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