An architecture for teaching creative systems problem solving using Synthetic Communities of Practice (SCoP)

Established Communities of Practice (CoP) can enhance the learning experience, especially for online learners, who often have an insufficient support structure when compared to on-campus learners. This is even more of a problem when the mode of instruction is asynchronous. To remedy this situation, we have built a framework for the establishment of Communities of Practice in virtual worlds, even when the majority of the members of the community are nonhuman intelligent agents. We refer to these groups as Synthetic Communities of Practice (SCoP). This paper details our current work, illustrates a software architecture to support SCoP formation, and describes results to date. We believe that this infrastructure will become important, especially with the emergence of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC).