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Community
The Collaborate community serves to support community leaders and moderators in sharing best practices and techniques for creating engaging communities of practice that add value to their members. Users may also request a site by using the Pinned Content.
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"Teaching is more than imparting knowledge; it is inspiring change. Learning is more than absorbing facts; it is acquiring understanding.”
~ William Arthur Ward
How do you perform the basic functions involved with running a community?
This page is under development while we create new training materials. Check back again soon!
This site is a focused collection of simple tools and video advice on how to use them, all geared toward helping program teams at any level (working group, IPT, PM, PEO) think through the stakeholder engagement process.
Practical Advice for Stakeholder Engagement
Engagement plays a large part in the desired future direction of DAU's communities. So how do you get community members to become more engaged in the community, what is the value proposition for communities, and how do we foster communities as a true collaborative resource for the acquisition workforce? These are some of the questions we hope to explore in this forum. But we need to start with the basics. First, does the workforce know the communities even exist? If not, how do we raise awareness? What role can our online courses and classroom activities play in raising awareness and promoting communities as a valuable resource for the workforce? Using the discussion forum, please feel free to post a reply or comment on any of these questions or other ideas that you want to share with the community.
Communities of Practice are one way that DAU is proactively extending its reach and connection to the acquisition workforce by providing a venue to build connections, share information on acquisition topics, and learn from each other. Implicit in this description is the engagement of community participants. A quick Google search finds that the Merriam-Webster definition of "engage" includes "to bring together", "to hold the attention of", and "to induce to participate". All three of these meanings clearly articulate the objectives and desired end state of a vibrant community. In our communities, we absolutely want to bring people together, to hold their attention, and to encourage them to participate.
Creating engaging and value-added communities of practice requires concerted effort on the part of those managing the community to build a trusted environment where members feel secure contributing content, asking questions, and sharing what they know. An underlying aspect of building engagement is members finding value in participating in the community. Community value and member engagement are intertwined, and part of the community management role is to create value by offering up quality content on topics of interest that attract members to the community and make them want to stay and to engage.
To facilitate our community-building efforts, we have created tools and documented best practices to support our community managers (i.e., moderators):
This guide provides proven practices and activities that promote member interaction, membership growth, and vibrant communities.
This Infographic summarizes 4 key tips to engaging community members. The infographic supports the key themes of the Engagement Best Practices Guide and is available for download.
Watch this video on the secrets to a thriving community; it contains some great tips on fostering engagement and the psychology of engagement (around 13 minute mark).
An important part of CoP strategy is knowing when to grow and engage your membership, but also knowing when to sunset a community that is no longer viable or needed. If you would like to discuss either revitalizing your community or possibly sunsetting it, please reach out to us with your concerns about sunsetting your site.
If you are a new DAU Community Owner or Leader, you must complete the content approver training (PDC 100), plus any required training workshops, before beginning your new duties. The content approver training ensures you know DAU's policy and governance, content types, copyright laws, and Section 508 requirements. The training workshops ensure that you know how to add, edit, or delete content within the DAU software environment.
If you do not have a DAU ID number, or if you obtained one prior to 2020, then navigate to https://saar.dau.edu and follow the steps listed. For “System Association,” select DAU Homepage (Knowledge Sharing) to access the Communities of Practice. Once you submit the SAAR form, you should receive an activation email within 24 hours.
After receiving the activation email, you will need to complete the PDC 100 course. If you are a DAU staff or faculty member, you can access the course directly on Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD). If you are external to DAU, then please send us ([email protected]) your name, email address, and DAU ID number, along with the name of the community for which you’ll be serving as a leader, so that we can get you registered to take the course.
Upon successfully completing the course, you will need to send the following documents to [email protected] so that we may add you as a Community Leader:
Many community leaders have inquired whether they can post copyrighted material to their CoPs. The policy for DAU's communities has always been that, to post copyrighted documents, you must have permission in writing from the copyright holder. But there is never an issue with posting a link to the document. When queried, former DAU General Counsel Tim Wray provided further clarification on this topic:
"... I almost always encourage instructors or course managers who are contemplating using any copyrighted materials to get permission and post it in the course folder on Blackboard. However, sometimes a document will have markings indicating that it can be used, or used under certain conditions, without further permission from the copyright holder. As you probably know, the most common example of that in the digital age are 'Creative Commons' markings that specify whether, or to what extent, copyrighted materials may be used without further permission. In this case, in my view, the 'distribution unlimited' marking on the ... document permits our use without further permission. On links: the current rule (since digital stuff is evolving all the time, 'current' means 'last time I looked') providing a link, or displaying something via a digital link (such as showing something in class by opening a YouTube link) isn't a copyright violation because we are not the ones who posted (and thereby digitally duplicated) the material. This is mostly a rule of convenience: it isn't practical for the copyright holder to seek redress from thousands (or millions) of people who opened the link to some cat video, so copyright enforcement goes after the violator who posted the link without permission."
Yes, a user must sign in to the site before they can join. Once signed in to the community site, click the 'Join this Community' button on the right side of the home page. Membership is set for automatic approval of qualified users.
In order to join a community, a person must be authenticated (signed in). Once signed in and if not already a member of the community, the visitor will see a Join this Community button in the upper right side of the home page of the community. By clicking the Join button, the user will automatically be approved as a member of the community.
All communities on DAU.edu are open communities with explicit membership, which means that we grant Visitor permissions to every authenticated user and require explicit requests to join in order to participate. Once an authenticated user clicks the 'Join this Community' button, they are automatically joined to the community with member privileges. There is no approval required.
Your DAU ID starts with the letters "DAU" and is followed by a series of numbers assigned to only you. Your DAU ID is not your username or smart card information. It is simply an identifying number. First-time users will not have a DAU ID number.
An unauthenticated user is one who visits the site but has not signed in via Okta. This user is also referred to as an anonymous user.
You are invited to attend our community training on "Effective Moderator Best Practices". We will be offering this training 8 different times to allow you to choose the session that works best for your schedule. Sessions will be offered on August 22, 24, 29, and 31, 2023, with 2 sessions each day (11am-12:30pm AND 3pm-4:30pm; all are Eastern time zone). We'll be sending out separate calendar invitations for each session, so please accept the one(s) you wish to attend. You are welcome to attend multiple sessions. You'll have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of each training session, so please don't be shy – ASK!
We hope to see you there!
A new Learning Tool has been released! LinkedIn Learning is Live! It is a new set of learning courses for DAU via CSOD. Instructions to log in (A DAU CAC/login is required) can be found here!
https://www.dau.edu/sites/default/files/Migrate/cop/collaborate/DAU%20Sponsored%20Documents/How%20to%20access%20LinkedIn%20Learning%20from%20DAU.docx?Web=1
Check out the new web part on this CoP's home page! It's located at the top right and offers links to training and guides to help you to facilitate your community better! As always, if you need assistance with your CoP, email us at [email protected].
The Software Acquisition Interim Policy and Procedures Memerandum was signed 3 Jan 2020 and there are copies of it being distributed via email. Please refrain from posting this information on the CoPs or dau.edu until it has been coordinated officially through the DoD Executive Service Directorate (ESD) and posted to their site.
Once the policy has been uploaded to the ESD site, we should only be linking to it rather than uploading and posting the PDF.
If you have any questions please contact me directly [email protected]
"Teaching is more than imparting knowledge; it is inspiring change. Learning is more than absorbing facts; it is acquiring understanding.”
~ William Arthur Ward
How do you perform the basic functions involved with running a community?
This page is under development while we create new training materials. Check back again soon!
Engagement plays a large part in the desired future direction of DAU's communities. So how do you get community members to become more engaged in the community, what is the value proposition for communities, and how do we foster communities as a true collaborative resource for the acquisition workforce? These are some of the questions we hope to explore in this forum. But we need to start with the basics. First, does the workforce know the communities even exist? If not, how do we raise awareness? What role can our online courses and classroom activities play in raising awareness and promoting communities as a valuable resource for the workforce? Using the discussion forum, please feel free to post a reply or comment on any of these questions or other ideas that you want to share with the community.
Communities of Practice are one way that DAU is proactively extending its reach and connection to the acquisition workforce by providing a venue to build connections, share information on acquisition topics, and learn from each other. Implicit in this description is the engagement of community participants. A quick Google search finds that the Merriam-Webster definition of "engage" includes "to bring together", "to hold the attention of", and "to induce to participate". All three of these meanings clearly articulate the objectives and desired end state of a vibrant community. In our communities, we absolutely want to bring people together, to hold their attention, and to encourage them to participate.
Creating engaging and value-added communities of practice requires concerted effort on the part of those managing the community to build a trusted environment where members feel secure contributing content, asking questions, and sharing what they know. An underlying aspect of building engagement is members finding value in participating in the community. Community value and member engagement are intertwined, and part of the community management role is to create value by offering up quality content on topics of interest that attract members to the community and make them want to stay and to engage.
To facilitate our community-building efforts, we have created tools and documented best practices to support our community managers (i.e., moderators):
This guide provides proven practices and activities that promote member interaction, membership growth, and vibrant communities.
This Infographic summarizes 4 key tips to engaging community members. The infographic supports the key themes of the Engagement Best Practices Guide and is available for download.
Watch this video on the secrets to a thriving community; it contains some great tips on fostering engagement and the psychology of engagement (around 13 minute mark).
An important part of CoP strategy is knowing when to grow and engage your membership, but also knowing when to sunset a community that is no longer viable or needed. If you would like to discuss either revitalizing your community or possibly sunsetting it, please reach out to us with your concerns about sunsetting your site.
If you are a new DAU Community Owner or Leader, you must complete the content approver training (PDC 100), plus any required training workshops, before beginning your new duties. The content approver training ensures you know DAU's policy and governance, content types, copyright laws, and Section 508 requirements. The training workshops ensure that you know how to add, edit, or delete content within the DAU software environment.
If you do not have a DAU ID number, or if you obtained one prior to 2020, then navigate to https://saar.dau.edu and follow the steps listed. For “System Association,” select DAU Homepage (Knowledge Sharing) to access the Communities of Practice. Once you submit the SAAR form, you should receive an activation email within 24 hours.
After receiving the activation email, you will need to complete the PDC 100 course. If you are a DAU staff or faculty member, you can access the course directly on Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD). If you are external to DAU, then please send us ([email protected]) your name, email address, and DAU ID number, along with the name of the community for which you’ll be serving as a leader, so that we can get you registered to take the course.
Upon successfully completing the course, you will need to send the following documents to [email protected] so that we may add you as a Community Leader:
Many community leaders have inquired whether they can post copyrighted material to their CoPs. The policy for DAU's communities has always been that, to post copyrighted documents, you must have permission in writing from the copyright holder. But there is never an issue with posting a link to the document. When queried, former DAU General Counsel Tim Wray provided further clarification on this topic:
"... I almost always encourage instructors or course managers who are contemplating using any copyrighted materials to get permission and post it in the course folder on Blackboard. However, sometimes a document will have markings indicating that it can be used, or used under certain conditions, without further permission from the copyright holder. As you probably know, the most common example of that in the digital age are 'Creative Commons' markings that specify whether, or to what extent, copyrighted materials may be used without further permission. In this case, in my view, the 'distribution unlimited' marking on the ... document permits our use without further permission. On links: the current rule (since digital stuff is evolving all the time, 'current' means 'last time I looked') providing a link, or displaying something via a digital link (such as showing something in class by opening a YouTube link) isn't a copyright violation because we are not the ones who posted (and thereby digitally duplicated) the material. This is mostly a rule of convenience: it isn't practical for the copyright holder to seek redress from thousands (or millions) of people who opened the link to some cat video, so copyright enforcement goes after the violator who posted the link without permission."
Yes, a user must sign in to the site before they can join. Once signed in to the community site, click the 'Join this Community' button on the right side of the home page. Membership is set for automatic approval of qualified users.
In order to join a community, a person must be authenticated (signed in). Once signed in and if not already a member of the community, the visitor will see a Join this Community button in the upper right side of the home page of the community. By clicking the Join button, the user will automatically be approved as a member of the community.
All communities on DAU.edu are open communities with explicit membership, which means that we grant Visitor permissions to every authenticated user and require explicit requests to join in order to participate. Once an authenticated user clicks the 'Join this Community' button, they are automatically joined to the community with member privileges. There is no approval required.
Your DAU ID starts with the letters "DAU" and is followed by a series of numbers assigned to only you. Your DAU ID is not your username or smart card information. It is simply an identifying number. First-time users will not have a DAU ID number.
An unauthenticated user is one who visits the site but has not signed in via Okta. This user is also referred to as an anonymous user.
In this age of technology where a world of peers is only a tweet away, the benefits of joining these online communities carry advantages and remain relevant to acquisition and eLearning professionals. Membership is beneficial when it comes to strategically focused content. DAU account holders can participate in any of the communities in one of the following three ways:
Analytics allow us to measure a variety of interactions with users in community sites to determine how well we are engaging with the workforce and meeting their needs. Some of the measures we are actively capturing to help us understand the impact of communities and where we might need to improve include qualitative measures like page views, number of user sessions, and contact hours.
In addition to the data mentioned above, we are also capturing the social interactions within communities in an effort to understand and measure member engagement, including user interactions (e.g., followers, posts, comments), and content analytics (e.g., comments, likes, ratings).
Qlik is currently being used to measure metrics within and related to DAU's communities. Users may view metrics per community or overall and may specify various time frames. Information may be downloaded in a variety of formats. Be sure to view the tutorial on how to access and use Qlik.
This site is a focused collection of simple tools and video advice on how to use them, all geared toward helping program teams at any level (working group, IPT, PM, PEO) think through the stakeholder engagement process.
A tutorial on how to send an email notification of a new announcement to members.
Guidance and tips for creating a more vibrant and dynamic community.
A tutorial for how to change notification settings to notify the moderator when there are new membership requests.
Training guide for how to obtain individual CoP survey #2 results housed within Qlik.
A tutorial for navigating inside PDF Documents
Presentation from Community Survey #2 Results Demos, delivered Apr 2021.
A tutorial on exporting the list of members to an excel or csv file from a community.
