Example Community: Members - The Knowledge Network

Example Community: Members’ welcome pack
Example Community: Short Profile
Purpose
The Knowledge Services Group has created this website for community administrators
and coordinators. It aims to help those working with community websites to access
information and help and learn from the experiences of others.
Knowledge domain
This community aims to provide an area for community of practice administrators to;
learn about widgets, get ideas for planning their website, learn about how to develop a
community and share their experiences so that both the Knowledge Services Group and
other administrators can learn from each other.
Audience
Anyone with an Athens username can join this community but primarily it is intended for
current and potential administrators.
Key contacts
knowledge@nes.scot.nhs.uk
Community website: http://www.knowledge.scot.nhs.uk/example.aspx
General Information
Who is this document for?
This document has been designed for new members of Example Community – a
Community of Practice (CoP). It contains information about the purpose and nature of
this community as well as membership guidance (including privacy and technology
considerations).
What is a CoP?
A CoP is a self governed group of people who regularly interact with each other because
they regard these relationships as beneficial for their learning and work, i.e. they act as
learning partners with the principal purpose of sharing knowledge. CoP are always
organised around a body of knowledge which may be a knowledge domain or a problem
area.
Why is it worth joining a CoP?
• Access “real-time” help

• Join a potentially powerful learning synergy
• Identify with other practitioners in the field
• Share examples of good practice
• Reduce information duplication
• Facilitate learning, training and literacy skills
• Develop your professional career
• Increase access to expertise
• Make new connections
Community Charter
Our charter is currently under development!
http://www.knowledge.scot.nhs.uk/example.aspx
Membership
By joining this community you are becoming its owner, as the community is solely
owned by its members. The community constitutes a space where members are equal, and
they can safely and freely learn from each other (not only from successes but also
failures), meet new friends, discuss work-related matters, and engage in shared projects.
Professional behaviour is an essential requirement and other members should not be
judged or criticised– on the contrary, constructive debates are our most valuable asset.
You are also expected to acknowledge the authors of the work that you may decide to use
for your own purposes. Please remember that by contributing to the community you are
making it better and more valuable.
Important! When you join a community your profile details will be added to that
community’s contacts list which can be accessed by all members. Therefore, it is
important to fill your profile with as much professional information as possible. This
simplifies building members’ visibility, successful working relationships, and trust. These
profiles can only be seen by people with an NHS Scotland Athens username.
Privacy
The Knowledge Network
When you joined The Knowledge Network you will have received an Athens NHS
Scotland username and password. This allows you to access all the resources provided by
NHS Education Scotland, including communities. As noted above, a key aspect of a
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successful community is the ability to network with other members who share your
interests. In order to do this effectively it is important to create or update your Knowledge
Network profile accordingly.
Once you have logged in to The Knowledge Network homepage you will have the ability
to create your profile by clicking “Edit Profile” on the top right hand corner of your
screen. Once you have populated your profile you will be able to choose from two
privacy options found within the “Rules and Permissions” widget. Once you have logged
in to our community you will also be able to subscribe to community alerts.
While it is recommended when becoming a community member that you provide as
much relevant information as possible the decision over which fields to populate and
which to neglect is entirely up to you. If you would like further guidance on this or any
other aspect of the Knowledge Network please contact knowledge@nes.scot.nhs.uk.
Within the community
This community has decided to employ open space meaning that as a member you will be
able to access all areas of the community website. Our community is viewable online but
internet users who are not members cannot contribute, access some resources, contact any
of our members privately or view any of our members’ profile information. People with
an Athens account but not a member will be able to see our discussion so we do ask that
you keep it professional!
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Navigation
NHS Scotland communities of practice utilise a range of technologies in order to provide
different tools for users. Below is a brief practical guide to using some of these tools and
getting started in your new community.
Accessing the community and logging in
Once you have become a member of the community you can access our resources by
following the instructions below.
• Login to the Knowledge Network and select the “Communities” tab
• From the list select your community
• This will take you to our page from where you can access our resource library,
wikis, blogs and discussion.
My Community Space
Select community
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Setting up notifications
Subscribing to alerts is an easy way to keep up to date with community news. It is very
easy to do: simply click on the “subscribe” link demonstrated below and follow the
instructions.
Click on the
links to get the
RSS feed or
subscribe to an
email alert
Viewing other profiles
To view another member’s profile, go to the “Recently added community members list”.
Here you will be able to see our community administrators, our newest members and
view all members. Simply select the profile you wish to view.
Community
Administrators
Newest
members
View all
members
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Sending private messages
You can also use this widget to email other community members. Click view all members
then select or search for the relevant name(s) using the “search members” box or by
moving to the next page. You can select an individual member, multiple members or all
members by ticking the relevant box(es).
1. Search for
members using
their First name,
Surname. or both
2. Use the
pagination to move
to the next page of
members
4. Place a tick in the box
to select all members for
emailing.
3. To select an individual or a
selection of members, place a tick
in the tick box next to a member’s
name.
5. Once you have chosen your
members to email. Click on
‘Send email’
Once you have selected the members you wish to contact click on the “send email” icon.
This will take to you to the email form page from where you can send your message.
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Posting on a discussion forum
The discussion area is a key resource for our community. As a member of our group you
will have the ability to both take part in an existing discussion and start a new discussion
topic: however, only administrators can add a new discussion area. The discussions
section of our website is organised in layers; within each discussion area are specific
discussion topics and within these is a comments section where community members can
contribute.
To participate in an existing discussion;
• From the “Discussion area” widget click on the title of a discussion you would
like to contribute to.
• On the following page, choose the topic that you would like to contribute to.
• Within this topic click on “Add a comment” and add your contribution.
Community members can also add resources to their comments. These could come from
the Knowledge Network itself, our existing Community Resource library, uploaded from
your own PC or added as a URL.
To create a new discussion topic;
• Choose the discussion area within which you feel your new topic would best fit.
• Create your discussion topic using the “create discussion” widget.
• Enter a title and a description for the new topic and click “create”
If you have a suggestion for a new discussion area, please contact a member of the
community administrative team.
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Finding resources
Our community offers various ways to access resources. From the resource library there
are four easy ways to find and access relevant resources.
• Use one of two search boxes to find results from our community or to view results
from the whole of the Knowledge Network.
• Click on a term within the “resource tag cloud” or view all resource tags to find
and access community resources. The tags represent keywords that help users find
information and group related resources together.
• Use the “latest added resources” box to view resources listed by date of upload or,
click on view all resources to see everything we have added to our resource
library.
You can also find and access resources throughout our community pages by simply
following the links provided, using the search box or using resource tag clouds where
they are present.
This search box is available
on all our pages so you can
find resources from any point!
Use the search boxes to find
results from both our
community and the
Knowledge Network.
Tag clouds
appear elsewhere
on our
community.
View a list of
resources as they are
added or click on
view all resources to
see everything our
community has!
Members can
also add a
resource to our
library from the
Knowledge
Network, a URL
or from your PC
– see below.
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Adding resources
As a member you will be able to upload resources to our Community Library. These
could be from the Knowledge Network, from a URL resource or from your own PC and
should be resources of benefit to our community.
Important!! Please remember to double-check anything you upload from your computer
for confidential information and adhere to copyright laws. Please consult our “community
rules” for further information.
To upload a new resource first check that it does not already exist within our library using
the “Search Resource Library” box. If it does not, go to our “Add a resource” widget and
select the type of resource you wish to upload. Make sure that you fill in all the details on
that resource – the description, keywords and tags you use are of particular importance
since these are what will enable other users to find your resource. Once you have
completed all the fields click “Add” - your resource will then be added to our “Latest
resources” list on our community homepage.
Click on browse to upload a
resource from your PC.
Use keywords to describe your
resource and add tags. This makes
it easier for other people to find
your resource.
Refer to the “Community Rules”
page to check copyright law etc.
Enter details of the resource and
click “Add” to add it to our
Resource Library.
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Using additional tools
The Wiki page gives us a space to create, edit and link content. Here we can collaborate
collectively to produce a new piece of work. Our wiki space has been left open so all our
members are free to edit our work. If you would like to set up a private space please
contact knowledge@nes.scot.nhs.uk to discuss our options.
To create a Wiki
• First, check that the subject you wish to cover has not already come up by using
the “Search Wikis” box on the “Wiki” webpage.
• If the subject has not been covered before go to the Wiki page, clink on the link
in the “Create Wiki” box and give your Wiki a name that will clearly define it to
other users.
• Click “Submit” to add your Wiki to the main list on the Wiki page. All Wikis are
listed alphabetically.
To contribute to a Wiki
• Select and click on the Wiki you wish to work on
• Click on “Edit page”
• Now click on the “Edit” option displayed at the top of the box
• Save your changes and “Publish wiki” so that others may view your work.
Some Wikis provide a comment option called a “Discuss Wiki” box. In addition to using
this box to propose or critique aspects of the work and its editing it is considered good
practice to include a brief explanatory comment any time you change the content of a
wiki.
To export a Wiki to text
• Select and click the Wiki you wish to download
• Click on “Download as RTF”
• Open the document you have downloaded and save as required.
The blog page allows members to produce a regularly updated narrative, journal or diary
within a group or as an individual.
We are actively looking for blog contributions from our members. Please feel free to start
one up or get in touch with our team to discuss your idea (knowledge@nes.scot.nhs.uk).
To create a blog
• From the community homepage click the “Blogs” options from the top banner
• Click on the link in the “Create Blog” box
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• Give your blog a name that clearly defines the topic, enter your description and
click “Submit”. Your new blog will be listed alphabetically by title in the main list
on the blog page.
• Click on the title of your blog to open it and enter an introduction
Only the original author of a blog can update its content by opening the desired blog,
clicking “New entry” and saving their work. However, after creating a blog, you the
author can give other members the opportunity to comment on your work.
To comment on a blog
• Select the blog post that you wish to comment on
• Click on the “Add a Comment” link
• Type your comment into the box and then click “Add”
As elsewhere on our community website, we ask that you remember to abide by the
community rules when commenting or blogging.
Contacting Administrators
If you would like to contact any of our administrators please see the information provided
above. Alternatively, use our community “contact us” widget which can be found on our
homepage.
knowledge@nes.scot.nhs.uk
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