Motivational Dynamics and Platform Design in Online Communities of Teachers: A Multi-case Study

A multi-case study with three online communities that use customized instantiations of the Integrated Learning Design Environment (ILDE) platform is presented to explore and understand how teachers’ motivations to participate in OCs are related to their perceptions about incentives and features implemented in OC supporting platforms. Data was collected following a mixed-method approach. A cross-case analysis, including a correlation analysis of teachers’ motivations and their perception about different incentive mechanisms, suggests that there is a relationship between these factors. Teachers’ main motivation is to gain knowledge, and they perceive recommendation systems, tutorials, news sections and social features as the most interesting features to be implemented in an OC of teachers. In contrast, they consider reputation as the least important motivator, and they do not perceive features such as users’ rankings or contributors’ acknowledgement sections as important. These results contribute to the improvement of the supporting platforms for OC of teachers and the integration in teaching practice.