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CHAPTER 7
Conclusions and Future Works
Based on the results, comprehensive discussions, and suggestions of the above
three sub-studies, we now draw conclusions about this study and determine directions of
future research.
7.1 Conclusions
The following research objectives have been met:
1. We combined different interactive learning strategies and designed a series of
online knowledge-sharing discussion activities for teacher and learner
communities in an e-Learning environment.
2. We developed the WIDE-KM knowledge sharing platform, which combines
knowledge-sharing and e-Learning (see Appendix A) and provided empirical
observations.
3. Through three empirical studies and observations from 2004 to 2006, we
observed interactions in teacher and learner communities. We then analyzed the
behavioral patterns and limitations with quantitative and qualitative methods,
and discussed the discovered behavioral patterns, the depth of knowledge
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construction, and the limitations in discussions prior to interventions from
guiders.
4. We made in-depth analysis and compared the results of each sub-study, and
compared and analyzed different strategies and communities.
5. We provided specific suggestions for community discussion guiders and
strategy designers and researchers. The suggestions include when and how
guiders should intervene and how strategy designers could further refine
knowledge sharing strategies.
6. We also provided suggestions for developers of intelligent technology regarding
automatic feedback, automatic data mining, and forming a dynamic
pattern-monitoring knowledge sharing system for e-Learning context.
We wish our study to help combine the theories and practice of
knowledge-sharing, increase the width and depth of studies about e-Learning, adjust
and integrate the theories, develop tools based on behavioral patterns, and provide
specific guidance to community guiders.
7.2 Future Works
Our study has made novel and initial attempts to integrate knowledge-sharing
theories with the domain of “ e-Learning.”Therefore, there are many limitations and
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untapped areas in the study; the following are possible future studies or topics:
1. We discussed the process and patterns in community members’
knowledge-sharing. However, due to the limitations of the samples (students),
we focused more on the actual practice of project-based learning in higher
education (since this kind of course is most likely to use these
knowledge-sharing strategies). However, this limits generalization of our
research findings to other grade years or subjects. In the future, we will conduct
more empirical studies on different academic systems and domains in order to
determine the similarities, differences, and other features of the involved
behavioral patterns.
2. Regarding coding schemes used in the study, since the code-items in the IAM
coding scheme are abstract, coding biases may occur; this was also mentioned in
other studies (Marra, Moore & Klimczak, 2004). In order to reduce coding
biases, we have used qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct
triangulations and used the same raters, provided the same coding training, and
examined the reliability. However, to further increase the accuracy of the
analysis of quantitative content and sequential analysis, IAM or other coding
systems could be further refined or adjusted, and more coding systems could be
used at the same time for cross referencing in order to increase the overall
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