Effective Cultivation of Cross-Border E-Commerce Talents via Virtual Communities of Practice with Multi-media, Multi-layered WeChat Groups

摘要

Cross-Border eCommerce (CBeC) is now one of the most dynamic and important phenomena in international business, and the cultivation of talents in this area has become a pressing issue. This paper discusses our experiments in which a Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP) with multi-media, multi-layered WeChat groups was established. Results show that this VCoP has been proved both suitable and effective: it solved the problem of multi-location of participants in this programme by setting up a convenient and almost free-of-charge VCoP; the structure of 3-layered WeChat groups has been both efficient and effective, with students concentrating on the specific product and function in which they specialize; and the use of multi-media functions available on the WeChat platform for lecture delivery and discussion has improved the teaching effects and motivated students in learning and practice.