Influence of psychological safety and social presence on knowledge sharing behavior in higher education online learning environment

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Putra Endi Catyanadika ◽  
Jay Rajasekera

Purpose The absence of physical interactions in online learning environment brings psychological influences on learning participants in interacting and sharing knowledge with others, such as ignorance of other member’s presence and insecurity to share something in online environment. The purpose of this research was to examine the knowledge sharing behavior (KSB) by online learning community members in terms of their psychological safety (PS) and social presence (SP) perceptions. In addition, this research also identified the influence of PS to promote SP and the mediation impact of SP in the relationships between PS and KSB. Design/methodology/approach The data were gathered through self-administered questionnaire distributed to 133 online class members at a university in Indonesia where online learning has created a new learning experience. To represent key behavioral attributes, 12 items were used to represent PS, SP and KSB. The relationships among the variables were analyzed using the structural equation modelling method. Findings The result showed that PS positively influenced SP and KSB. SP also brought a positive impact on promoting KSB and fully mediated the relationship between PS and KSB. Research limitations/implications The result may not have fully captured the reflection of the influencing factors of KSB, as this research focused only on two psychological factors, namely, PS and SP. The research may be further enriched by including additional factors and expanding the data collection to include more online learning institutions. Practical implications The results implied the importance of PS and SP perception to promoting KSB in online learning environments. The results highlighted an important message to universities and schools to be more concerned on students’ feeling safe personally and students’ awareness of others’ presence to maximize knowledge sharing activities in online class environment. Originality/value This paper revealed the importance of PS and SP to promote KSB in the higher education online learning community. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first study to link PS and SP to KSB and identify the importance of the mediation effect of SP on the relationship between PS and KSB specifically in higher education online learning environment.

Author(s):  
Rachelle Dene Poth

Studies have focused on social presence and its meaning in both traditional face-to-face classroom settings as well as an online learning environment. Technology usage is increasing in classrooms, making opportunities for learning available to many more people than in prior years. The theme of social presence continues to be studied as an important element in fostering student learning and growth. In particular, the focus is on the meaning of social presence, how to develop it as an instructor or learner in the learning community, and how social presence can positively impact all members of the learning community. The main questions that this chapter addresses are: Why study social presence? What is the meaning of social presence? What is the research behind social presence? How does an individual cultivate and project social presence in a learning environment?


2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shironica Karunanayaka

Online course delivery is rapidly growing among educational institutions all over the world, especially in Open and Distance Learning institutions. The frequent criticisms on distance education for having only limited interactions between teachers and students as opposed to traditional face to face teaching can be significantly minimized with the increased use of online methods, due to its unique instructional capabilities. Online learning provides ample opportunities for students learning at a distance to constantly interact with their teachers as well as peers, sharing experiences and working collaboratively. The creation of a sense of social presence is essential to establish a collaborative online learning environment, as it is a most important factor that helps people actively collaborate, thus increasing a sense of belonging to the learning community. The Faculty of Education of the Open University of Sri Lanka offered the online course, "Teacher Educator as an Educational Technologist" in December 2007, using the learning management system Moodle. The course was designed using a collaborative learning model, allowing adequate opportunities for the distant learners to actively engage in their learning process, engaging in a number of learning and assessment tasks with the support of learning resources and instructor guidance, while collaborating and sharing experiences among each other, mainly through discussion forums. Using the case study approach, an investigation was carried out to find out the specific strategies and techniques adopted by designers, instructors and students in enhancing community building among the participants in the online learning environment. It further explored the impact of community building on the distant learners, who were also novices to online learning. This paper discusses the development process in the building of an online learning community and emphasizes on the roles of designers, teachers, and learners.


2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 264-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Wdowik

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to create a synchronous online learning community through the use of Blackboard Collaborate! to promote and enhance transactional engagement outside the classroom. Design/methodology/approach – This paper employs a quantitative and qualitative approach where data were sourced from a third year finance unit across one semester using a survey instrument. SPSS v20 was used to perform basic descriptive analysis. Findings – The study revealed that by providing an online learning community through the use of Blackboard Collaborate! significantly enhances transactional engagement beyond the classroom. In particular the use of Blackboard Collaborate! allowed the teacher to be more accessible, supportive, expect and support high standards and provide challenging activities that generated rich and meaningful interactions and promoted higher order thinking skills. Research limitations/implications – The positive results emanating from this study may encourage other educators and their institutions to adopt a synchronous online learning community to enhance student's engagement levels and increase the quality of student learning and their university experience. This study was conducted at only one university so it may not be feasible to form generalisations resulting from the findings. Originality/value – This study adds new insights towards the scarce amount of literature on engagement in a blended learning environment. In particular the study adds a student perspective to the student engagement literature and to what constitutes quality in higher education and/or improved student experience.


Author(s):  
Susan J. Crim ◽  
Thomas G. Reio

Limited studies on social presence in online learning do not lend themselves to understanding its effects on student learning. Research indicates a heightened need for examining the relationship between social presence and perceived learning and satisfaction as well as retention in online courses. Incorporating social presence into online courses might promote better learning. Further research on learning in an online environment is necessary to guide educators in delivering the best educational environment.


2022 ◽  
pp. 341-362
Author(s):  
Murat Çoban

This chapter determines the social presence perceptions and motivation levels of higher education students participating in the online learning environment and reveals the possible causes that affect these variables. According to the findings obtained from the study in which the explanatory design was used among the mixed research methods, it was concluded that the social presence perceptions of the participants were lower compared to their motivation. Besides, it was found out that there is a positive relationship between social presence and motivation variables. According to the qualitative findings, the majority of the participants stated that they were not satisfied with distance education, encountered technical and hardware problems, and the online learning environment was not effective enough in the context of communication and interaction. The research results contribute to the literature in terms of the effectiveness of online learning environments.


Author(s):  
Rachelle Dene Poth

Studies have focused on social presence and its meaning in both traditional face-to-face classroom settings as well as an online learning environment. Technology usage is increasing in classrooms, making opportunities for learning available to many more people than in prior years. The theme of social presence continues to be studied as an important element in fostering student learning and growth. In particular, the focus is on the meaning of social presence, how to develop it as an instructor or learner in the learning community, and how social presence can positively impact all members of the learning community. The main questions that this chapter addresses are: Why study social presence? What is the meaning of social presence? What is the research behind social presence? How does an individual cultivate and project social presence in a learning environment?


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Cegarra-Sánchez ◽  
Ettore Bolisani ◽  
Juan-Gabriel Cegarra-Navarro ◽  
Eva Martínez Caro

Purpose An online learning community is defined as the context where knowledge sharing takes place virtually. Prior research has revealed that it is fundamentally important for higher education institutions to leverage on internal and external sources of knowledge, which can improve the value of relational capital. However, in a higher education setting, the positive effects of relationship improvement because of knowledge sharing can be jeopardized by the circulation of unverified information (i.e. counter-knowledge). The purpose of this study has been to analyse if online learning communities can counteract the effects of counterknowledge. Design/methodology/approach This study examined the relevance of online learning communities to counteract counter-knowledge, along with how this, in turn, can affect the creation of relational capital from the perspective of 210 undergraduate students using partial least squares. Findings Results support that online learning communities may help universities to not only create relational capital but also contribute to clarify misunderstandings and prevent counter-knowledge learned from badly informed sources. Originality/value There has been very limited research aimed at developing an adequate framework to analyze the role played by unverified information in universities. Therefore, this study fills this gap and proposes a framework focusing on the concept of online learning communities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 845-868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dah-Kwei Liou ◽  
Wen-Hai Chih ◽  
Chien-Yun Yuan ◽  
Chien-Yao Lin

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the factors from environmental level and personal level influence the knowledge sharing behavior and community participation. Design/methodology/approach – This research study, which consisted of 394 valid respondents who were members of the Yambol online test community, used online survey to collect data. This research used the structural equation modeling to analyze the data with good model fit. Findings – The results of this research showed the following: the anticipated reciprocal relationship, norm of reciprocity, and anticipated extrinsic rewards had a significant and positive effect on knowledge sharing behavior, respectively; knowledge sharing behavior had a significant and positive effect on community participation; knowledge sharing self-efficacy was the mediator between anticipated extrinsic rewards and knowledge sharing behavior; and community identification moderated the relationship between knowledge sharing behavior and community participation. Research limitations/implications – This study was a cross-sectional study. Future research can employ a longitudinal study to conduct long-term observations of knowledge sharing behavioral changes among members of the Yambol online test community. Moreover, this study applied social cognitive theory as the basis to explore the antecedents of knowledge sharing behavior of members of the Yambol online test community. Future research can apply a broad range of behavioral theory or combinations of research variables to explore comprehensive factors of knowledge sharing behavior. Practical implications – From a managerial standpoint, this study can assist professional online learning community in understanding the antecedents of knowledge sharing behavior and community participation from personal and environmental level. Social implications – Yambol online test community managers can enhance reciprocity relationship between members in the emotional level. In addition, Yambol online test community managers can use the appropriate norm of reciprocity to strengthen the trust of community members and enhance the knowledge sharing behavior of community members in the rational level. Originality/value – First, most scholars viewed knowledge sharing from perspectives of corporate, organizational, or a typical internet community, but rarely applied a perspective from a professional online learning community to conduct research. Therefore, this research focussed on professional online learning community as the research subject. Second, the literature review revealed that reciprocity divided into anticipated reciprocal relationship and norm of reciprocity. Previous studies have used anticipated reciprocal relationship or norm of reciprocity as research aspects for examining reciprocity; however, no other study has evaluated both concurrently. Third, studies on the behavioral dimension have included knowledge sharing behavior and community participation. This study examined the influence of knowledge sharing behavior on community participation. Additionally, community identification was the moderator of the effect of knowledge sharing behavior on community participation.


Author(s):  
J. M. Garg ◽  
Dinesh Valke ◽  
Max Overton

This chapter introduces the reader to a sample ‘User driven learning environment’ created in an online community with a special interest centred on trees and plants. It traces the development of an online learning community through the lived experiences and thoughts of its founding members and also includes conversational learning experiences of other users to illustrate the process of ‘user driven learning’ in online communities. It illustrates innovative sense making methodologies utilized by group members to create a more meaningful ‘User driven learning environment’ while simultaneously contributing in a positive way to create information resources at no cost along with creating awareness & scientific temper among members.


Author(s):  
Min Young Doo ◽  
Curtis Bonk ◽  
Heeok Heo

The significance of scaffolding in education has received considerable attention. Many studies have examined the effects of scaffolding with diverse groups of participants, purposes, learning outcomes, and learning environments. The purpose of this research was to conduct a meta-analysis of the effects of scaffolding on learning outcomes in an online learning environment in higher education. This meta-analysis included studies with 64 effect sizes from 18 journal articles published in English, in eight countries, from 2010 to 2019. The meta-analysis revealed that scaffolding in an online learning environment has a large and statistically significant effect on learning outcomes. The meta-cognitive domain yielded a larger effect size than did the affective and cognitive domains. In terms of types of scaffolding activities, meta-cognitive scaffolding outnumbered other types of scaffolding. Computers as a scaffolding source in an online learning environment were also more prevalent than were human instructors. In addition, scholars in the United States have produced a large portion of the scaffolding research. Finally, the academic area of language and literature has adopted scaffolding most widely. Given that effective scaffolding can improve the quality of learning in an online environment, the current research is expected to contribute to online learning outcomes and learning experiences.


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