Author(s):
Innovations in STEM education often require collaborative efforts across multiple institutions. When these efforts involve professional development of faculty, communities of practice (CoP) provide an established vehicle for supporting education reform (Kezar and Gehrke, 2017). How can geographically distributed CoPs function and grow sustainably? Hybrid format provides both in-person and virtual modalities for interactions. Our community, The Genomics Education Partnership (GEP; https://thegep.org/), has recently transitioned to the hybrid format and implemented a virtual new-member training. GEP is a nationwide community that provides training, resources, and mentorship to faculty engaging students in experiential learning and Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) in genomics and bioinformatics. GEP grew from 118 to over 240 members in two years (2020-2022) primarily via virtual training. We used an engagement survey to compare the experiences of long-standing community members with the experiences of virtually-trained new members. The survey results (n=124) revealed several areas where two groups did not show significant differences, including motivations for involvement, levels of engagement, satisfaction, and perceived benefits of community involvement (Gehrke et al., 2024). These findings indicate ways in which virtual training and integration facilitated important community outcomes. To better understand important elements of training, we conducted interviews with virtually trained members (n = 15). Important factors included training structure, on-boarding, and community engagement opportunities. The findings of this study provide useful lessons and structures for growing communities through virtual means and will be shared in the presentation.
