Introducing the Cooptic project

Cooptic is an initiative for innovation transfer funded by the European Commission within the framework of the Leonardo da Vinci project. Four partners specializing in innovative teaching methods - Suprago Florac and Outils-Réseaux (Montpellier), the Cooperation School Aposta from Catalonia and the Regional Centre for Environmental Initiatives (CRIE Mouscron) from Wallonia – joined forces to work on adapting a training tool for collaborative project facilitators.

During the Cooptic project, fifteen people from three countries (Belgium, France and Spain) received training to become trainers of cooperative project and network facilitators, in their respective circles.

Cooptic today has 60 network facilitators forming a real pool in three European countries. This network developed over the course of three years:

Introducing the team of partners

The Cooptic programme linked four structures:

Supagro Florac: Agriculture and Environmental Education Institute has been providing training to facilitators of many themes and geographic networks on public agricultural education for many years, as well as providing technical support for them. Recognized nationally for its expertise in education sciences and its experimental teaching activities and for promoting innovative training tools, Supagro Florac shares its knowledge with its partners in this project. It also oversaw the creation and coordination of the whole project.

The ‘reference’ association in France for networking. Its main mission is to start and accompany cooperative networks and practices using methodological tools and the Internet. In 2010, Outils-Réseaux created the Animacoop training tool for facilitators and professionals working in the fields of cooperation and network facilitation. This Animacoop tool was a part of the European Cooptic project.

Catalan association: Cooperation school in charge of transfer in Catalonia.

Walloon association for environmental education in charge of transfer in Wallonia.




These partners brought together the skills of several institutions, universities, researchers, and local actors and groups engaging in participatory development who actively participated in drafting the e-book you have in your hands.

Introduction to the learning tool

The Cooptic learning tool is based on educational principles that aim to accompany trainees along the path to autonomy and building their capacity to carry out informed actions. Trainees are the main focus of the teaching tool. These principles lead to the choice of teaching methods and resources that are articulated around three ideas: the crosscutting nature of knowledge and collaborative skills to be learnt; a link to the professional projects of trainees; and the use of the possibilities offered by digital tools to innovate in teaching practices.

What can be learnt with the Cooptic training?

The training contents favour the development of operational skills linked to the facilitation of cooperative projects: managing information, co-producing resources, starting network dynamics, group facilitation…
These contents are structured around 12 key concepts and 12 crosscutting collaborative skills:

These collaborative skills are dealt with in parallel at three different levels:

• at an individual level, training develops the engagement of a person in a collaborative project,
• at a group level, training deals with understanding group dynamics, networks, groups and skills to manage a group,
• a third level relating to the environment refers to openness factors and communication “outside” the network.

How is the learning done?

During a training period of 14 weeks, trainees work remotely and on-site following a progression in three parallel itineraries:

• Individual itinerary:

On-line contents follow the stages in a network’s existence.

• Creation of the network: the group is established, a “group of individuals” becomes aware that it is a learning group.
• The network becomes informed: exchanges on the projects lead to a set of common experiences and problems.
• The network is transformed: individual and collective events are created in small-group collaborative work.
• Network outreach: spreading the outcomes of the cooperation works outside the community brings value to it.
• Network consolidation: this allows for an assessment and a reflexion on how to maintain the dynamics alive and how to open up to others.

• Collective trainee itinerary :

Trainees produce new contents collectively

• Project itinerary :

The creation of a collaborative project by the trainee is a pre-requisite, and the activities refer to this project throughout the training. During the first week, trainees introduce the context and the object of their project, and then test the methods and tools on their project, explaining the whole experience relating to their own personal learning process. At each of the three meetings, an update is given on how the training has contributed so far to the project’s progress. Training actions speed up the project in its professional context and the lessons learnt from the training reciprocally become more “tangible” since they are implicit in the action.

A pedagogy impacted by new technologies

A training ecosystem:
A methodology to move from “network facilitators” to “trainers of network facilitators”
A combination of on-site and distance exchanges using Internet-based tools
Using collaborative tools and methods during the training process.
Moments to exchange practices
Individual work on the trainees’ collaborative projects
Co-generation of knowledge: pedagogical training plans.

The Cooptic ebook

The ebook that you are handling contains the resources used during the CoopTic training session. Some were written specifically for the ebook because the contents were presented orally during training. This book is a state of our knowledge in the field of cooperation and collaboration at the time of writing in late 2013. But this is an area that is just beginning to be studied and we continue to experiment, to imagine, to try, to dream ... To make it short, even if the publication of this ebook is the outcome of the European project Leonardo CoopTic, this is not the end but just the bases of our future projects: a resource center on collaboration? A MOOC? Or perhaps something that does not exist yet!
Enjoy your reading and your "small irreversible cooperation experiences" to come!

They took part in the adventure !

This work was achieved within the framework of a project of transfer of innovation (TOI) funded by the European Union through the Leonardo Da Vinci program.

All the contents (texts, images, videos) are under Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 FR license. This means that you can freely distribute, modify and use them in a commercial context. You have two obligations: quote the original authors and the content that you create from ours should be shared in the same conditions under CC-BY-SA .

What we learnt from Cooptic

However, many conditions are required for this type of training tool to be a real learning ecosystem.
The Cooptic experience has reinforced our convictions regarding certain conditions for training to be successful in the digital era.

Training is no longer a pyramidal transmission of knowledge, where the person that knows passes information down to the person that is learning. It is a co-building of knowledge by networking available information, chosen by the trainers; individual knowledge and experiences that are collectively enriched by reflective exchanges. The training process is rendered explicit by the trainer so that the training provided enables the process of learning to learn.

People are at the centre of the learning process. But these people are easily connected to the world and to others thanks to the new technologies available.
In the training, Cooptic and Animacoop, its French equivalent, we have experienced the construction of learning communities that operate in a similar way to epistemic communities (cf. supra). Trainees publish articles and create training itineraries while gradually becoming active “amateur-experts”. This new quality in people that are training is a real conjunction of intellectual, pedagogical, and even democratic ambitions that really sets the grounds for the pleasure of learning.

The work of trainers changes because it entails several roles in parallel:

• “Expert” trainer: is the reference for the subjects dealt with and transfers knowledge.
• accompanist: is the person that structures and accompanies the group’s progression in a learning environment based on communication and exchange.
• tutor: is the person creating an individualised link with each of the learners helping them to overcome the isolation induced by distance learning.
• "technician": is the person that makes sure that all technical devices work properly.

These new "roles" fulfilled by one or more trainers require deep changes:

• reconsidering “distance” as a space and time with multiple possibilities for interaction and learning. It is possible to learn, create links, work together and produce a resource in multiple ways:
  • asynchronous distance contribution based on availability of a space for writing, sharing resources, exchanging via email or a forum,
  • synchronous distance during video-conferences or exchanging practices between groups,
  • on-site and distance at the same time…it is possible to organise a course on video-conference with two groups in parallel at two different sites.
• making the relationship between trainers, learners and knowledge more horizontal. In the flow of information and exchanges, the trainer is just one element among many others.
• adopting the "surf method "¹ ....accepting uncertainties and being brave enough to experiment during the process. Trainers are the ones guaranteeing the methodology: they create the balance conditions and do not necessarily master the form of co-production outcomes.

Innovation elements and the effects they have on the training tool and the cooperative learning

How Cooptic innovates	The effect on training	The effect on cooperative learning
Choosing a wiki as a training platform	Technical device that is easy to use with an intuitive configuration and carefully designed graphics. The trainer tries to minimize any possible technical difficulties.	Reduces difficulties for participation. Generates trust in the tools. Creates a feeling of pleasure. Encourages trainees to publish on the NET.
A common space and individual spaces	The wiki platform enables creating personal spaces that are easily linked to a collective support.	Belonging to the learning group is natural (common spaces). Individualised learning is possible (personal space).
Open contents	Courses are posted on-line and are accessible to all outside training times.	Freedom to refer to the courses at all times. Greater availability for activities and exchanges.
Learning contents that extend beyond those in the courses	Posting the course on-line “frees” time to accompany trainees along the process of acquiring skills.	Knowledge acquisition: "learning to learn" and "learning to work with others".
Modular structure	Contents are divided into units (granulated). The general itinerary is defined, but it can be modified during the training.	Building a more personal itinerary is possible.
Systematic approach	Contents are selected so they correspond to the activity as a whole, the collaborative network and to the different levels (individual, group, environment).	Acquisition of global perspective. Relatively complete study of the collaborative processes.
A multiplicity of structured itineraries	Modular course itineraries (the life of a network). Group activities itinerary (learning community). "professional project” itinerary (collaborative environment).	Multiple opportunities to deal with issues on cooperation and collaboration; put them into practice, facilitate them. Analysis of the collaborative process.
Gradual change in the size of work groups	Activities are programmed based on progression: individual exercise, work in pairs, in groups of 4 to 8	Practice on epistemic communities. Exercise on ephemeral groups (change in scale).
Networking and exchanging practices	The activity is conceived as a knowledge aggregator. The trainer provides the methodology.	Valuing experiences as a source of knowledge (reflective practitioner). A particular form of professionalisation (based on the experiences of others). Reinforcing self-esteem.
Co-production of contents	An evolutionary platform: everyone can add pages and text. The trainer accompanies the process and ensures it is consistent.	Active stance towards knowledge. The sense of creating a “common good”.
Notion of "presence" from a distance	A fine-tuned articulation of distance and on-site times. The effort of accompanying is placed on interaction between participants. “Distance” accompanying is systematized (fixed points with the trainers).	The effect of distance decreases or even transformed. Removing project and culture proximity methods.

---

• 1 Rosnay, Joël. Surfer la vie : vers la société fluide. Paris : Les liens qui libèrent, 2012