CATS Communities of Practice (CoP)

A Community of Practice is "a group of professionals, informally bound to one another through exposure to a common class of problems, common pursuit of solutions, and thereby themselves embodying a store of knowledge." (Johnson-Lenz) CoP members share their collective knowledge and, together, create new knowledge, best practices, and develop solutions to common problems.

In Fall 2005, CATS established virtual CoPs in the areas of Accessibility and Support Services. Members from the CATS community have joined, as well as personnel from other campus areas such as Disabled Student Services. The Support Services CoP covers a broad spectrum of IT areas such as help desk, media and AV, classroom support services, network services, and computer labs, etc.

CATS CoPs are all about sharing and collaborating, and members have access to the experience and knowledge of people with jobs similar to theirs. TheCoP websites help them

• stay up-to-date on relevant news and events
• connect with other CSU professionals
• share resources and information
• ask and answer questions in archived, threaded discussions

The websites are viewable by all, but only active members have posting privileges. If you are interested in becoming an active member, please contact Abbe Altman.

The collaboration that takes place and the products that are developed are intended to benefit the individual members, their campuses, and the CSU as a whole.

Accessibility CoP:   http://cats.cdl.edu/cop_accessibility

Support Services CoP   http://cats.cdl.edu/cop_support_services