KnowledgeSharingandLearninginVirtualCommunities

Click to edit Master title style,Click to edit Master text styles,Second level,Third level,Fourth level,Fifth level,*,Knowledge Sharing and Learningin Virtual Communities,Michael Bieber,1,Ricki Goldman,1,Roxanne Hiltz,1,Il Im,1,Ravi Paul,1,Jenny Preece,2,Ron Rice,3,Ted Stohr,4,Murray Turoff,1,1,New Jersey Institute of Technology,3,Rutgers University (SCILS),2,University of Maryland, Baltimore County,4,Stevens Technical University,1,Outline,Motivation,Virtuality,Research Approach,Knowledge & Community,Learning & Community,Virtual Community Issues,Research Questions,C-KLASS Tools & Prototype,Evaluation,Conclusion,2,Motivation,Why do people participate in virtual communities?,to attract customers/clients,for amusement,to socialize; find comfort (medical communities),to network, build contacts,to improve what you do (job, personal),find information/solve problems/learn from others,=,collaboration, knowledge-sharing and learning underlies most of these directly or indirectly,Research Question: How best to support this?,3,Goal,Increase effectiveness,by helping people,share knowledge and learn,through virtual communities,4,Virtuality,= “distance”,(requires asynchronous communication),computer representation of information different from reality,(alternate representations increase comprehension and exploration),sharing experiences and perspectives,flexible organizational structure to meet changing conditions,Mowshowitz 1995,5,Focus: Virtual Communitiesaround Professional Societies,Community Members,Researchers,Practitioners,Instructors,Students,Organizations serving the community(non-profit; for profit),Aspects,Community interested in a specific domain,Virtual communities larger than just society membership,Supporting systems could be hosted by the society,6,Example Tasks (of individuals),learning about the community domain,learning about relevant people in the community,teaching a course,finding materials on a research topic,mentoring members in research or learning,developing software using community research,developing/selling software to serve community,7,Example Community Tasks,(e.g., within a professional society),running a conference,conducting elections,writing newsletter / submitting to the newsletter,making the budget,proposing & running a task force,recruiting new society members,8,Outline,Motivation,Virtuality,Research Approach,Knowledge & Community,Learning & Community,Virtual Community Issues,Research Questions,C-KLASS Tools & Prototype,Evaluation,Conclusion,9,Approach,Concept Building regarding knowledge and learning within virtual communities,Study testbed communities,Prototype tools,Prototype procedures,Evaluate,virtual communities,learning and effectiveness,the prototype tools and procedures,10,Outline,Motivation,Virtuality,Research Approach,Knowledge & Community,Learning & Community,Virtual Community Issues,Research Questions,C-KLASS Tools & Prototype,Evaluation,Conclusion,11,Community Knowledge Resides in.,documents (published papers, reports, photos, videos, lesson plans, syllabi, etc.),discussions,decisions,conceptual models,formal educational modules,workflows/processes,peoples expertise,links/relationships among all these,12,Knowledge & Community,Community is important for knowledge,Social Network Theory:,people develop through exposure to others,Wellman 83,Socially Distributed Cognition:,sharing generates new, more complex knowledge,Cicourel 1990,shared knowledge becomes a public good,Kollock 1999,13,Learning & Community,constructivist, social activity,occurs through collaboration,McCown & Driscoll 1995,occurs through knowledge building,Vygotsky 1962,Knowledge Building:contributing to, authoring, discussing, sharing, exploring, deploying collective knowledge base,ONeill Perkins 1993,14,Virtual Community Issues,Sustainability,Communities need:,a clear purpose,Preece 2000,sufficient social value (users, information, resources),continued adoption, use and contribution by a critical mass,Rice 1990; others,15,Virtual Community Issues,continued,size (scaling up),diverse membership (time in community, experience, skills, education, language,),requires effective user interface & tools,how to promote virtual community infrastructure?,how to manage infrastructure?,16,Outline,Motivation,Virtuality,Research Approach,Knowledge & Community,Learning & Community,Virtual Community Issues,Research Questions,C-KLASS Tools & Prototype,Evaluation,Conclusion,17,Research Questions:,Virtual Community Structure,What structural components characterize a healthy community?,How should VC be structured to promote knowledge sharing & learning?,How to adapt technologies to support structural components?,18,Research Questions:,Knowledge and Learning,How do different people create, understand, reuse, and learn from knowledge?,Kinds of knowledge & memory to support?,How do knowledge & learning improve effectiveness?,How to support knowledge-sharing, learning and memory?,19,Research Questions:,Improving Effectiveness,What activities do members do?,Barriers to knowledge-sharing and learning?,Interfaces and media to improve activities?,20,Research Questions:,Sustainability & Scalability,How to promote?,How will members “buy in”?,How to scale?,How the community should manage the infrastructure?,Factors for sustainability?,Providing on-going feedback for managing and sustaining?,21,Testbed Communities,Asynchronous Learning Networks,ALN Research Site -,pilot site,Hypermedia,ACM SIGWEB,Human-Computer Interaction,ACM SIGCHI, British HCI Group,Human Sciences,(formally Home Economics),Kappa Omicron Nu Honor Society,Pennsylvania Dept. of Education,22,Outline,Motivation,Virtuality,Research Approach,Knowledge & Community,Learning & Community,Virtual Community Issues,Research Questions,C-KLASS Tools & Prototype,Evaluation,Conclusion,23,Developmental Research,No integrated tools to handle the diverse forms of knowledge sharing and learning.,No procedures for how to use such an infrastructure effectively.,- Community-KLASS prototype,(knowledge, learning and sharing support),24,Prototype Architecture,Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services,Integration,linking related documents,25,Prototype Architecture,Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services,Asynchronous Discussion Tools(Groupware),Integration,Discussing,a document,26,Prototype Architecture,Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services,Asynchronous Discussion Tools/Groupware,Hypermedia Services(tours, annotation, linking),Integration,Annotating a discussion,Tours of documents and discussion comments,27,Prototype Architecture,Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services,Asynchronous Discussion Tools,Hypermedia Services (tours, annotations, links),Processes/Workflows,Integration,Annotating and discussing a community,process,28,Integration,Tour documenting a decision analysis linking supporting documents;,Voting on a new process,Prototype Architecture,Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services,Asynchronous Discussion Tools,Hypermedia Services (tours, annotations, links),Processes/Workflows,Decision Analysis Support,29,Prototype Architecture,Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services,Asynchronous Discussion Tools Hypermedia Services,Processes/Workflows Decision Analysis Support,Conceptual Knowledge Structures(concept maps structuring discussions),30,Prototype Architecture,Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services,Asynchronous Discussion Tools Hypermedia Services,Processes/Workflows Decision Analysis Support,Conceptual Knowledge Structures(concept maps),Integration,Discussing, annotating, and linking documents to a CKS,31,Prototype Architecture,Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services,Asynchronous Discussion Tools Hypermedia Services,Processes/Workflows Decision Analysis Support,Conceptual Knowledge Structures,Others.,32,Prototype Architecture,Financial Transaction Support,charging for services (membership, workshops, training modules, copyrighted materials, supporting products),Marketplace may facilitate creation, participation, and sustainability for a larger community,Digital Video,form for representing knowledge,saves time in communication,33,Evaluation,focus on individual-level and community-level,Action Research:,work actively with participants,Propositions/hypotheses and measures,Formative Evaluation to assess/improve tools,(requirements analysis, usability testing),Summative Evaluation to assess usage, impacts, satisfaction,(direct observation, interviews, surveys, usage profiles),Pilots on ALN community,34,Contributions,in-depth technical and social analysis of supporting knowledge-sharing and learning within virtual communities,tools: integrated C-KLASS environment,procedures,approach for evaluating virtual communities,35,Further Research,room for lots of collaboration regarding issues and tools,approach applies to other communities (educational, within companies, government-sponsored),synergies with geo-local community informatics,36,In Conclusion,Why do people participate in virtual communities?,to attract customers/clients,for amusement,to socialize; find comfort (medical communities),to network, build contacts,to improve what you do (job, personal),find information/solve problems/learn from others,=,collaboration, knowledge-sharing and learning underlies most of these directly or indirectly,Research Question: How best to support this?,37,References,Cicourel, A. (1990). The integration of distributed knowledge in collaborative medical diagnosis. In J. Galegher, R. Kraut & C. Egido (Eds.) Intellectual teamwork: Social and technological foundations of cooperative work. (pp. 221-242.) Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.,Kollock. P. (1999) The economies of online cooperation: gifts and public goods in cyberspace. In. M. A. Smith and P. Kollock Communities in Cyberspace. Routledge London. 220-239.,McCown, R. R. & Driscoll, M. P. (1995). Using Collaborative Writing and Problem-Based Learning in the College Classroom. Proceedings of the Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Conference, 1995.,ONeill, D. K., & Gomez, L. M. (1994).The collaboratory notebook: A distributed knowledge-building environment for project-enhanced learning. In Proceedings of Ed-Media 94, Vancouver, BC.,Perkins, D.N. (1993). Person-plus: A distributed view of thinking and learning. In G. Salomon (Ed). Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations pp. 88-111.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.,Vygotsky, L. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA. MIT Press.,Wellman, (1997) An electronic group is virtually a social network. In S. Kiesler Culture of the Internet. Lawrence Earlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ. 179-208.,38,