Cultivating Collaboration in BioMolViz: Key Attributes for Building a STEM Educator Community of Practice

BioMolViz is an educational community of practice (CoP) focused on creating resources to improve biomolecular visual literacy instruction and assessment. The community of life science instructors developed in three phases, beginning with a small Core Team that emerged from a conference session and established the domain of interest for the CoP. In-person workshops, supported by short-term funding, drove the initial expansion of the community and the development of shared activities in Phase 2. This CoP was sustained through intentional choices about how members interact, collaborate, and share work. As the community matured in Phase 3, it was supported by longer-term funding, allowing community engagement opportunities to expand to a diverse set of both online and in-person offerings. Workshop surveys and focus group interviews suggested that virtual workshops were just as effective as those conducted in-person for building community, and even more effective for skills development. The incorporation of virtual workshops simultaneously strengthened the community, accelerated its growth, and enhanced productivity. Creating spaces that foster the development of social capital were key to building a strong and enduring CoP. At the foundation of a team functioning largely online, a carefully designed multimodal ecosystem of communication enabled effective discourse and the development of community-driven resources and products that sustain the practice. As we reflect on 13 years as a CoP, we describe the features of our community design that may inform the successful development of other communities of educators.