Closing Remarks

Having the ability and skillsets to accumulate social capital is an important attribute of any leader. For digital leaders living at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds, they have more opportunities (could be challenges if not being handled appropriately) than traditional distance education leaders.

Gaining access to and being actively engaged with CoPs and SM-F-CoPs are both effective and efficient ways for digital leaders to build social capital and accumulate social currency, which can help contribute to the success of digital transformations they lead.

To build social capital through CoP engagement, digital leaders will benefit from studying the century long history of distance education development. To accumulate social currency in social media mediated digital world, however, digital leaders need to take a learning by doing approach because there are no well researched theories and best practices they can borrow. Further, the importance of accumulating social currency through SM-F-CoP engagement as well as how to tap into SM-F-CoP mediated social currency to lead successful digital transformation remain to be areas of interest for digital leaders.