Online Communities of Practice (CoPs) for Global Health

Online communities of practice (CoPs) have become increasingly popular within the global health and development sectors as vehicles for capturing knowledge to ensure public health preparedness, managing information more effectively, enabling global health professionals to work collaboratively in a virtual environment, and improving effectiveness in the face of dwindling resources. Online CoPs provide a virtual space for people who share a common interest and are working towards a shared goal. This course aims to give the learner an overview of online CoPs, including the uses, benefits, and challenges of building, nurturing, and monitoring CoPs.

After completing this course, the learner will be able to:

• Define an online community of practice (CoP)
• Understand the usefulness of online CoPs for improving global health and development 
• List the benefits of creating an online CoP and challenges for maintaining one
• Describe key steps in creating an online CoP 
• Provide strategies for nurturing and monitoring online CoPs