134 Int. J. Web Based Communities, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2007 Copyright © 2007 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Developing a blended-learning community in a university setting Antonio P. Volpentesta* and Nicola Frega GiudaLab-D.E.I.S. Università degli Studi della Calabria Via Pietro Bucci 41C 87036 Arcavacata di Rende (CS) – Italy Fax: 0984/494713 E-mail: volpente@deis.unical.it E-mail: nfrega@deis.unical.it *Corresponding author Abstract: Today, many universities feel the necessity to move from the scenario of a plurality of enhanced-learning classroom experiences to one where flexible learning and blended learning are relevant and widely diffused paradigms. Such a transition may gain an advantage in an institution-wide blended-learning community where educational knowledge and practices are shared among members. In this paper, we propose a bottom-up approach consisting of four steps (consulting, pioneering, growing and evaluating) that can be cyclically executed in order to build such a community. For each step, we outline the role that the academic institution plays in the constituting community-building initiatives, and we discuss organisational and technological issues to be considered towards a flexible learning scenario. The approach has been adopted in a three-year project that is still ongoing at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Calabria. We describe that study and present some evaluation results dealing with the approach’s validity. Keywords: educational communities; blended learning; community building; universities. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Volpentesta, A.P. and Frega, N. (2007) ‘Developing a blended-learning community in a university setting’, Int. J. Web Based Communities, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp.134–150. Biographical notes: Antonio P. Volpentesta is an Associate Professor of Economics and Management Engineering (Faculty of Engineering, University of Calabria). He received his Laurea in Matematica from the University of Pisa in 1975 and has published over 80 papers in operation research, information systems and management engineering. He is the Scientific Director of GiudaLab-DEIS, where many European projects have been carried out in the past 15 years. His research interests include learning community, virtual enterprises, knowledge management, e-business and collaborative commerce, and conceptual design. Nicola Frega is an Assistant Professor of Economics and Management Engineering (Faculty of Engineering, University of Calabria). He received his Laurea in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Calabria in 1991. He also received a PhD in 1998. He has published almost 25 papers in computer science, information systems and management engineering. He has collaborated in many national and international projects in the past ten years.