Facilitating peer knowledge modeling: Effects of a knowledge awareness tool on collaborative learning outcomes and processes

We report an empirical study where we investigated the effects, on the collaborative outcomes and processes, of a cognition-related awareness tool providing learners with cues about their peer’s level of prior knowledge. Sixty-four university students participated in a remote computer-mediated dyadic learning scenario. Co-learners were provided (or not) with a visual representation of their peer’s level of prior knowledge through what we refer to as a knowledge awareness tool (KAT). The results show that, providing co-learners with objective cues about the level of their peer’s prior knowledge positively impacts learning outcomes. In addition, this effect seems to be mediated by the fact that co-learners provided with these objective cues become more accurate in estimating their partner’s knowledge - accuracy that predicts higher outcomes. Analyses on the process level of the verbal interactions indicate that the KAT seems to sensitize co-learners to the fragile nature of their partner’s as well as their own prior knowledge. The beneficial effect of the KAT seems to mainly rely on this induction of epistemic uncertainty that implicitly triggers compensation socio-cognitive strategies; strategies that appear to be beneficial to the learning process.     

Cyber patients surfing the medical web: Computer-mediated medical knowledge and perceived benefits

Information and communication technologies have introduced new and impressive tools for information sharing and building computer-mediated knowledge repositories in a global context. Clinicians and researchers pay particular attention to technology as a promising tool to empower patients through self-health care management skills and to improve health care communication with providers. This represents a significant step in modern medicine of computer-integrated patient self-health care. This paper aims to examine perceived informational and decisional benefits of computer-mediated health and medical information, more specifically of cancer web-sites, and presents the results of two separate statistical models of perceived benefits. Multivariate hierarchical regression analyses showed that the frequency and time spent visiting medical web-sites are significant predictors of perceived benefits of computer-mediated knowledge. The results also indicated that computer-mediated medical information empowers health consumers to make informed decisions for their health care. The discussion section of the paper contextualizes the findings within the current sociomedical trends of self-health care and partnership with health providers. It is important to understand the perceived benefits of using computer-mediated medical knowledge, so that information and communication technologies can be targeted to educate patients to make informed decisions and to develop patient self-health-care management competencies.     

Social anxiety and computer-mediated communication during initial interactions: Implications for the hyperpersonal perspective

The study examined how the reduced nonverbal cues characteristic of computer-mediated communication (CMC) moderated the potentially negative interpersonal outcomes of social anxiety in initial interactions. Hypotheses predicted that CMC would mitigate the extent to which social anxiety caused interpersonal perceptions of anxiety and that CMC would attenuate the negative association between one’s social anxiety and one’s partner’s conversational satisfaction. A sample (N = 206) of undergraduate students were paired in unacquainted dyads and then engaged in initial interaction conversations in either a face-to-face (FtF) or CMC context. The researchers measured social anxiety before the conversation and a number of outcomes after the conversation. The results revealed that CMC is a significant contingent condition to the association between social anxiety and one’s partner’s perception of this anxiety and a contingent condition to the association between social anxiety and one’s partner’s conversational satisfaction.     

Experience beyond knowledge: Pragmatic e-learning systems design with learning experience

With the growing demand in e-learning system, traditional e-learning systems have dramatically evolved to provide more adaptive ways of learning, in terms of learning objectives, courses, individual learning processes, and so on. This paper reports on differences in learning experience from the learner’s perspectives when using an adaptive e-learning system, where the learner’s knowledge or skill level is used to configure the learning path. Central to this study is the evaluation of a dynamic content sequencing system (DCSS), with empirical outcomes being interpreted using Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory (i.e., Flow, Boredom, and Anxiety). A total of 80 participants carried out a one-way between-subject study controlled by the type of e-learning system (i.e., the DCSS vs. the non-DCSS). The results indicated that the lower or medium achievers gained certain benefits from the DCSS, whilst the high achievers in learning performance might suffer from boredom when using the DCSS. These contrasting findings can be suggested as a pragmatic design guideline for developing more engaging computer-based learning systems for unsupervised learning situations.     

A study of building a resource-based learning environment with the inquiry learning approach: Knowledge of family trees

This study aims to provide teachers with ways and means to facilitate learners to develop nomenclature knowledge of family trees through the establishment of resource-based learning environments (RBLEs). It discusses the design of an RBLE in the classroom by selecting an appropriate context with the assistance of computer-mediated learning resources and tools and employing the inquiry learning approach as the pedagogy. This study reports on the creation of the RBLE within the learning context of family trees. The computer-mediated learning resources and tools comprise three components: an audio-visual database for guided and coupled inquiry, an interactive interface for conceptualising the nomenclature and a tool for learners to construct their own family trees. Scaffolds were designed for an inquiry mode of learning and teaching to support the use of the resources and tools in learning about family trees. The learning and teaching process, including the outcomes for learners, through the RBLE with inquiry learning approach are studied. The findings of an interview and a pre-test/post-test study indicate that the RBLE can assist learners to build knowledge of family trees. The role of teachers in such an environment is to guide and encourage learners to inquire during the learning process.     

Knowledge and information awareness for initiating transactive memory system processes of computer-supported collaborating ad hoc groups

This paper presents an innovative approach for initiating processes of a transactive memory system in newly formed groups of experts collaborating computer-supported in a complex problem-solving task. Our empirical study compared 15 experimental and 15 control groups, each consisting of triads. In the experimental condition, the triads were provided with a tool for fostering knowledge and information awareness, that is, being informed about the knowledge and the underlying information of the collaboration partners in form of digital concept maps. In the control condition, the groups had no access to this tool. Results confirmed the potential of the tool to initiate processes of a transactive memory system: shared agreement of the knowledge of the other group members’ knowledge proved to influence group performance positively. In addition, previous findings of the tool’s potential to establish knowledge and information awareness and to augment group performance could be replicated. However, the postulated mediating effect of processes of a transactive memory system concerning the impact of knowledge and information awareness on group performance did not reach statistical significance. Aspects for future studies and implications of these findings regarding their practical implementation, for example, in teams of organizations, are discussed.     

Internal and contextual factors, knowledge processes and performance: From the Chinese provider’s perspective

This paper explores the influences of two internal factors, i.e. supplier team’s IT-based skills and communication with client’s team, and two contextual factors, i.e. supplier team’s understanding of client’s culture and collaboration with client’s team, on knowledge processes and performance in global sourcing of IT services from the Chinese provider’s perspective. Knowledge processes are characterized by knowledge sharing, knowledge-based coordination and expertise management, and performance is measured by product success and personal satisfaction. Data have been collected in 13 companies in Xi’an Software Park, with 26 in-depth, semi-structured interviews held with top and middle managers, and 200 structured questionnaires distributed to knowledge workers who are involved in global sourcing projects. The results indicate that supplier team’s IT-based skills, communication with client’s team, cultural understanding of client’s culture and collaboration with client’s team are positively associated with knowledge process and performance. Also, knowledge sharing, knowledge-based coordination and expertise management are found to be crucial for those influential factors to function positively and contribute to the performance. The findings of this study suggest that the effects of key factors on knowledge processes and performance in global sourcing of IT services appear to transcend the social and cultural differences; however, contextual factors seem to have more significant influences on knowledge processes and performance in global sourcing of IT services.     

An interactive tool for knowledge base refinement

We present a tool that combines two main trends of knowledge base refinement. The first is the construction of interactive knowledge acquisition tools and the second is the development of machine learning methods that automate this procedure. The tool presented here is interactive and gives experts the ability to evaluate an expert system and provide their own diagnoses on specific problems, when the expert system behaves erroneously. We also present a database scheme that supports the collection of specific instances. The second aspect of the tool is that knowledge base refinement and machine learning methods can be applied to the database, in order to automate the procedure refining the knowledge base. In this paper we examine the application of inductive learning algorithms within the proposed framework. Our main goal is to encourage the experts to evaluate expert systems and to introduce new knowledge, based on their experience.     

Automatic detection of accommodation steps as an indicator of knowledge maturing

Jointly working on shared digital artifacts - such as wikis - is a well-tried method of developing knowledge collectively within a group or organization. Our assumption is that such knowledge maturing is an accommodation process that can be measured by taking the writing process itself into account. This paper describes the development of a tool that detects accommodation automatically with the help of machine learning algorithms. We applied a software framework for task detection to the automatic identification of accommodation processes within a wiki. To set up the learning algorithms and test its performance, we conducted an empirical study, in which participants had to contribute to a wiki and, at the same time, identify their own tasks. Two domain experts evaluated the participants’ micro-tasks with regard to accommodation. We then applied an ontology-based task detection approach that identified accommodation with a rate of 79.12%. The potential use of our tool for measuring knowledge maturing online is discussed.     

Impact of two types of partner,perceived or actual,in human–human and human–agent interaction

Participants engaged in the Prisoner’s dilemma game with a partner through a computer terminal. We define two types of partner: a perceived partner and an actual partner, and manipulated the two factors independently. A perceived partner means a partner with whom participants imagined themselves to be interacting; instruction given by an experimenter controls the image of the perceived partner. An actual partner can change its behavior. In one scenario participants actually interacted with a human partner, in another scenario their partner was either a mostly cooperating computer agent or a mostly defecting computer agent. Three experiments were performed. The result suggested that the participants’ selection behavior was largely influenced by the instruction given about the partner by the experimenter and not influenced by the partner’s actual behavior. The analysis of the participants’ impressions of the partner showed that the effect of instruction about the partner disappeared. Individual likeability for a partner was very influenced by the partner’s behavior; as the participants incurred more defect actions from the partner, individual likeability for the partner decreased. On the other hand, social likeability for a partner was not so influenced by the partner’s behavior, but rather related to the participants’ own behavior. The participants who made more defect actions rated their partner’s social likeability lower.     

Online collaborative learning in dyads: Effects of knowledge distribution and awareness

Research on collaborative learning traditionally assumes a certain degree of symmetry between the learning partners in terms of both their learning-relevant traits and their individual learning outcomes. However, if one collaborative partner is clearly more able, skilled, or knowledgeable than the other partner, then it remains unclear who profits more from the collaboration. The present study aimed to explore this issue by manipulating symmetry in prior knowledge within small groups of online learners (dyads) and measuring their problem-solving efficiency and incidental learning gain on an individual and dyad level. Awareness of this symmetry/asymmetry was manipulated, too, to discern it as a potential moderator. Dyads with symmetrical and asymmetrical prior knowledge performed equally well on most measures. Moreover, on average, the more and the less knowledgeable partners in the asymmetrical conditions had equal learning gains. However, while in dyads with symmetrical knowledge learning gains were correlated between the partners, in the asymmetrical dyads they were not. Awareness of symmetry/asymmetry did not act as a moderator, but, overall, dyads with awareness of each other's knowledge learned more from each other than dyads without such awareness. The benefit of awareness was, however, specific to the learning content exposed via awareness. We conclude that researchers and practitioners should be careful when choosing or assigning collaborative partners to each other, as only for partners with symmetrical prior knowledge can a symmetrical increase in knowledge be expected. We further discuss the implications of these findings for research on knowledge awareness and collaboration.     

EGameFlow: A scale to measure learners’ enjoyment of e-learning games

In an effective e-learning game, the learner’s enjoyment acts as a catalyst to encourage his/her learning initiative. Therefore, the availability of a scale that effectively measures the enjoyment offered by e-learning games assist the game designer to understanding the strength and flaw of the game efficiently from the learner’s points of view. E-learning games are aimed at the achievement of learning objectives via the creation of a flow effect. Thus, this study is based on Sweetser’s & Wyeth’s framework to develop a more rigorous scale that assesses user enjoyment of e-learning games. The scale developed in the present study consists of eight dimensions: Immersion, social interaction, challenge, goal clarity, feedback, concentration, control, and knowledge improvement. Four learning games employed in a university’s online learning course “Introduction to Software Application” were used as the instruments of scale verification. Survey questionnaires were distributed to students taking the course and 166 valid samples were subsequently collected. The results showed that the validity and reliability of the scale, EGameFlow, were satisfactory. Thus, the measurement is an effective tool for evaluating the level of enjoyment provided by e-learning games to their users.     

Users’ attitudes toward Web-based collaborative learning systems for knowledge management

The Web-based technology is a potential tool for supported collaborative learning that may enrich learning performance, such as individual knowledge construction or group knowledge sharing. Thus, understanding Web-based collaborative learning for knowledge management is a critical issue. The present study is to investigate learners’ attitudes toward Web-based collaborative learning systems. Based on this research, the results of factor analysis show that five attitude factors (system functions, system satisfaction, collaborative activities, learners’ characteristics, and system acceptance) should be examined at the same time when building a Web-based collaborative learning system. The results also provide an acceptance model for understanding users’ behavioral intention of facilitating Web-based collaborative systems.     

Fostering the determinants of knowledge sharing in professional virtual communities

Professional virtual communities (PVCs), which are formed on the Internet, are expected to serve the needs of members for communication, information, and knowledge sharing. The executives of organizations should consider PVCs as a new innovation or knowledge pool since members share knowledge. However, many PVCs have failed due to members’ low willingness to share knowledge with other members. Thus, there is a need to understand and foster the determinants of members’ knowledge sharing behavior in PVCs. This study develops an integrated model designed to investigate and explain the relationships between contextual factors, personal perceptions of knowledge sharing, knowledge sharing behavior, and community loyalty. Empirical data was collected from three PVCs and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) to verify the fit of the hypothetical model. The results show that trust significantly influences knowledge sharing self-efficacy, perceived relative advantage and perceived compatibility, which in turn positively affect knowledge sharing behavior. Furthermore, the study finds that the norm of reciprocity does not significantly affect knowledge sharing behavior. The results of the study can be used to identify the motivation underlying individuals’ knowledge sharing behavior in PVCs. By investigating the impacts of contextual factors and personal perceptions on knowledge sharing behavior, the integrated model better explains behavior than other proposed models. This study might help executives of virtual communities and organizations to manage and promote these determinants of knowledge sharing to stimulate members’ willingness to share knowledge and enhance their virtual community loyalty. As only little empirical research has been conducted on the impact of knowledge sharing self-efficacy, perceived relative advantage, and perceived compatibility on the individual’s knowledge sharing behavior in PVCs, the empirical evidence reported here makes a valuable contribution in this highly important area.     

Serious games and learning effectiveness: The case of It’s a Deal!

Although the value of serious games in education is undeniable and the potential benefits of using video games as ideal companions to classroom instruction is unquestionable, there is still little consensus on the game features supporting learning effectiveness, the process by which games engage learners, and the types of learning outcomes that can be achieved through game play. Our aim in this discussion is precisely to advance in this direction by providing evidence of some of the factors influencing the learning effectiveness of a serious game called It’s a Deal! This serious game was created for the purpose of teaching intercultural business communication between Spaniards and Britons in business settings in which English is used as the lingua franca. This paper hypothesizes that the immersive, all-embracing and interactive learning environment provided by the video game to its users may contribute to develop and enhance their intercultural communicative competence. The study attempts to answer three main research questions: (a) after playing It’s a Deal!, did the students sampled improve their intercultural awareness, intercultural knowledge and intercultural communicative competence in business English? (b) If they improved their intercultural learning, what are the factors influencing such improvement? And (c) if they did not improve their intercultural learning, what are the factors influencing such failure? The game participants who volunteered to take part in the study were all students of English Studies at the University of Alicante in the academic year 2010-2011. One hundred and six students completed both the pre-test and the post-test questionnaires, and played It’s a Deal! A sample of fifty students was selected randomly for the empirical study. The results obtained in the tests performed were compared and contrasted intra-group, both qualitatively and quantitatively, for the purpose of finding any statistically significant difference that may confirm whether or not there was an improvement in the students’ intercultural communicative competence in business English as a result of the implementation of the It’s a Deal! serious game. Findings of this study demonstrate that the video game is an effective learning tool for the teaching of intercultural communication between Spaniards and Britons in business settings in which English is used as the lingua franca. In particular, whereas the game had a small learning effect on intercultural awareness and a medium learning effect on intercultural knowledge, it had a large learning effect on intercultural communicative competence. The study also documents correlating factors that make serious games effective, since it shows that the learning effectiveness of It’s a Deal! stems from the correct balance of the different dimensions involved in the creation of serious games, specifically instructional content, game dimensions, game cycle, debriefing, perceived educational value, transfer of learnt skills and intrinsic motivation.     

Constant round group key agreement protocols: A comparative study

The scope of this paper is to review and evaluate all constant round Group Key Agreement (GKA) protocols proposed so far in the literature. We have gathered all GKA protocols that require 1,2,3,4 and 5 rounds and examined their efficiency. In particular, we calculated each protocol’s computation and communication complexity and using proper assessments we compared their total energy cost. The evaluation of all protocols, interesting on its own, can also serve as a reference point for future works and contribute to the establishment of new, more efficient constant round protocols.     

Fostering sharing of unshared knowledge by having access to the collaborators’ meta-knowledge structures

The present experimental study focuses on two problems occurring in computer-supported collaborative learning situations: First, it has been empirically proven that groups discuss mainly shared information, that is, information already known to all group members, while unshared information, that is, information known to only one member, is often neglected. However, such unshared information could be task-relevant. Therefore, taking unshared information into consideration should be fostered. Second, Wegner’s theory of transactive memory system points out that groups perform better when the group members are informed about their collaborators’ knowledge. However, acquiring correct knowledge about what others know is difficult. An approach for solving these two problems is introduced which provides the group members with the collaborators’ meta-knowledge structures by means of digital concept maps. The study compares 20 triads with spatially distributed group members that had access to their collaborators’ meta-knowledge maps with 20 triads collaborating without these maps. Results showed, as expected, that the triads having been provided with such maps started sooner to discuss unshared information, applied more of their collaborators’ unshared information, and processed unshared information more deeply. Additional results, however, demonstrated in contrast to Wegner’s theory that being informed about the collaborators’ meta-knowledge is not sufficient to increase group performance.     

Mutual awareness in collaborative design: An Augmented Reality integrated telepresence system

Remote collaboration has become increasingly important and common in designers’ working routine. It is critical for geographically distributed designers to accurately perceive and comprehend other remote team members’ intentions and activities with a high level of awareness and presence as if they were working in the same room. More specifically, distributed cognition places emphasis on the social aspects of cognition and asserts that knowledge is distributed by placing memories, facts, or knowledge on objects, individuals, and tools in the environment they work. This paper proposes a new computer-mediated remote collaborative design system, TeleAR, to enhance the distributed cognition among remote designers by integrating Augmented Reality and telepresence technologies. This system can afford a high level externalization of shared resources, which includes gestures, design tools, design elements, and design materials. This paper further investigates how this system may affect designers’ communication and collaboration with focus on distributed cognition and mutual awareness. It also explores the critical communication-related issue addressed in the proposed system, including common ground and social capitals, perspective invariance, trust and spatial faithfulness.     

Students' views of collaboration and online participation in Knowledge Forum

This study examined students’ views of collaboration and learning, and investigated how these predict students’ online participation in a computer-supported learning environment. The participants were 521 secondary school students in Hong Kong, who took part in online collaborative inquiry conducted using Knowledge Forum™. We developed a questionnaire to assess the students’ views of their collaboration aligned with the knowledge-building perspective. We also administered the Learning Process Questionnaire to examine their preferred approaches to learning. The students’ online participation in Knowledge Forum was examined using the Analytic Toolkit software. Analyses indicated that students who viewed their collaboration as more aligned with collaborative knowledge building were more likely to employ a deep approach to learning. A structural equation model indicated that the students’ views of collaboration exerted a direct effect on online participation in Knowledge Forum and mediated the effects of deep approaches on forum participation. Implications of examining students’ views of collaboration for productive online participation are discussed.     

The role of social presence in learner-centered communicative language learning using synchronous computer-mediated communication: Experimental study

This study aimed to clarify the relationship between media, learners’ perception of social presence, and output in communicative learning using synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC). In this study, we developed four types of SCMC: videoconferencing (image and voice), audioconferencing (voice but no image), text chat with image (image but no voice), and plain text chat (no image and no voice). Each system allows learners to be conscious of and utter a target formulaic expression. I investigated the effect of each system on psychological perception and productive output as well as the relationship between perception and output. The results show that image and voice promote consciousness of natural communication and relief, while a text-mediated system enhances confidence in grammatical accuracy. In order to clarify the relationship between media, affective side, and output, path analysis was conducted using SPSS Amos 7.0. The results indicated that voice communication strongly affects both learners’ affective side and output. The existence of a partner’s image enhances the consciousness of natural communication, which leads to a number of self-corrections, an aspect of learning performance. However, voice communication has a negative effect on confidence in grammatical accuracy.