A community of practice (COP) can offer learning and support as a group of people who come together to share concerns, best practices, or new knowledge about some shared interest or passion. However, creating or joining a COP may present challenges, especially for those whose networks are relatively undeveloped. In this article, we define a COP and share how vicarious learning and crowdsourcing, as pragmatic, relational, and information-gathering processes, offer important benefits to teaching and learning COPs. After discussing how vicarious learning and crowdsourcing can be extended within a COP, we offer specific theory-to-practice learning ideas and suggestions. We end the article with brief insights for other management educators about our own COP experiences.
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