reusing knowledge in online forums a pilot study lisa soon maryam sarrafzadeh kirsty williamson
TRANSCRIPT
Reusing Knowledge in
Online Forums A Pilot Study
Lisa Soon
Maryam Sarrafzadeh
Kirsty Williamson
Lisa Soon
Maryam Sarrafzadeh
Kirsty Williamson
Overview
About this Research Online Forum Knowledge Management Research Design Data Collection and Analysis Findings and Discussion Conclusions and Future Work
About this Research Research objectives were to explore:
whether knowledge in online forums in previous teaching sessions is reused. If so, how?
the benefits of reusing knowledge in online forum the barriers preventing knowledge reuse ways to facilitate knowledge reuse through
knowledge sharing Significance and contribution
More effective teaching when a lecturer takes on a subject from a previous session
Online Forum Knowledge Management Prior research
Repositories for capturing e-learning knowledge (Dolog et al., 2008; Reinhart, 2008; Aggarwal et al., 2006; Schell & Burns, 2006; Seongheea & Boryungb, 2008; Payne & Reinhart,
2008; Teo & Gay, 2006;Dewe, 2005; Chaudhry & Khoo, 2007) Using forums for pedagogical reasons (Schellens &
Valcke, 2006; Marra, Moore & Klimczak, 2004; Dennei & Paulus,
2005) This research
How online forum knowledge can be reused in an e-learning environment
Research Method Qualitative interpretive research
Knowledge is intangible and cannot be easily measured/quantified
How online forum knowledge is reused – a new phenomenon
Data collection method A pilot study with one focus group Eight subject coordinators
from three different schools in three different disciplines
Pretest - validity and usefulness of questions in a focus group guide
Data Collection and Analysis Collecting responses to 11 questions
Participants could freely voice their views Responses were audio tape-recorded Data were transcribed for analysis
Data Analysis Key points and concept mapping A table to reflect group responses
categorizing answers for each questions supporting quotes in each category
Reflection of results Reporting
Findings Online knowledge captured includes:
subject issues, student learning needs, learning difficulties, past student complaints or concerns, and assignment matters
Participants who re-activated and reused knowledge commonly agreed that it leads to more effective teaching.
Findings Benefits of knowledge reuse include:
sharing experience of a previous lecturer’s subject knowledge,
answers/ help/ advice to students queries, assignment discussion, problems, solutions, resources to help students, and subject administration issues – complaints,
suggestions, concerns. Time-saving, avoid ‘reinventing the wheels’ in
teaching
Findings Barriers to knowledge reuse include:
not knowing the possibility of forum re-activation,
insufficient forum postings, international students are shy to post due to
their English as a second language a lack of a systematic way to retrieve forum
messages, and misleading information in forum messages.
FindingsFacilitation of knowledge use can occur throughdeveloping a knowledge sharing culture:
changing university policy, providing leadership in knowledge sharing organising casual and informal seminars to
encourage knowledge sharing, and giving management support and
endorsement
Adding a knowledge manager role: for online forums to facilitate the above-mentioned tasks
Conclusion
A lot of “wheel reinventing” of subject material writings can be saved
Teaching preparations can be improved Impacts on how a subject coordinator in a
next session can effectively use subject resources and knowledge
Inputs into subject planning and subject revision can be provided
Future Work
This research is useful to a wide audience using similar online forums within e-learning environments
This research currently reflects the perceptions of teaching academics. As future work, we will gather student inputs.
Thank you