Le community manager ou animateur de communauté Web : quel nouvel acteur de la formation à distance ?

Abstract

The research presented took place in the European Commission (the executive body of the European Union employing 33,000 agents) during the year 2016. It examines the role of the community manager in the mediation of knowledge. The aim is to define the contours of his/her interventions and his/her inputs in training and development within the communities of practice (pedagogical activities designed to enhance the effectiveness of learning and its link with the workplace).In relation to the question of engagement in these practices, the concept of learning from the point of view of social participation is questioned in this article and leads us to draw a parallel between the role of the community manager and distance tutoring. Therefore, after discussing the evolution of communities of practice theory, we present our research protocol, conceived in a qualitative and exploratory approach to this question. We note that while the distance tutor has the mission of fostering collaboration and participation in exchanges that he/she animates and facilitates; the community manager seems, in addition, to institutionalise them, even in more informal forms of learning.

Keywords

• community manager
• community of practice
• distance tutoring
• learning in the workplace
• expansive learning
• tutoring