Web-based Learning Solutions for Communities of Practice

ested in learning from each other in a specific
domain. Knowledge transmission takes place
when members share stories about their personal
experiences.
Sponsored CoPs are mandated and supported
by a preexisting organization, such as a
private company, a government department, or
a university. In this case the domain of interest
is often predefined by the sponsoring body, and
the prospective members themselves choose to
join. Often some resources are provided by the
sponsoring body, while the members organize
other resources as and when required.As per
Nickolas (2003), a sponsored CoP has three
main objectives:
1. To enable colleagues to learn from one another
through the sharing of issues, ideas,
lessons learned, problems and their solutions,
research findings and other relevant aspects
of their mutual interest;
2. To more broadly share and better leverage
the learning that occurs in the CoP with
others;
3. To generate tangible, measurable, valueadded
benefits to the business.
One of the main benefits of forming a CoP is
that its objectives are congruent with those of the
new pedagogy required for on-demand and lifelong
learning. This new pedagogy is based not on
prepared lectures but on sharing experiences; and
there is no better way to share experiences than
storytelling. However, the story must engage the
audience’s emotions to be memorable, and thus, effective
in imparting memorable understanding.
For the story to be engaging and effective
it must be told well by combining aspects of
storytelling that make a story engrossing, while
conveying the educational message embodied in
the experience being related.
Aristotle gave the principles of good storytelling
in his treatise called Poetics, around 2300 years
ago (Aristotle, 1996). McKee (1998) has added
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Using Storytelling as the Pedagogical Model for Web-Based Learning
storytelling principles that are more modern in
their approach and connotation, and can be applied
to creating engaging educational stories as
well (Sharda, 2006).
Some of the challenges faced by most people
when creating a story for describing their experience
are: not knowing where to start, how to
proceed, how to end, what to include, and what
to leave out of the story. Movement Oriented
Design (MOD) is a framework for creating effective
stories using principles of good storytelling
to create an engaging narrative.
MOVEMENT ORIENTED
DESIGN (MOD)
Movement Oriented Design (MOD) provides a
methodology for crafting the plot and the narrative
of a story starting with just the story concept.
The terms story, plot and narrative refer to similar
concepts, with some subtle differences in connotation.
Succinct definitions of these terms are given
in the following (Bateman, 2008):
• Event is a happening that takes place in a
story. However, by itself a single event is
not a story.
• Story is a collection of events, which together
create a meaningful discourse.
• Plot is the way in which the events of a
story are connected, to create the intended
meaning. A given story has a main plot,
and can have one or more sub-plots.
• Narrative is the sequence in which the
events are revealed to the audience. A given
story with a given plot and some subplots
can be told with different narratives.
Each narrative is likely to have a different
emotional impact on the audience.
The focus of storytelling in a CoP context is
to narrate personal experiences or events, such
that the narration of the story keeps the audience