Reframing Information System Design as Learning Across Communities of Practice

Communities of Practice (CoP) integrate people in a group in order to learn in a collaborative way. It is necessary to establish in these communities a formal and standardised representation of the knowledge and interests that emerge from CoP. With this scenario in mind, this paper presents a reference ontology for a user profile representation in a CoP Framework (CoPF). The main idea of this framework is to provide virtual CoP for collaborative learning by using semantic web technologies. This work proposes a foundational ontology for a general profile to be used as a guideline to build a computational CoPF, which is semantic web compliant. In this paper we summarise a first proposition of the CoPF ontology development focusing on the ontological user profile. We also present the methodological aspects of the ontological CoPF and also illustrate a case study applying the ontological user profile.

This study considers social learning practices within and outside the overt curriculum. A thematic approach was used to analyse data from six focus group interviews with 11 graduate entry medical students from a UK university over a year of study. The results indicate that: (1) during their first year of study students form a community of learning practice, (2) this community of practice influences learning inside and outside the overt curriculum, (3) there is a changing community profile over the year of practice, (4) the students' engagement in problem-based learning (PBL) as part of their overt curriculum strongly influences the development of a community of practice and hence learning both inside and outside the overt curriculum. Findings are discussed in terms of Wenger's community of practice framework, the role of distributed cognition and social learning. It is concluded that PBL is an effective approach for academics to enrich students' social learning practices.

Traditional teaching methods in higher education often fall short of meeting the diverse needs of learners, particularly in remote or asynchronous settings. Addressing this gap, this qualitative case study investigates how a six-module asynchronous online professional learning program can support the integration of active learning strategies using micro-learning and a Community of Practice (CoP) framework. Conducted at a higher education institution, the study involved six faculty members from diverse academic backgrounds. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, lesson observations, discussion board content, and participant reflections. Content analysis revealed that the flexibility and accessibility of asynchronous learning coupled with micro-learning segments. This study addresses a critical need for practical insights into professional learning programs that effectively implement active learning in non-traditional educational environments. The findings suggest that such programs should incorporate structured support mechanisms, clear guidelines, and diverse content formats to enhance motivation and mitigate cognitive overload, particularly in remote learning contexts.

Healthcare is rapidly evolving, with both academic institutions and industry playing critical roles in shaping its future. This paper explores the application of the community of practice (CoP) framework connecting these sectors in the context of health informatics supported by the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI). We demonstrate how to explore and foster collaboration, build capacity, and disseminate knowledge across academic institutions and industry based on the principles of the CoP framework. Data were collected through a document analysis, including committee documents, research publications, and case studies of academic-industry partnerships. The findings show that the CoP framework can be applied to the informatics domain to support and foster collaboration between academic institutions and the healthcare industry. This work suggests different strategies to enhance collaboration, innovation, professional development, and leadership within the health informatics community for more sustainable health systems.

An examination of designer and user perceptions of JAD and the traditional IS design methodology

The Nursing and Allied Health Professions (AHP) Departments of one of the largest providers of health and social care education in the UK, have implemented simulated practice-based learning placements across a range of their pre-registration healthcare courses. These simulated placements aim to improve students’ preparedness to practice, enhance the student experience and increase placement capacity. The simulation leads from each department identified that there was no cross-department collaboration around these new innovations. They developed and introduced a Simulation Community of Practice (CoP) across the three nursing fields and eight AHP professions. The aims were to share knowledge and best practice, enhance skills, creation of new knowledge and improve practice. A CoP is defined as a ‘group of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis’ [1]. The development of the CoP was led by the nursing and AHP simulation leads and was based on Wenger’s (2002) CoP framework [1]. Support was gained from senior management to ensure commitment and resources. Terms of reference for the group were developed with clear aims and objectives. Relevant staff across all professions were identified and invited to join. Meetings occur every two months for a duration of two hours, initially online and more recently face to face or hybrid format. Agenda items include sharing and reflections of practice, challenges and solutions; demonstrations of simulated scenarios, online learning packages and virtual reality. Guest speakers are invited to share simulation expertise and research. A Teams site is used to house information, share new developments and opportunities and to allow staff to ask questions and maintain communication between meetings. Staff have gained valuable professional development by learning from others, sharing designs and experiences of simulated placements and learning about best practice. They have enjoyed networking and connecting with others from different professions. They have valued seeing examples of simulated scenarios and innovations and having dedicated time to reflect and discuss innovations and research opportunities. They have found it a supportive environment and a creative space. 100% of staff involved would recommend the CoP to others. The successful introduction of a multidisciplinary Simulation CoP has enabled collaboration and development of knowledge and skills around simulated practice-based learning, including the underpinning pedagogies of simulation design and debriefing. Authors confirm that all relevant ethical standards for research conduct and dissemination have been met. The submitting author confirms that relevant ethical approval was granted, if applicable.

Communities of Practice (CoP) integrate people in a group in order to learn in a collaborative way. In these communities it is necessary to establish a formal and standardized representation of the interests and the knowledge that emerges from the CoP. With this scenario in mind, this paper presents a reference ontology for a user profile representation in a CoP framework. The main idea of this framework is to realize that a foundation for the semantic web is feasible to aggregate on virtual communities in the context of collaborative learning. The concern of this work is to establish a reference ontology for the general profile that can be used as guidelines to build a computational CoP framework for realizing such a foundation.

With evidence mounting on the benefits of equity-minded and active mathematics instruction, increasing numbers of mathematics faculty members are seeking to transform their instruction. Yet, many lack the skills and/or confidence to make the transition. To support faculty in meaningful instructional improvement, the authors of this paper facilitate frequent and innovative professional development (PD) guided by a community of practice framework. PD is intentionally designed to be incremental and supportive. Using one-on-one interview data from ten faculty participants who participated in PD on equity-minded and active mathematics instruction, we report on three crucial characteristics of a community of practice: the domain, the community, and the practice. Findings have implications for mathematics departments that aspire to support instructors to transform their teaching. Incremental PD guided by a community of practice framework could support faculty through the challenges of instructional transformation.

After presenting a brief overview of the key elements that underpin Etienne Wenger’s communities of practice (CoP) theoretical framework, one of the most widely cited and influential conceptions of social learning, this paper reviews extant empirical work grounded in this framework to investigate online/blended learning in higher education and in professional development. The review is based on integrative research approaches, using quantitative and qualitative analysis, and includes CoP oriented research articles published between 2000 and 2014. Findings are presented under three questions: Which research studies within the online/blended learning literature made central use of the CoP framework? Among those studies identified, which ones established strong linkages between the CoP framework and their findings? Within this last group of identified studies, what do the patterns in their use of the CoP framework suggest as opportunities for future research in online teaching and learning?

Purpose This article explores how autonomous systems are socially situated in the mining industry through the lens of Communities of Practice. It examines how learning, coordination and shared meaning-making unfold when new technology is introduced, and how implementation extends beyond technical deployment to include social and organisational processes. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on a qualitative case study of a Swedish open-pit mine where an autonomous haulage system was implemented. Wenger's (2008) Communities of Practice framework was used as a sensitising concept to analyse empirical material, focusing on mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire in everyday work practices. Findings The analysis shows how community members co-constructed new work practices, formed collective interpretations of the technology, and engaged in relational work to legitimise the system within the wider organisation. Successful implementation was found to depend not only on technical performance but also on social processes of meaning-making, identity formation, and the negotiation of organisational change. Practical implications By foregrounding the social dimensions of technological change, the study suggests that organisations introducing autonomous systems should support collaborative learning and provide spaces for shared meaning-making, thereby increasing the likelihood of successful implementation. Originality/value The paper contributes to research on technology, work, and organisation by highlighting the situated and practice-based nature of technological implementation. It underscores the value of attending to communities of practice when investigating how new technology gains traction and relevance in complex organisational settings.

Electric drive systems consisting of battery, inverter, electric motor and gearbox are applied in hybridor purely electric vehicles. The layout process of such propulsion systems is performed on system level under consideration of various component properties and their interfering characteristics. In addition, different boundary conditions are taken under account, e. g. performance, efficiency, packaging, costs. In this way, the development process of the power train involves a broad range of influencing parameters and periphery conditions and thus represents a multi-dimensional optimization problem. Stateof-the-art development processes of mechatronic systems are usually executed according to the V-model, which represents a fundamental basis for handling the complex interactions of the different disciplines involved. In addition, stage-gate processes and spiral models are applied to deal with the high level of complexity during conception, design and testing. Involving a large number of technical and economic factors, these sequential, recursive processes may lead to suboptimal solutions since the system design processes do not sufficiently consider the complex relations between the different, partially conflicting domains. In this context, the present publication introduces an integrated multi-objective optimization strategy for the effective conception of electric propulsion systems, which involves a holistic consideration of all components and requirements in a multi-objective manner. The system design synthesis is based on component-specific Pareto-optimal designs to handle performance, efficiency, package and costs for given system requirements. The results are displayed as Pareto-fronts of electric power train system designs variants, from which decision makers are able to choose the best suitable solution. In this way, the presented system design approach for the development of electrically driven axles enables a multi-objective optimization considering efficiency, performance, costs and package. It is capable to reduce development time and to improve overall system quality at the same time.

Welcome to the DATE 08 Conference Proceedings. DATE combines the world's favourite electronic systems design conference and Europe's leading international exhibition for electronic design, automation and test, from system level hardware and software implementation right down to integrated circuit design. The DATE 08 event features a technical program with 77 sessions covering the latest developments in system design and embedded software, IC design/test methodologies and EDA tools, together with an exhibition with the leading EDA, silicon and IP providers showing their new products and services. Challenges that you all face or soon will face in your daily practice are the increasing design complexity of highly integrated systems, the introduction of reconfigurability and embedded software, and the control of power and variability in nanometer IC designs. All these issues will be addressed in this year's DATE event. For the 11th successive year DATE has prepared an exciting technical programme, with the help of the more than 400 members of the Technical Programme Committee, who dedicated their time to thoroughly review the 839 submissions in 37 topics, ranging from system level down to circuit design and covering all the most relevant application domains. The submissions are organised in 4 major areas: D --- Design Methods, Tools, Algorithms and Languages A --- Application Design T --- Test Methods, Tools and Innovative Experiences E --- Embedded Software After a thorough review and selection process (with an average of 5 reviews per paper), finally 198 regular papers were selected for presentation at the conference. Additionally, there are 46 Interactive Presentations that are organised in 5 IP sessions. Together with the invited special sessions (panels, embedded tutorials and hot topic sessions), this has resulted in a high-quality technical program. The technical program provides a wide but high-quality coverage of design, design automation and test topics, from the system level to the integrated circuit level. Compared with previous years, submissions in the Embedded Software track has increased by 50%, showing a clear trend towards a comprehensive system design focus with integrated hardware and software solutions. DATE has established itself firmly as a true Electronic System Design Conference. This year the conference is held in Germany, at the ICM in Munich and spans an entire working week from Monday March 10 to Friday March 14. On Monday, eleven pre-conference tutorials will be given. The three-full day tutorials cover topics of great interest for system design. The first tutorial deals with techniques to automatically realising embedded system from high-level functional models. The second tutorial addresses the different issues related to communication based design and architectures in automotive electronic systems. The third tutorial discusses several key concepts on system-level design and application mapping for wireless and multimedia MPSoC architectures. Furthermore, eight half-day tutorials are also given, which cover a wide spectrum of topics on specification, modelling, design and test. The main conference opens on Tuesday March 11, with two very interesting and complementary keynote speeches. Dominique Vernay, Chief Technical Officer for Thales, will talk about the challenges of embedded systems design, and Giovanni de Micheli, Professor at EPFL, will present his views on designing micro/nano systems for a safer and healthier tomorrow. On the same day, the Executive Track offers a series of business panels with executives discussing hot topics in design: the perils of 45 nanometers, the changes in EDA strategies from IDM, to fablite to fabless, and embedded systems level design strategies. DATE 08 will again offer two specific days related to special themes. On Wednesday March 12, a special full-day track is devoted to Automotive Electronics---Software and Architecture. This special-day track will focus on the challenges faced by the automotive supply chain with particular attention to system and software architecture design. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of automotive architectures, including ECUs, sensors and communication standards and discusses how new methods, tools and standards for interoperability and component-based design can deal with the increasing complexity of software systems and their need for reliability and guaranteed timely behaviour. In addition, it addresses to what degree existing standards, including AUTOSAR and FLEXRAY and model-based development, can support the development of safety and time-critical software. On Thursday March 13, a second special full-day track focuses on Dependable Embedded Systems. This track will address both conceptual and applied issues for design, analysis and validation of dependable embedded systems. The utility of embedded systems and services is based, in large part, on our depending on their sustained functionality in spite of the encountered operational or malicious disruptions. As the number of transient and also permanent disruptions (given the decreasing device geometries, higher device density, lower voltage latching, faster clocks etc) is expected to increase substantially, this will not only be a key issue for the hardware community but also the systems community in general. Solutions using a combination of hardware and software might be more effective than hardware-only or software-only solutions. This track focuses on both conceptual and applied issues for design, analysis and validation of dependable embedded systems. Besides these special tracks, the main conference is organized in six parallel tracks of sessions, three devoted to design methods, tools, algorithms and languages, one to application design, one to test methods, tools and innovative experiences, and finally one to embedded software. The presentations of the selected regular papers in these parallel tracks are complemented by nine Special Sessions and two Invited Industrial Sessions. The special sessions are organized in the form of panels, hot topics, and embedded tutorials. The topics to be covered include quantitative evaluation for embedded systems design, design and manufacturing at 32 and 22nm, software for wireless networked embedded systems, test challenges for low power devices, quantitative productivity measurement in IC design, and 3D Integration. The two invited industrial sessions deal with industrial system designs in transportation and information technologies. To emphasise that DATE is the major event for the designers, DATE 08 features also invited sessions where Europe's famous consumer industry presents their best designs and design practices. Friday March 14 is the day for the DATE workshops. DATE 08 offers workshops on current and emerging important issues in design, test, EDA and software to complement the regular conference. They provide a unique opportunity for the various research and design communities to spend a day discussing the latest and the best, sharing their experiences and visions. This year's workshop program includes eight workshop themes. Four workshops are related to software engineering, ranging from dependable software to modelling, analysis and development tools. Four other workshop themes cover a variety of topics such as the impact of process variations on design and test, the merging world of Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems, new directions in high level synthesis, and heterogeneous reconfigurable hardware. Each workshop features presentations, invited or submitted, from highly distinguished academic and industrial researchers. Finally, throughout the conference days, DATE offers a comprehensive overview of commercial design and verification tools in its large exhibition hall. Exhibitors include EDA vendors, silicon, FPGA and IP providers showing their new products and services. In addition, there is an Exhibition Theatre featuring talks from engineering managers of the leading electronic manufacturers on first-hand design experiences of commercial EDA tools. New this year is the European projects village where different European and large government funded projects will be able to show their ongoing research and results to the design community and have the opportunity for internal meetings and discussions. The DATE week will be also an opportunity for students and universities to show their research work, through the PhD Forum on Monday evening and the University Booth where hardware and software demonstrations will be shown by different universities on a rotation schedule. The DATE 08 event's program will be particularly attractive to industrial designers, at analog, IC, FPGA and embedded system level, as well as software designers, to researchers and academics as well as to design managers, and an increasing attendance is expected. We therefore invite you to take full advantage of the many opportunities offered to you by DATE 08, to extend your knowledge and/or business in electronic system's design and to exploit the abundant networking possibilities offered to socialise with colleagues, including fringe meetings and a memorable social party with bands and dancing. We hope that you will all enjoy the DATE 08 Conference and Exhibition.

The ‘top‐down’ system design process of functional decomposition is increasingly being criticised as simplistic, outmoded, and (in particular) too ‘reductionist’. Its use on large, complex systems is frequently portrayed as naive and impractical. There is much comment on the need to concentrate, instead, on the ‘emergent behaviours’ of systems, and to adopt a ‘holistic’ design approach in which a system solution is ‘evolved’ through a process of system design synthesis.This paper presents a counter‐argument that top‐down design decomposition can, in fact, be a highly efficient way to produce good (optimal) system solutions .Many of the fundamentals of function based system design are addressed: the central role of system function in the design process; the characterisation of system complexity and complication; the identification and specification of component requirements; and the determination of optimal design solutions.An established mathematical theory of systems design, using formal constructs and set‐theory notation, is used as the basis for the presentation of ideas.

Purpose: This study aims to design the flow of the e-budgeting system to develop the village financial system, as well as to increase transparency and accountability of the web-based budget system and minimize the occurrence of corruption loopholes in the village. Method: The design system uses the waterfall method to analyze a model systematically. The model development step starts with the design of the system, database, menu structure, and interface. The design of the e-budget information system is built using PHP and MySQL programming in the form of web-based applications. Results: This study developed a web-based e-budgeting application using the waterfall method to manage village finances. The online system increases flexibility, allowing access from any device. It runs smoothly on computers, with all menus functioning as designed, and is expected to simplify village financial management. Limitations: The researchers’ capability in designing the system is not optimal, as the researchers do not have the basis of informatics engineering, so the results obtained and delivered are not too detailed. Contributions: This system is expected to be useful to facilitate the process of financial management at the village government level. Novelty: The novelty of this study lies in the design of a village e-budgeting system with features like automatic Standard Unit Price calculation, automated tax management, and tracking of village income (PADes) for transparency. This application aims to enhance financial management, ensuring transparency and accountability in the village.

Technical system design processes are typically based on systems engineering vee models where designers move between functional and physical domains as they develop detailed designs of the overall system and its sub-systems and component parts. The movements between the functional and physical domains are informed by the core activities of any design process: synthesis, description, analysis and simulation, and decision-making. However, delivering socio-technical systems design mindsets, such as those needed to design multi-team systems, requires a new branch of systems science that integrates human behavior into system behavior. Design processes built on such a science would allow system designers to compare alternative solutions in terms of their anticipated performance and consider different options with respect to functions carried out by humans and machines. In this chapter we use a systems design process vee model and apply it to a case study that involves the design of a multi-team customer service system. Both the application of the vee model (i.e., the proposed design process) and the results of its application (i.e., the multi-team customer service system) can be regarded as socio-technical systems and are used to illustrate and elaborate on Clegg’s (Appl Ergon 31(5):463–477, 2000) socio-technical principles for system design. On this basis, we provide a practical framework for designing socio-technical systems and identify requirements for developing future methods and tools to support this process.