Learning through professional environments: The ComCity project

UOCom is a virtual communication agency that has been set up as part of the ComCity teaching innovation project (Creus & Lalueza, 2012). Promoted by lecturers in the Information and Communication Sciences Department of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, this innovation project proposes the creation of a set of 2.0 environments designed for virtual professional practices (e-practices) in the field of communication. In this article we describe and analyse the initial developments of the project, from the conceptual design stage to the start-up of the pilot trial of UOCom agency, which is the first ComCity environment to be put in place.