Development of a "sticky" virtual community on the Internet environment

This article presents an activity-based approach for teaching and learning applied to Higher Education. The objectives are twofold ? first to utilise advances of Knowledge Management in education and second to teach the students in Virtual Communities as a powerful modern model for Knowledge Management. According to the classics [Rheingold, 2000] in this field a virtual community (also known from the literature as e-community or online community) is a group of people (presumably remotely distributed) that interact via some form of remote communications such as letters, telephone, email, or Internet rather than face to face. In modern network environment we can see also online communities where members are available simultaneously. With regard to the used media in online communities could be differentiated text, audio, visual and multimedia communities. The concept of ?sticky? virtual community refers to ones where repeated interactions (visits to websites as common place) require particular features in design to support and retain interest. Regular change in content, ability to use as a reference site, superior linkage to other resources, efficient design and many other factors play a part. Virtual and online communities have also become a dominant form of communication between people who are engaged with computer-based work. A computer-mediated community (CMC) uses specific software to regulate the social substance of this interaction. Essential socio-technical change could arise from the liaison of heterogeneous Internet-based social networks. Dealing with social context needs to consider, also, psychological and other factors outside of basic technical design. Through the study of this activity, students will be trained to design, implement and develop virtual communities in a given area by using modern networking and communication tools and techniques. The article presents major elements and discusses expected learning outcomes, proposed learning and teaching strategy and determines areas of study. The article also describes criteria for assessment potential employability. Compatibility with existing units, software and library requirements are considered, as well.