GEDIFO: A Cross-Organizational Approach to Learning in Communities of Practice

This study aims to identify practical issues and concerns about collaborative learning in the workplace. For this purpose, the study examines perceptions of corporate personnel including learning managers and instructional designers related to workplace collaboration and associated technology tools that might foster or enhance it. First, we identify future research interests and concerns related to collaboration and collaborative tools as revealed from an online survey of 97 respondents. Second, we verify the primary collaboration issues and concerns in corporations through an open discussion forum in which 30 corporate personnel participated. Findings indicate that the use of collaborative tools is growing in importance in the workplace as is collaboration in general. Further, participants in the survey appear highly interested in wikis as collaborative tools. In addition, group discussions reveal five main collaboration concerns in corporations including factors to consider when selecting and using collaborative tools. Based on those findings, significant implications for future research on workplace collaborative learning are offered.