Reusing Knowledge in Online Forums A Pilot Study

1. Reusing Knowledge in Online Forums A Pilot Study Lisa Soon Maryam Sarrafzadeh Kirsty Williamson

2. Lisa Soon Maryam Sarrafzadeh Kirsty Williamson

3. Overview • About this Research • Online Forum Knowledge Management • Research Design • Data Collection and Analysis • Findings and Discussion • Conclusions and Future Work

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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.

11. Findings • Facilitation of knowledge use can occur through developing 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

12. 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

13. 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.

14. Thank you