Knowledge Sharing and Learning
in Virtual Communities
Michael Bieber1 Ricki Goldman1
Roxanne Hiltz1 Il Im1
Ravi Paul1 Jenny Preece2 Ron Rice3
Ted Stohr4 Murray Turoff1
1New
Jersey Institute of Technology 3Rutgers University (SCILS)
2University of Maryland, Baltimore County 4Stevens Technical University
Outline
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Motivation
Virtuality
Research Approach
Knowledge & Community
Learning & Community
Virtual Community Issues
Research Questions
C-KLASS Tools & Prototype
Evaluation
Conclusion
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?
Goal
Increase effectiveness
by helping people
share knowledge and learn
through virtual communities
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]
Focus: Virtual Communities
around 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
Example Tasks (of individuals)
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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
Example Community Tasks
(e.g., within a professional society)
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running a conference
conducting elections
writing newsletter / submitting to the newsletter
making the budget
proposing & running a task force
recruiting new society members
Outline
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Motivation
Virtuality
Research Approach
Knowledge & Community
Learning & Community
Virtual Community Issues
Research Questions
C-KLASS Tools & Prototype
Evaluation
Conclusion
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
Outline
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Motivation
Virtuality
Research Approach
Knowledge & Community
Learning & Community
Virtual Community Issues
Research Questions
C-KLASS Tools & Prototype
Evaluation
Conclusion
Community Knowledge Resides in...
• documents
(published papers, reports,
photos, videos, lesson
plans, syllabi, etc.)
• discussions
• decisions
• conceptual models
• formal educational
modules
• workflows/processes
• people’s expertise
• links/relationships
among all these
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]
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 [O’Neill & Gomez 1994; Perkins 1993]
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]
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?
Outline
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Motivation
Virtuality
Research Approach
Knowledge & Community
Learning & Community
Virtual Community Issues
Research Questions
C-KLASS Tools & Prototype
Evaluation
Conclusion
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?
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?
Research Questions:
Improving Effectiveness
• What activities do members do?
• Barriers to knowledge-sharing and learning?
• Interfaces and media to improve activities?
Research Questions:
Sustainability & Scalability
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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?
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
Outline
•
•
•
•
•
•
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•
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Motivation
Virtuality
Research Approach
Knowledge & Community
Learning & Community
Virtual Community Issues
Research Questions
C-KLASS Tools & Prototype
Evaluation
Conclusion
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)
Prototype Architecture
• Digital Library:
Multimedia Document Services
Integration
linking
related
documents
Prototype Architecture
• Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services
• Asynchronous Discussion Tools
(Groupware)
Integration
Discussing
a document
Prototype Architecture
• Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services
• Asynchronous Discussion Tools/Groupware
• Hypermedia Services
(tours, annotation, linking)
Service Modules
Doc
Disc
H/ M
Doc
Disc
H/ M
Repo sit o r ies
Integration
Annotating a
discussion
Tours of
documents and
discussion
comments
Prototype Architecture
• Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services
• Asynchronous Discussion Tools
• Hypermedia Services (tours, annotations, links)
• Processes/Workflows
Service Modules
Doc
Disc
H/ M
Pr o c
Doc
Disc
H/ M
Pr o c
Repo sit o r ies
Integration
Annotating and
discussing a
community
process
Prototype Architecture
• Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services
• Asynchronous Discussion Tools
• Hypermedia Services (tours, annotations, links)
• Processes/Workflows
• Decision Analysis Support
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
• Processes/Workflows • Decision Analysis Support
• Conceptual Knowledge Structures
(concept maps structuring discussions)
Prototype Architecture
Integration
• Asynchronous Discussion Tools • Hypermedia Services Discussing,
annotating, and
• Processes/Workflows • Decision Analysis Support
linking
• Conceptual Knowledge Structures
documents to a
(concept maps)
CKS
• Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services
Prototype Architecture
• Digital Library: Multimedia Document Services
• Asynchronous Discussion Tools • Hypermedia Services
• Processes/Workflows • Decision Analysis Support
• Conceptual Knowledge Structures
• Others...
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
Evaluation
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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
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
Further Research
• room for lots of collaboration regarding issues
and tools
• approach applies to other communities
(educational, within companies, governmentsponsored)
• synergies with geo-local community informatics
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?
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 ProblemBased Learning in the College Classroom. Proceedings of the Computer Supported
Collaborative Learning Conference, 1995.
– O'Neill, D. K., & Gomez, L. M. (1994).The collaboratory notebook: A distributed
knowledge-building environment for project-enhanced learning. In Proceedings of EdMedia '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.