Abstract:

In this report/study, we are presenting our recent research on collaborative e-learning in student teams. The “Basic Business” e-learning content on the Open edX platform was designed to develop seven business competences – actuality, technology, marketing, competitors, finances, risks, and the ability to implement business ideas. The team members had to review the essays of their classmates and suggest improvements. Each student reviewed three essays. Each student received also a review from three classmates. Each student gathered knowledge from six sources – reviewing three essays, and being reviewed by three peers. The scope of the study embraces knowledge flows and the characteristics of flowing knowledge in a collaborative e-learning system. The objective of the study was to understand the factors that affect the knowledge flow and stickiness differences for different types of knowledge. The authors analyzed the students’ knowledge and its flow through a group of students. The analysis includes the stickiness of knowledge, student motivation, and the influence of peer-review for each skill. To find out the stickiness of knowledge, the authors compared the progress between parts of the task and the average progress for the whole task. The authors performed an assessment of each student’s essay before (initial version) and after the peer review designed final version. An assessment was made separately for each part of a student’s essay to find out the knowledge stickiness of each special skill. The analysis of stickiness was performed by comparing standard deviations and mean values - both for the initial and the final versions of essays. The students’ progress was presented in histograms. To analyze the influence of the motivation of the students’ performance, we divided the students into groups by the time when they completed the task. The authors analyzed the impact of peer-reviews on the development of the students’ competences. It included an assessment of each student’s given and received review quality and its correlation with the student’s achievements in developing his/her business idea. The study results show that there is a difference between knowledge types, their stickiness and impact on students’ motivation and cooperation for every evaluated skill. We analyzed the harvested knowledge landscape. The results are valuable for the course content and for improving its delivery.

Keywords:

Knowledge flow, collaborative learning, e-learning, knowledge stickiness, student motivation.