Designing Digital Spaces to Support Knowledge Exchange

TY - CONF

T1 - Designing Digital Spaces to Support Knowledge Exchange

AU - Maxwell, Deborah

AU - Gray, Colin

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - This paper presents two online studies designed to support the building of connections between a group of individuals prior to meeting face-to-face at an intensive residential workshop. The studies were conducted using off-the-shelf tools to create gated online spaces that were incrementally populated with facilitated activities designed to scaffold participant dialogue and interactions. Data gathered during the workshop and at follow-up interviews explored participants’ interactions, motivations for their level of involvement, and their perceived value of the online study. Findings indicate that a) domain based activities are most useful for driving engagement and b) bespoke platforms may be more appropriate than existing platforms. Whilst challenges remain in generating and maintaining engagement, participants who actively took part in the study found it valuable on both an individual basis and in supporting the development of group tacit knowledge.

AB - This paper presents two online studies designed to support the building of connections between a group of individuals prior to meeting face-to-face at an intensive residential workshop. The studies were conducted using off-the-shelf tools to create gated online spaces that were incrementally populated with facilitated activities designed to scaffold participant dialogue and interactions. Data gathered during the workshop and at follow-up interviews explored participants’ interactions, motivations for their level of involvement, and their perceived value of the online study. Findings indicate that a) domain based activities are most useful for driving engagement and b) bespoke platforms may be more appropriate than existing platforms. Whilst challenges remain in generating and maintaining engagement, participants who actively took part in the study found it valuable on both an individual basis and in supporting the development of group tacit knowledge.

KW - Knowledge exchange

KW - collaboration

KW - e-learning

KW - Communities of Practice

KW - group tacit knowledge

M3 - Paper

T2 - Fifth Annual Digital Economy All Hands Meeting (DE2014)

Y2 - 3 December 2014 through 5 December 2014

ER -