This design-based study was the first empirical investigation of a new model of learning and instruction called Knowledge Community and Inquiry (KCI). In KCI, students are engaged as a learning community as they work on scaffolded inquiry activities that target specific science learning objectives. Although community-oriented approaches have been successful at the elementary level, there has been relatively little uptake of such methods at the secondary school level – particularly in science. The pedagogical framework of KCI addresses the challenges of community models by blending established inquiry based approaches with community-oriented pedagogy. This dissertation tested the validity of KCI by designing, implementing, and empirically evaluating a curriculum based on the KCI model. This was achieved through curriculum trials involving two separate cohorts of grade-ten biology students (n = 102; n = 112). The first implementation consisted of a two-week physiology lesson that engaged students in co-authoring wiki artifacts about human system diseases, which students then used as a resource for solving medical case studies. The second implementation, an eight-week lesson on Canada's biodiversity, was a deeper application of the model, and focused on students' collaborative processes during the construction of their wiki-based knowledge repository. In both cases, the curriculum was evaluated according to its design, enactment, and learning outputs, as evidenced by students' knowledge artifacts and performance on the final exam. Technology scaffolds ensured that students focused on the physiology and biodiversity science curriculum expectations. Analyses of the data revealed that KCI engaged students in collaborative learning processes that were characteristic of a knowledge community. Additionally, final exam scores demonstrated increased learning performance when compared to those from previous years where students did not participate in KCI. The findings from this research provide the first empirical support for KCI, and demonstrate its potential for engaging secondary science students in the kinds of collaborative inquiry processes of authentic knowledge communities. This dissertation provides insight into the conditions necessary for such engagement, and contributes design recommendations for blending knowledge community and inquiry in secondary school science curriculum.

In this study, we integrate the theories of self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and social capital to identify individual and contextual factors that may exert effect on professional teachers' knowledge sharing behaviors in an Internet-based knowledge community. Data collected from 441 members of this community reveal that knowledge sharing self-efficacy has significant influence on knowledge sharing outcome expectancy, anxiety, and knowledge sharing behaviors. In addition, relational identity, i.e., the degree of social capital among members, is found to have positive effects on knowledge sharing self-efficacy and knowledge sharing behaviors. The implication of this study is that both the individual perceptions toward knowledge sharing and the interpersonal relational development are important predictors of ongoing knowledge sharing activities. The organizers of Internet-based knowledge communities should therefore focus on the development of members' resilient self-efficacy, favorable outcome expectancy, and strong relational identity if they wish knowledge sharing to be effective.

This thesis examines the role of epistemic cognition within the context of a Knowledge Community and Inquiry (KCI) curriculum for secondary science. The study employs a new form of design-based research, called Model-Based Design Research (MBDR), which first maps a formal pedagogical model onto the curriculum design, and then assesses how the enacted curriculum adheres to the design. The curriculum design was a ten-week Grade 11 Biology unit that met the Ontario Ministry requirements for evolution and biodiversity, and included activities situated within a unique immersive environment called EvoRoom. The thesis includes an assessment of students' epistemological views about science and science learning, and evaluates the epistemic commitments of KCI using a relevant theoretical framework of epistemic cognition. The analysis reveals the complex interconnections amongst the epistemological, pedagogical and technological elements of the design, resulting in recommendations for future design iterations as well as theoretical insights concerning the KCI model.

This thesis examines the role of epistemic cognition within the context of a Knowledge Community and Inquiry (KCI) curriculum for secondary science. The study employs a new form of design-based research, called Model-Based Design Research (MBDR), which first maps a formal pedagogical model onto the curriculum design, and then assesses how the enacted curriculum adheres to the design. The curriculum design was a ten-week Grade 11 Biology unit that met the Ontario Ministry requirements for evolution and biodiversity, and included activities situated within a unique immersive environment called EvoRoom. The thesis includes an assessment of students' epistemological views about science and science learning, and evaluates the epistemic commitments of KCI using a relevant theoretical framework of epistemic cognition. The analysis reveals the complex interconnections amongst the epistemological, pedagogical and technological elements of the design, resulting in recommendations for future design iterations as well as theoretical insights concerning the KCI model.

Die Nutzung von Social Media ist für Mitarbeiter längst zur Alltagsroutine geworden und drängt immer stärker in die Unternehmen und ihre Personalentwicklungsmaßnahmen (Gori & Robes, 2015). Aktuelle Forschungen von Franken & Franken (2015) zeigen deutlich, dass sich zukunftsorientierte Unternehmen verstärkt auf praxisorientiertes, in Arbeitsprozesse integriertes und computergestütztes Lernen fokussieren, um an die individuellen Bedarfe der Mitarbeiter angepasste Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen direkt am Arbeitsplatz zur Verfügung zu stellen. Dies führt zu einem zunehmenden Verschmelzen von Lern- und Arbeitsprozessen. Dabei sind Unternehmen mit einer ausgeprägten Lernkultur mit einer höheren Wahrscheinlichkeit innovativer, produktiver, liefern eine höhere Qualität und haben eine höhere Wahrscheinlichkeit, zu Marktführern in ihrer Branche zu gehören (Mallon, 2010). Wesentlicher Bestandteil dieser Lernkultur sind florierende, virtuelle, hochvernetzte unternehmensinterne Lern- und Wissenscommunities, in denen Kollaboration und Kooperation dominierende Arbeitsprinzipien sind. [... Einleitung]

Online Knowledge Communities, also known as online forum, are popular web-based tools that allow members to seek and share knowledge. Documents to answer varieties of questions are associated with the process of knowledge exchange. The social network of members in an Online Knowledge Community is an important factor to improve search precision. However, prior ranking functions don't handle this kind of document with using this information. In this study, we try to resolve the problem of finding authoritative documents for a user query within an Online Knowledge Community. Unlike prior ranking functions which consider either content based feature, hyperlink based feature, or document structure based feature, we explored the Online Knowledge Community social network structure and members social interaction activities to design features that can gauge the two major factors affecting user knowledge adoption decision: argument quality and source credibility. We then design a customized Genetic Algorithm to adjust the weights for new features we proposed. We compared the performance of our ranking strategy with several others baselines on a real world data www.vbcity.com/forums/. The evaluation results demonstrated that our method could improve the user search satisfaction with an obviously percentage. At the end, we concluded that our approach based on knowledge adoption model and Genetic Algorithm is a better ranking strategy in the Online Knowledge Community. / Master of Science

Cette recherche doctorale s’inscrit dans la problématique des nouvelles formes de médiation de l’information et des savoirs engendrées par les technologies du Web 2.0. Elle porte sur le terrain des blogs et vise à analyser leur rôle dans l’émergence de réseaux informationnels dans le domaine de l’information-documentation (info-doc). Plus particulièrement, notre étude porte sur la blogosphère info-doc française et non institutionnelle, c’est-à-dire sur les blogs tenus par des archivistes, des bibliothécaires, des documentalistes et des chercheurs, dans une position totalement détachée des institutions où ils travaillent. L’objectif est de déterminer quelle est la nature de ce réseau de blogs et quelles sont les formes de médiation qu’il exerce. Différentes analyses sont menées sur un corpus de 5 555 billets publiés par 68 blogueurs entre 2010 et 2012 : une analyse structurale, une analyse du contenu thématique, une analyse du discours, auxquelles s’ajoute une série d’entretiens semi-directifs. Les résultats montrent que cette blogosphère peut être considérée comme une communauté de savoir en ligne dont les membres partagent des connaissances, des savoir-faire et des expériences. Malgré l’hétérogénéité de leur profil, les blogueurs sont réunis autour d’un intérêt commun pour l’info-doc. Ils sont également réunis grâce à des « objets-frontières » et des « acteurs interfaces » qui créent des liens entre eux. En outre, leur activité de partage de connaissances passe par un processus de réification consistant à produire des documents. Les résultats montrent que les blogueurs produisent différents types de documents et exercent une mosaïque de médiations documentaires. À travers leurs pratiques info-communicationnelles ils construisent également leur « identité numérique » et leur présence en ligne et assurent la promotion de leur expertise. Cela engendre alors une autre forme de médiation : une « médiation identitaire ». Tout document publié au sein d’un blog d’expert est donc à la fois le produit d’une médiation documentaire et d’une médiation identitaire. / This doctoral research deals with the new forms of information and knowledge mediation resulted by Web 2.0 technologies. It focuses on blogs and investigates their role in the emergence of informational networks in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). The study conducted for this doctoral research focused on the French LIS non-institutional blogosphere, i.e. on blogs of archivists, librarians, knowledge managers, or researchers, maintained by themselves independently from any institution. The goal of the study was to define the character of this blog network and the type of information mediation it represents. A sample of 5 555 posts published by 68 bloggers between 2010 and 2012 was analyzed. The following types of analysis were applied: social network analysis, content analysis, discourse analysis, enriched by semi-structured interviews. The results show that this blogosphere might be considered as an online knowledge community whose members share knowledge, know-how, and experience. Despite their different backgrounds, bloggers gather around a common interest in LIS. They also gather thanks to “boundary objects” and “brokers” that provide a link and an interface between them. Moreover, their knowledge sharing activities require a reification process that involves a production of documents. The results of the study reveal that bloggers produce not only a wide range of documents, but also a mosaic of documentary mediations. Through their information and communication practices, bloggers also create their digital identities, build their online presence and promote their expertise. This performs another type of mediation: “identity mediation”. Therefore, any document published in an expert’s blog is subject to both a documentary and identity mediation.

Die Nutzung von Social Media ist für Mitarbeiter längst zur Alltagsroutine geworden und drängt immer stärker in die Unternehmen und ihre Personalentwicklungsmaßnahmen (Gori & Robes, 2015). Aktuelle Forschungen von Franken & Franken (2015) zeigen deutlich, dass sich zukunftsorientierte Unternehmen verstärkt auf praxisorientiertes, in Arbeitsprozesse integriertes und computergestütztes Lernen fokussieren, um an die individuellen Bedarfe der Mitarbeiter angepasste Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen direkt am Arbeitsplatz zur Verfügung zu stellen. Dies führt zu einem zunehmenden Verschmelzen von Lern- und Arbeitsprozessen. Dabei sind Unternehmen mit einer ausgeprägten Lernkultur mit einer höheren Wahrscheinlichkeit innovativer, produktiver, liefern eine höhere Qualität und haben eine höhere Wahrscheinlichkeit, zu Marktführern in ihrer Branche zu gehören (Mallon, 2010). Wesentlicher Bestandteil dieser Lernkultur sind florierende, virtuelle, hochvernetzte unternehmensinterne Lern- und Wissenscommunities, in denen Kollaboration und Kooperation dominierende Arbeitsprinzipien sind. [... Einleitung]

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