Digital Spaces for Professional Development: Benefits and Challenges of Online Communities in Further Education
By Karen Lesley Billingsley and Dr Gillian Peiser School of Education, Liverpool John Moores University: Corresponding author: K.L.Billingsley@2019.ljmu.ac.uk
This blog post shares key findings from my doctoral research examining how online Communities of Practice support professional development in the Further Education sector.
The Research Context
As the FE sector faces ongoing resource constraints and growing digital demands, traditional professional development models are increasingly insufficient (Broad, 2015). My mixed-methods study investigated PDNorth, an online Community of Practice (CoP) serving English, Maths and ESOL practitioners, through surveys (n=20) and interviews (n=7). The research examined how digital environments support different forms of collaborative learning and scholarly activity using Boyer (1990) scholarship framework and Wenger (1998) CoP theory.
Technology-Enhanced Professional Community:
Key Benefits
Digital Accessibility Transformed Collaboration
The technological infrastructure removed geographical barriers that typically limit professional exchange. One participant explained: “I couldn’t have met people from Manchester… But they were only one click away.” This digital connectivity facilitated cross-institutional networking previously impossible in traditional CPD formats. A survey participant highlighted how PDNorth’s digital nature allowed her to engage despite geographical constraints: “I remember someone was in their car. Someone was in the staff room. I was mostly at home with my son in the background.”
Virtual Environments Fostered Psychological Safety
Perhaps counter-intuitively, the online medium created safe spaces for authentic professional vulnerability. “There’s been quite a few of us that have been tearful in those spaces, but then by the end of it, you know, we’ve all kind of felt like I’m so glad that we came and that’s happened,” shared one participant, describing emotional support received in digital spaces. This aligns with Abedini, Abedin and Zowghi (2021) findings on the importance of emotional support in online communities. Another participant noted how the online environment fostered trust: “It is a very safe space where you can just be honest about things.” Recent empirical research by Chen (2022) provides evidence that CoPs effectively support professional learning when underpinned by emotional connectedness and trust. Her findings demonstrate that creating safe places for discussion and reflection was essential for engagement in professional development activities. This aligns with our observations of how PDNorth’s digital environment supported the psychological safety participants valued.
Asynchronous Participation Supported Flexibility
The platform’s blend of synchronous events and asynchronous resources accommodated practitioners’ complex schedules. One member described scheduling flexibility as crucial: “I booked time off to be able to pick up my daughter around that time. So, I remember most of them taking place like 4.30pm. For me it was excellent.” The technological infrastructure supported varied forms of engagement, with participants reporting high value from reading newsletters, watching recorded sessions, and participating in live events to fit their busy schedules.
Digital Tools Enabled Identity Development
The online space fostered professional development and identity transformation. One participant described the digital environment as “really, really comfortable. So welcoming, very warm, very friendly. Straight right from the off… supportive and friendly, warm, open and collaborative.” This supports Wenger’s (1998) conception of CoPs as spaces for identity development. Another participant credited online discussions with helping her become “confident in my instinct,” explaining “we came to realise that teaching was something natural and learners are letting you know what’s working and what’s not working.”
Technology-Related Challenges and Limitations
Digital Divides in Participation
The data revealed technology engagement disparities. Younger participants (30-45) reported significantly higher scores for online discussions (p=.039), finding community publications informative (p=.024), and comfort with online events (p=.032) compared to older colleagues. These statistics highlight potential digital comfort disparities that could create imbalanced participation, aligning with Lantz-Andersson, Lundin and Selwyn (2018) observations about varying levels of involvement in online teacher communities.
Platform-to-Practice Implementation Gap
Survey data revealed a telling paradox: while participants unanimously valued collaborative learning (M=5.00), implementing these insights into classroom practice proved significantly more challenging (M=3.50). This implementation gap represents perhaps the most crucial challenge for online CoPs. One participant explained: “we couldn’t have done this without the sub circle meetings online and reading circle… without all my questions would have just been left unanswered.” This implementation challenge reflects broader issues identified by Lloyd and Jones (2018) regarding translating collaborative learning into practice.
Technology Access and Time Barriers
While reducing some constraints, the online format introduced others. Time limitations emerged as a significant barrier in survey responses (Mean=3.00), indicating members still struggled to balance participation with workload demands. Interview data revealed challenges with technology confidence, particularly among newer members unfamiliar with digital collaboration tools.
Learning Technology Implications and Recommendations
For learning technologists and educational leaders implementing online CoPs, my research suggests:
- Design for diverse digital comfort levels – Create multiple engagement pathways that accommodate varying technology proficiency and preferences. Interview data showed members benefited from options ranging from passive reading to active discussion.
- Structure digital-to-practice bridges – Develop explicit mechanisms for translating online learning into classroom implementation. One successful method in PDNorth was “constellations” where members collaboratively explored how “they could help their organisation with ideas to improve on areas where they struggled.”
- Balance synchronous and asynchronous modalities – PDNorth’s success came partly from combining live events with archived resources. One participant noted: “I’m using PDNorth to be able to look at the research… whether it’s been in a newsletter, so I can look through things.”
- Foster digital community facilitation – Interview participants praised PDNorth’s framework as “very well framed… We all focused on the results or the solutions,” highlighting the importance of skilled digital facilitation.
- Implement complementary supports – Survey data revealed that even with strong online engagement, practitioners needed institutional backing to implement new approaches, supporting Tummons (2022) findings about institutional constraints in FE settings.
Conclusion: Technology-Enhanced Communities as Transformative Spaces
The research demonstrates that online CoPs offer unique advantages when thoughtfully implemented, but their success depends on institutional support structures that bridge the gap between digital inspiration and classroom implementation. As the FE sector continues to face resource constraints, strategically designed online communities may represent one of the most sustainable approaches to meaningful professional development. Digital platforms offer distinctive advantages for connecting isolated practitioners, fostering resilience through shared challenges, and facilitating identity development beyond institutional constraints O’Leary and Wood (2019).
However, realising this potential requires balancing digital connectivity with implementation supports, addressing participation inequities, and creating mechanisms that bridge online learning and classroom practice. By approaching online professional communities with both enthusiasm and critical awareness, we can harness learning technologies to transform professional development in ways that meaningfully impact teaching and learning.
References
Abedini, A., Abedin, B. and Zowghi, D. (2021) Adult learning in online communities of practice: A systematic review. British journal of educational technology, 52 (4), 1663-1694.
Boyer, E.L. (1990) Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. United States: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Broad, J.H. (2015) So Many Worlds, So Much To Do: Identifying Barriers To Engagement with Continued Professional Development for Teachers in the Further Education and Training Sector. London Review of Education, 13 (1), 16.
Chen, J.I.-H. (2022) Working and Learning Together: The Lived Experiences of Further Education Teachers Engaging with Joint Practice Development as a Model of Collaborative Enquiry for Professional Learningthesis, University of Sunderland.
Lantz-Andersson, A., Lundin, M. and Selwyn, N. (2018) Twenty years of online teacher communities: A systematic review of formally-organized and informally-developed professional learning groups. Teaching and Teacher Education, 75, 302-315.
Lloyd, C. and Jones, S. (2018) Researching the Sector From Within: the Experience of Establishing a Research Group within an FE College. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 23 (1), 75-93.
O’Leary, M. and Wood, P. (2019) Reimagining teaching excellence: why collaboration, rather than competition, holds the key to improving teaching and learning in higher education. Educational review (Birmingham), 71 (1), 122-139.
Tummons, J. (2022) Exploring Communities of Practice in Further and Adult Education: Apprenticeship, Expertise and Belonging. New York: Routledge.
Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identify. Cambridge: University Press.
Writer’s Bio
Karen Lesley Billingsley is Head of Quality at an FE college in the North of England. Her research focuses on professional development in the Further Education sector. This blog is based on findings from her EdD thesis “An investigation of effective teachers’ professional development within the Further Education Sector and the emerging role of virtual Communities of Practice as a vehicle for teachers’ Continuous Professional Development.”
Thanks for reading this AmplifyFE post! AmplifyFE is a strategic partnership between ALT and the Ufi VocTech Trust. AmplifyFE connects over 3000 professionals in Further Education and Vocational Education, providing a strong networking community to share, collaborate and learn. We connect innovators, industry and educators, therefore, AmplifyFE posts may include contributions with a commercial focus. AmplifyFE’s posts are included on the #altc blog to support networking, collaboration and sharing. For more information, please check AmplifyFE’s dedicated submission guidelines.
The #altc blog submission guidelines detail who can post and the type of posts accepted to this blog.