Evautation of an Online Community: Australia's National Quality Schooling Framework

Abstract

This chapter considers the development and implementation of Australia’s National Quality Schooling Framework (NQSF: www.nqsf.edu.au), created particularly for teachers and others involved in improving school education. This large-scale, highly-structured and outcome-focused community space, funded by the Australian Government, was developed as a means of building and testing knowledge. Using Wenger’s infrastructure for communities of practice, the chapter evaluates the NQSF in light of its capacity for engagement, imagination and alignment. Although these three are often intertwined, we conclude that firstly, users value the space for engagement, and that this needs to be supported by a national telecommunications infrastructure. Secondly, in terms of imagination, a community of this scope and purpose benefits from management that shares the same purpose in order to develop the profession. Finally, alignment is achieved through visionary leadership and a rigorous process to maintain the quality of the resources introduced to and generated within the community.