also something to invite them back”

Study visits ”Keep it small - discussions are the thing” Discuss expectations up front, and use these in organising study visits Use a variety of formats for study visits Organisers provide abstracts, etc in advance to enable feedback on agenda and assist partners in identifying who should attend *Allow time for reflection, structured discussion and group activities* Make electronic versions of all materials available after study visits.

What to share? “It’s not about necessarily showing good practice, it’s just showing practice” “not just about good practice, it’s about practice, warts and all - and the warts are more interesting than the practice sometimes”

Capturing learning Consider means of capturing learning, aside from that obtained via any evaluation Appoint individuals to provide summaries of the key issues discussed at study visits and online events. “concise learning points for people to take away”

Dissemination Consider how to raise awareness of the initiative within partner institutions Provide support in identifying potential areas for publications and suitable dissemination events.

A CAMEL model? “the concept is really sound and the visit idea is useful and has given insights that you wouldn’t get from more mass events, but expansion could be unmanageable. Perhaps cascading would be an option (e.g. each member of CAMEL sets up visits with three other institutions so have multiple camel communities evolving)” “biggest issue might be extracting benefit for others … might be through providing a model rather than through spreading content”

There’s life after… “there’s a life to it and a recognition that you co-exist with one another, you learn as much as you can do within that time, and then you move on, possibly with other collaborative partners”

What advice would you give? Developing a feeling of community Getting to know each other Online events Study visits Capturing learning Dissemination

Rachel Harris Alison Muirhead – Providing research, evaluation and consultancy services across the sectors