Sustainability through Staff Engagement: Applying a Community of Practice Model to Web 2.0 Academic Development Programmes

In many third-level institutions the innovative potential of technology has not been fully recognised or exploited at a strategic organisational level or embedded in mainstream educational work processes at a micro level. The sustainable integration of effective e-learning practices into higher education establishments remains a major challenge. This chapter discusses the challenges of designing staff development programmes which support the integration of e-learning into higher education by (1) leveraging the affordances presented by Web 2.0 technologies, coupled with (2) utilising a community of practice model to provide a sustainable peer-driven framework to share, support and embed technology-mediated teaching and learning practices. The chapter presents a practical example how a model of staff engagement was implemented within an Irish university, and concludes with suggestions on how others may benefit in considering a similar approach.