What is a healthy activity level for a community of practice?

How active should a community of practice be?

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Healthy communities of practice are busy communities of practice, but what sort of activity levels should you aim at?

It depends on the type of community, of course, and the  excellent publication from the National College for School Leadership “100,000 heads are better than one (lessons from the worlds largest online learning community)” suggests target activity levels for three types of community.

Within this document, they talk about activity levels, and the level of community “Buzz”. They answer the question “How loud should the buzz be?” by saying that as a rule of thumb, a good level of buzz is generated if, in one month

for a large community of practice (more than 50,000 members): 

• 10 per cent of members visit 

• 15 per cent of visitors contribute (1.5% of members overall)

• each contributor leaves between two and three contributions 

 for a smaller community set up to meet a need or complete a project: 

• 75 per cent of members visit 

• 50 per cent of visitors contribute 

• each contributor leaves between four and five contributions 

For a learning group set up around a ftf event, where all participants are expected to visit as part of the event:

• 100 per cent of members visit 

• 100 per cent of visitors contribute 

• each contributor leaves more than five contributions