Democratic Engagement

Provide participants with the support they need to engage in the community fully, work respectfully to resolve differences and encourage diverse points of view.

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Cultivate Community

Successful communities speak the same professional language, have a clear management structure, defined participant expectations, an established schedule of activities, and a process(es) for monitoring community health.

Plan the Community

Set goals, define group membership, and provide facilitated peer dialogue. The community or group agrees upon the technologies to be used and the periodicity and duration of events. 

Establish a Shared Language

Terms that describe key concepts of professional practice that the community uses consistently to facilitate communication, transparency, and learning.

Assess Value and Impact

The value of the community to its members, including progress towards community goals and success in facilitating learning, is tracked, and effectiveness is measured. 

Resources on Community

Videos on Community

useR! 2020: Communities of practice in Latin America

Creating a Common Language

Ensure Civil Discourse

Courteous, constructive communication that is characterized by mutual respect, openness and attentive listening. Civil discourse helps people bridge divides and facilitates the informed discussion of issues essential to make good decisions.

Focus on Objectives

Create a framework for the discussion that has a clear purpose, established ground rules, maintains focus and flow, and provides a common basis for understanding.

Speak with Respect

Speak as you would like to be spoken to. Clarify how the person would like to be addressed (Mr., Ms., Sir, first name, etc.). Restate ideas when asked. Use a civil tone of voice.

Listen with an Open Mind

Pay attention to all the information, both explicit and implicit, that you are receiving from the other person, comprehending and integrating that information and managing emotional reactions (annoyance, boredom) you might experience. Realize that what you say and what people understand you to have said may be different.

Resources on Civil Discourse

Videos on Civil Discourse

What is Civil Discourse?

Civil Discourse: 3 Emotional Skills to Engage with Those You May Not Agree With

Make It Open

Resources, data, and research are licensed in a manner that provides free and perpetual permission to retain, revise, remix, reuse, and redistribute. 

Open Education Resources (OER)

OER are learning materials that enable reuse and repurposing by others without permission resulting in better access to high-quality learning materials for all through a virtuous cycle of materials being developed, improved and repurposed over time and for different contexts.

FAIR Data

FAIR data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. FAIR data goes beyond open data, aiming to make the data itself more useful and user-friendly, rather than simply ‘open’.

Open Research

Provide openness throughout the research cycle, through collaborative working and sharing and making research methodology, software, code and equipment freely available online.

Resources on Open Education