Keywords

knowledge sharing, virtual teams, online collaborative learning

Abstract

This study examined factors that might impact student knowledge sharing within virtual teams through online discussion boards. These factors included: trust, mutual influence, conflict, leadership, and cohesion. A path model was developed to determine whether relationships exist among knowledge sharing from asynchronous group discussion and the above five factors. In addition, this study examined if there are any relationships between quality and quantity of knowledge sharing and students' grades. A correlation design was conducted to discover if there are any relationships among these five factors and knowledge sharing within virtual teams. Participants in this study were 148 undergraduate students from two classes in the Health Services Administration program in the College of Health and Public Affairs. The two classes were asynchronous online courses and both instructors used virtual teaming in their online courses. Online interaction occurred via online discussion boards, email, and online chat rooms. The results indicate that mutual influence and team cohesion are two major factors that directly affect knowledge sharing within virtual teams. Conflict mediates the relationship between trust and knowledge sharing. Leadership was also found to have a strong relationship with team cohesion, which then had a relationship with knowledge sharing. As far as the relationship between quality and quantity of knowledge sharing and the student's grade, it was found that there is relationship between the quantity of knowledge sharing and students' grades, however, no significant relationship exists between quality of knowledge sharing and students' grades. The implications of this research for use of virtual teams in online distance education are also discussed.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2009

Advisor

Gunter, Glenda

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Education

Department

Educational Research, Technology and Leadership

Degree Program

Education

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0002960

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0002960

Language

English

Release Date

February 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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