The causal relationship between community activities, knowledge resources and performance outcomes need to be measured and documented to properly demonstrate the community's value and prove its effectiveness in reaching the goals. At the same time, the community’s satisfaction and overall engagement need to be analysed. Some recommendations to measure a community’s impact are:
Here an example of template for prodding storytelling that could be used to structure practitioners’ stories, developed by Wenger (2011):
- The action framework developed during design could be used as a Monitoring and Evaluation tool; by defining the milestones, it will be easier to monitor the progresses.
- Assess the value created. Practitioners' stories can effectively demonstrate how the acquired knowledge has been put into practice.
- The community’s engagement could be assessed through surveys and chats with the members.
- Take advantage of online analysis tools (online communities could use Google Analytics or Crazy Egg to collect metrics).
Here an example of template for prodding storytelling that could be used to structure practitioners’ stories, developed by Wenger (2011):
What meaningful activity did you participate in? |
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What specific insights did you gain? What access to useful information or material? |
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How did this influence your practice? What did it enable that would not have happened otherwise? |
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What difference did it make to your performance? How did this contribute to your professional development? How did this contribute to the goal of the organization in both a quantitative and qualitative way? |
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Has this changed you or some other stakeholders’ understanding of what matters? |