What are communities of practice?
Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for a specific interest. Our communities improve and grow by sharing experiences and interacting regularly.
Join the Waterloo Community
Do you have a question, or would you like to list your community on the website? Please contact waterloo.communities@uwaterloo.ca.
Browse our communities
Waterloo Collaboration Teamwork Community of Practice
About this community
We offer a unique opportunity for instructors – as well as those who study collaboration and teamwork - to connect with their peers to share examples, experiences, ideas, and best practices around collaboration, teamwork and group work in education.
How to get in touch
Contact Katie Plaisance for more information about this practice.
Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Community of Practice
About this community
We are open to all University employees and students interested in sharing experiences, ideas, best practices and lessons for managing portfolios and projects. Our vision is to continuously improve, evolve, share, and accelerate learning of PPM practices at the University of Waterloo through regular engagement and thought partnerships.
How to get in touch
Contact Nathan Lee or Connie van Oostveen for more information about this practice.
Academic Advising Community of Practice
About this community
We are open to all staff and faculty members who have an undergraduate academic advising role. The Academic Advising Community is an opportunity for networking, consultation, information sharing, training, and engagement.
How to get in touch
Contact Kate Andrey for more information about this practice.
Responding to Disclosure (RtD) Community of Practice
About this community
We are open to University of Waterloo members who have completed the RtD Train-the-Trainer program and are actively offering and providing Responding to Disclosure training on campus. The community provides a space for trainers to discuss successes and opportunities for growth in facilitation, work collaboratively, develop skills and knowledge, provide and receive feedback, brainstorm and collect ideas that support ongoing knowledge exchange regarding the promotion of effective responses and supports for individuals who have experienced sexual violence and harassment on campus.
How to get in touch
Contact Amanda Cook for more information about this practice.
Wellness Collaborative Community of Practice
About this community
We bring together relevant partners across job descriptions, disciplines, department/units, and affiliated colleges to share best practices and increase awareness of health and wellness-related work across campus. Involvement is open to all University members. Each meeting considers opportunities for members to network, build professional development capacity, provide input or consultation on various health and wellness-related activities and initiatives across campus, and identify opportunities for coordinating and leveraging of each other's health promotion and wellness work.
How to get in touch
Join the Wellness Collaborative Community of Practice and receive upcoming session invites.
Learning and Development Community of Practice
About this community
We bring together departments across the University community that offer workshops with a focus on engaging learners in personal and professional development. As we focus on translating workshops and educational opportunities into a virtual learning environment, we want to establish a group to discuss how to leverage technology in a virtual environment, approaches to engaging learners online and exploring best practices as we design/facilitate online learning experiences. We have membership from a number of units across campus. These individuals typically design, facilitate, teach, or lead workshops and educational experiences within their work.
How to get in touch
Contact Alannah Robinson or Laura Maple for more information about this practice.
Continuous Improvement (CI) and Change Management (CM) Community of Practice
About this community
We are open to all Staff and Faculty members interested in learning CI and CM concepts, tools and application. Through strong and collaborative relationships, the CoP's core objective is to build a community of like-minded individuals with the purpose of expanding CI and CM knowledge and tools across campus including affiliated institutions. Together, community members will exchange ideas, lessons learned, best practices and share advice on related work.
How to get in touch
Contact Samantha Murray, or Shona Dunseith about this practice.
Knowledge Mobilization Community of Practice
About this Community
We are open to University of Waterloo staff and faculty currently using knowledge mobilization tactics, such as relationship building with external partners, to support the uptake of research outside of the academic community. Our network supports one another through information exchange, sharing of best practices, and professional development opportunities. We meet every second month.
How to get in touch
Contact Nadine Quehl for more information about this practice.
Extended Reality (XR) Community of Practice
About this community
We are open to all Waterloo instructors and staff members who are interested in exploring Extended Reality technologies in teaching and learning (note: Extended Reality includes Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality). Our aim is to promote the understanding, use, and deployment of XR technologies at Waterloo, and we do this through a combination of presentations and sharing of experiences. We meet once per month via MS Teams.
How to get in touch
Contact Gillian Dabrowski (CEL) or Mark Morton (CTE) for more information about joining this Community of Practice.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism (EDI-R) Community of Practice
About this community
We are open to University of Waterloo staff and faculty who are engaging or intend to engage in equity and anti-racism in their departments. Members will have an opportunity to share and learn about relevant initiatives happening across campus. The community supports one another through sharing ideas, events, lessons learned, best practices, and advice on equity, and anti-racism work. We meet once per month via MS Teams.
How to get in touch
Join the EDI-R Community of Practice on Teams and receive community updates.
Graduate Student Programming Community of Practice
About this Community
We are open to staff members from Academic Support Units who support or deliver programming for graduate students. The CoP fosters greater levels of collaboration among campus partners who work with graduate students and serves as a vehicle for partners to share information about graduate student programming, identify and discuss challenges or areas for growth, and supports GSPA in promoting and expanding a central hub of resources and information for graduate students (GRADventure). We meet once a term.
How to get in touch
Contact Sarah Howard about this community.
People, Process and Projects (P3) Community of Practice
About this community
Effective January 2024, the Project and Portfolio Management Community of Practice (PPM CoP) and Continuous Improvement & Change Management Community of Practice (CI&CM CoP) have partnered to create the People, Process and Projects (P3) Community of Practice!
Our goal, through the partnership, is to lessen communication fatigue, repeated content fatigue and provide a valuable ‘one stop shop’ experience to all our members. Project & Portfolio Management, Continuous Improvement, and Change Management will continue to be the main subjects for the combined communities.
We are open to all University employees interested in learning and sharing Continuous Improvement, Change Management and Project Management concepts, tools and applications.
How to get in touch
To learn more about this new and improved CoP, please contact Connie van Oostveen, Samantha Murray or Shona Dunseith.
