Networked Improvement Learning and Support

The Carnegie Foundation created the Networked Improvement Learning and Support (NILS™) platform to support social learning and improvement testing within networked improvement communities (NICs). Below, learn more about the platform and how it was developed, get access to test-drive NILS on a sample site, and contact Carnegie if you or your organization would like to get involved.

Sign up for our  NILS mailing list to receive the latest updates on NILS development and availability.

NILS is an online web application that is also mobile-friendly.

WHAT IS NILS?

NILS is an online platform designed to facilitate the initiation and development of NICs working on shared problems of practice in a disciplined manner. Its main goal is to promote social, organizational learning through curation and synthesis, as well as to disseminate tacit and explicit knowledge for improvement in education by moving much of what we currently do face-to-face in improvement practice into a virtual learning environment.

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Webinars

A series of webinars hosted by Carnegie’s Collaborative Technology team that address the intellectual and technical challenges of conducting networked improvement work.

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NILS Roadmap

At the Carnegie Foundation, the development of NILS is treated as an improvement project. Through iterative testing and PDSA cycles, the platform is constantly evolving.

NILS was initially developed through collaboration with the Tennessee Early Literacy Network and the Student Agency Improvement Community. Based on feedback from this first phase, Carnegie further developed the platform and onboarded the Early Literacy Meta-Network and the Rural Innovative School Leadership network within a second phase. A third phase, which will see the public release of the NILS code base, is currently in progress. Going forward, there are plans to include enhanced features for social learning and connection management, expansions to the current PDSA and driver diagram process flows, and enhanced data tracking and synthesis to derive knowledge from a NIC’s data collection cycles.

Tour the NILS platform

  • See an overview of recent network activity on the Homepage.
  • Browse and participate in a network’s activities in the Activity Center.
  • Participate in an activity by authoring or commenting on posts and uploads. Ask for support, and engage with activity reflections.
  • View a root cause analysis for the network’s articulated problem with the Fishbone Diagram.
  • See an overview of a network’s theory of practice improvement with the Driver Diagram, a relational database that structures how a network works to reach its aim.
  • Author and edit a Driver Diagram to reflect new or revised thinking on a network’s theory of practice improvement.
  • Access an interactive accordion view of the Driver Diagram to run Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles on change ideas.
  • Test ideas for system change by running a PDSA Cycle, a pragmatic scientific method for iterative testing of changes in complex systems.
  • Browse listings of network members and groups in the Directory.

Test-Drive NILS

Test-Drive NILS

Test drive the NILS platform with these simple steps to decide if NILS is right for your organization.

  1. Access nils.carnegienetworks.org
  2. Select ‘Request an invitation’
  3. An invitation will be sent to your email address within 24 hours
  4. Follow the prompts to login to NILS
  5. Participate in activities and discussions, run PDSA cycles …

Stay Connected

Sign up for our NILS mailing list to receive the latest updates on NILS development, availability, and access to the code repository.



Permanent link to page: https://www.carnegiefoundation.org/our-work/improvement-in-education/networked-improvement-learning-and-support-nils/