A community of practice (COP) is a group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or interest in a topic, who come together to fulfill both personal and group goals.  Interaction on an ongoing basis deepens shared knowledge, understanding, and deepens expertise and collective practices.  Communities of practice are growing as means for bringing diverse perspectives collaboratively together for innovative efforts on the leading edge.  Each community of practice, listed below, is supported with CLII portal tools for profiling work progress, innovations, and connecting members.

Gaming and Simulations Members work to explore how gaming and simulations can be introduced to faculty for use in instruction.

Learning Space Design The design of learning spaces, whether they are classrooms, laboratories, libraries, informal or virtual spaces-can enhance learning.  Excellent learning space design can improve learning outcomes.  Educators, technologists, and space planners are combining technology, pedagogy, learning and physical space. 

Student Academic and Support Systems Capabilities exist to collect, store, interconnect and deliver student data from diverse sources with greater accuracy and security.  Members work to identify, prototype and evaluate new systems and services. 

Bridging Community Effort is focused on bridging research and practitioner communities to develop shared language and communication pathways, as well as to develop a set of processes and tools to help strengthen the connection between practices in higher education and education research.  

Applied Use of Technologies in Teaching and Learning Members bring focus to emerging technologies that have the potential to advance teaching, learning, and creative expression for learner-centered environments. 

VaNTH Region/Community VaNTH is an Engineering Research Center involving Vanderbilt University, Northwestern University, University of Texas and Harvard-MIT.  Members are engaged in research and development to transform bioengineering education.

K-12 Members bring focus to using videoconferencing to enhance learning opportunities, create awareness of K-12 outreach program events and workshop offerings.

Governing Council  This group supports the entire CLII community, discussing what constitutes a COP, region, neighborhood, and roles and responsibilities of the members.