Virtual communities of practice in distance education: An exploratory study for its development

As part of the online experience of researchers from a Portuguese Higher Education Research Center, there was a need to ascertain whether these researchers consider themselves within a community of practice, learning, or other community emerging from virtual environments. An exploratory study of a qualitative nature was conducted, based on a semi-structured interview with a limited peer group, in order to create a tool for a broad study to validate the premise that a group of researchers may function as a community of practice or as a learning community. A group of researchers from this center considered it important to find out what are the communication weaknesses and other dimensions of this center's virtual community for future investments and to improve their interaction as a community. This article aims, in addition to a reflection on the concepts of the new forms that are currently breaking out in the network, to analyze the results of the interviews and to reflect on future work cues for the creation of a virtual learning and sharing community. Moreover, the conclusions of this exploratory study are intended to be the basis for the construction of a questionnaire intended to be applied to all researchers.