Knowledge Management in the Communities of Practice of e-LearningAkila Sarirete National Institute of Computer Science Algiers
,
Algeria
A lot of research has been done to promote and develop good elearning models, practices, and technological environments. However, fewer efforts were deployed to support e-learning practitioners in performing their job on a day to day basis. There is a need to facilitate communication, collaboration, and coordination amongst e-learning community members. A strategic approach is to solve the problem of capitalization of techno-pedagogic knowledge, tacit and explicit, in the domain of e-learning within the framework of an online community of practice of e-learning (CoPE). The present thesis attempts to solve this problem by creating an individual memory and organizational memory for resources, information, and knowledge that need to be made available to the community members along with an ontology representing a uniform vocabulary for the CoPE. This work will contribute to scientific knowledge support by creating common framework for e-learning practitioners and proposing a new concept of learning theories.
Knowledge managemente-learningknowledge capitalizationCommunities of Practice of e-learningontologies1 Introduction
The use of new information and communication technologies (ICT) has changed
human interactions, their socio-economic structure, and, significantly, their way of
learning. Today we live in a knowledge information society where citizens require
fast services, better qualities, and improvement in efficiency and cost effectiveness.
Companies, schools, universities, and organizations of all sizes are now turning
towards e-learning as an efficient tool of training, learning and professional
development. The vast movement towards e-learning is clearly seen in the
development of large projects being launched all over the world. Organizations of all
sizes are now using e-learning as modern, efficient and flexible tool to support
learning. It is a significant development in content as well as in services through
learning management systems (LMS). Despite this level of interest and the fast
gaining momentum however, e-learning faces a number of challenges related to: i) the
difficulty in interpretation of domain concepts like the scenarios, learning situations,
activities, roles, etc. ii) the multiplicity of approaches, models, methods, techniques
and tools used in the development of the online systems, and iii) the heterogeneity of
learning platforms. The need for knowledge capitalization is then necessary in terms
of knowledge and know-how related to e-learning, its tools, the exchange resulting
from techno-pedagogic practices, and the collaboration between various e-learning
actors.
2
Research Problem
A promising direction in knowledge management (KM) is the use of a new approach
based on communities of practice concept (CoP). Several studies were interested in
online learning communities using course management systems such as Blackboard
(Develotte et al., 2004; La ferrière, 2005; Rosson, 2007; Tu et al.2002)
.
Nevertheless, to our knowledge, few studies targeted the Communities of Practice of
E-learning (CoPE)
(Russell et al. 2007)
and (Hung, 2002). Inspired from
organizational contexts, Russell et al. (2007) suggested setting up a CoP to define a
new way of work between the actors of the community. Hung (2002) suggested that
on-line technologies connect schools with real CoPs, and hence complementing the
students’ knowledge with the social factor of the communities.
Most of the research in knowledge management acknowledges that learning is
considered as a fundamental component
(Kimble et al., 2004; Wenger, 2004; Daele et
al., 2007)
. Recent research shows that CoPs play an important role in the management
of the tacit knowledge that the community members own
(Kimble et al., 2004;
Wenger, 2004)
. CoPs have several characteristics that distinguish them from formal
organizations and learning situations; such communities are groups of people who
share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, expand their practical
knowledge and expertise in the area under consideration, and interact on an ongoing
basis. In an environment of collaborative learning and knowledge sharing, community
members learn from each other by making their knowledge and practices explicit,
sharing them with their peers, and consequently reflecting on them. The main
objective of CoPs is to establish a structure where tacit and explicit knowledge are
shared and exchanged among various members within a given domain. The
interacting processes of participation and reification are considered as fundamental.
Participation forms the key element in the process of negotiation of meaning. It is the
process through which people become active participants in the practice of a
community. Reification means giving concrete form to something that is abstract.
Collaborative learning becomes powerful and exciting when it occurs in the context
of a community of practice. Today more CoPs use virtual environments to support
their activities. However, an online CoP requires more than simply transferring a
community of practice to an online environment. There is a need to establish a
technology infrastructure to support the functioning of online CoP to overcome
barriers that do not occur in face-to-face CoPs. The main challenge facing online
CoPs is how to best enable members to communicate, collaborate, and coordinate so
as to facilitate knowledge capture and its utilization. To meet these requirements an
individual memory and organizational memory for resources, information, and
knowledge need to be made available to the community members along with an
ontology representing a uniform vocabulary for the CoPE. This CoPE represents a
virtual space for exchanging, sharing, and resolving problems encountered by the
actors of the e-learning during all phases of an online learning system life cycle
(Chikh et al., 2007)
.
3
Research Question
The interest in e-learning presents rich, yet still not fully exploited, opportunities to
deliver high quality of learning. A lot of research has been done to promote and
develop good e-learning models, practices, and technological environments.
However, fewer efforts were deployed to support e-learning practitioners in
performing their job on a day to day basis. There is a need to facilitate
communication, collaboration, and coordination amongst e-learning community
members. A strategic approach is to solve the problem of capitalization of
technopedagogic knowledge, tacit and explicit, in the domain of e-learning within the
framework of an online community of practice of e-learning (CoPE). Capitalization is
the process by which members of the community can identify, locate, model, store,
access, use/reuse, share, update, and know-how to communicate the knowledge of the
community. Consequently, the main research question and sub-questions for this
study are as follows:
How to solve the problem of capitalization of techno-pedagogic knowledge, tacit and
explicit, in the domain of e-learning within the framework of an online community of
practice of e-learning (CoPE)?
Sub-questions are:
How do we represent a CoPE environment?
How can key stakeholders in a CoPE reach a shared conceptualization and
understanding of an e-learning system design for their organization?
How to define a new specification language for learning scenarios?
How can CoPEs being supported with technology in order to enhance the
process of learning in practice in the field of e-learning?
How can CoPE help instructional designer, teachers, students maximize the
acquisition and reuse of knowledge in the e-learning domain?
4
Objectives
The present research is part of the European project “PALETTE” (2006-2009) where
Algeria is a non-European partner. PALETTE project aims at facilitating exchanges
and learning in CoPs
(Palette, 2006)
. Our research team at the University of Tlemcen
is mainly working on the Communities of Practice of e-learning. The main objectives
of the research program are: 1) extend the application of CoPs to the e-learning field
and define CoPE and subsequent concepts in the domain of e-learning; 2) Provide
ontology for a uniform CoPEs vocabulary (Onto’CoPE); 3) define a new specification
language for learning scenarios in CoPEs (IMS-CLD); 4) provide a set of knowledge
management services that will support CoPEs’ activities; and finally 5) design an
architecture of virtual environment to support the CoPE activities.
The present Ph.D. thesis deals essentially with the relationship between
information, knowledge and community members, and how is it managed and
capitalized. In this scope CoPE is considered as a virtual space for exchanging,
sharing, and resolving problems encountered by the actors of the e-learning during the
phases of an online learning system life cycle. Figure 1 shows the environment of a
CoPE. Our work focuses on the capitalization of techno-pedagogic knowledge, tacit
and explicit, during the engineering phases of the online learning system life cycle
within the CoPE. We propose to manage this knowledge by creating individual and
organizational memory based on ontology for resources, information, and knowledge
that is vital for the community members. This research would shed light on
combining two important areas: community of practice and e-learning, and gain
deeper understanding of knowledge management in the CoPs of e-learning.
As the author is involved in the research team PALETTE/Algeria, our intention is
to contribute to the project and to conduct academic research for our Ph.D. thesis. The
work undertaken in this Ph.D. would certainly help in answering some of the
questions that the research project aims to resolve.
The methodology adopted in this study is based on action research. Action research is
an established research that simultaneously assists in practical problem solving and
expands scientific knowledge
(Baskerville, 1999)
. Action research is performed
collaboratively and enhances the competencies of the respective actors in the project.
In this action research we participate and act in the community of practice, and
simultaneously evaluate the results of this participation. This is a twofold objective: in
one hand we aim to understand/participate in the design of a community of practice of
e-learning, and on the other hand we aim to contribute to scientific knowledge by
creating common framework for e-learning practitioners and proposing a new concept
of learning theories. Figure 2 summarizes the phases undertaken for the Ph.D. thesis.
The wok was done in cycles: the first two cycles show the collaborative work within
the research team, while the third cycle highlights the steps undertaken within the
Ph.D. thesis along with the main contribution to the project.
Results
Four domains are involved and studied in the Palette project: management,
engineering, teaching and health. Our work comes under the teaching domain, more
specifically in the field of e-learning. We addressed the problem of capitalization of
techno-pedagogic knowledge, tacit and explicit within CoPE. Based on the action
research plan discussed above, the following elements have been completely or
partially completed:
Literature review: Communities of Practice, KM, e-learning, ontologies,
knowledge engineering
Contribution to the definition of CoPEs and the subsequent concepts in the
domain of e-learning.
Contribution in providing a uniform vocabulary for the CoPEs. This vocabulary
constitutes the ontology of the CoPE entitled Onto’CoPE.
Contribution in defining a new specification for learning scenarios in CoPEs
(IMS-CLD) based on IMS-LD.
Contributed to the definition of a generic structure for CoPEs along with a case
study for the project of distance education CoseLearn “Coopération Suisse en
matière de eLearning”
Proposed a semantic model for the modelization of learner profile and group
members in the CoPE
(Sarirete, 2007)
. A model for a generic learner profile was
developed CoPE taking into account the community factor, the learner
participation and knowledge reification.
Introduced an equilibrium model for learning
(Sarirete et al., 2008)
. The model is
based on the constructivist theory. This model has been analyzed and validated
using a course in computer networking and will be applied to an e-learning
community of practice.
Published articles/posters in international conferences.
Currently we are focusing on KM and Knowledge capitalization in CoPEs for the
engineering phases of an online learning system. We will propose a domain ontology
and apply it to the analysis phase of an online learning system, and building an
ontology-based community memory.
7 Conclusion
The interest in e-learning presents rich, yet still not fully exploited, opportunities to
deliver high quality of learning. A lot of research has been done to promote and
develop good e-learning models, practices, and technological environments.
However, fewer efforts were deployed to support e-learning practitioners in
performing their job on a day to day basis. In this thesis we focused on solving the
problem of capitalization of techno-pedagogic knowledge, tacit and explicit, in the
domain of e-learning within the framework of an online community of practice of
elearning (CoPE) by providing individual memory and organizational memory for
resources, information, and knowledge along with an ontology representing a uniform
vocabulary for the CoPE. The aim is to contribute to the learning process of
individuals and organizations especially in the educational world. We believe that
CoPs and social learning have a huge impact on learning as well on knowledge
sharing. We aim at contributing to scientific knowledge by creating common
framework for e-learning practitioners and proposing a new concept of learning
theories. This work will contribute in proposing technology support for the CoPEs
and the management of explicit and tacit techno-pedagogic knowledge in the
elearning field. The work will give an answer to how CoPEs would be supported with
technology in order to enhance the process of learning in practice in the e-learning
domain and how CoPE would help instructional designer, teachers and students
maximize the acquisition and reuse of knowledge.
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