Abstract
This paper aims to reveal the determinants of the effectiveness of online discussion board systems (ODBSs) in eLearning environments to foster the interactions among the learners and/or instructors. A case in which an ODBS failed to foster the interactions among learners / instructors for knowledge sharing is introduced and hypotheses to explain the failure are developed based on thorough literature review in technology acceptance model (TAM) and knowledge hoarding. The hypotheses are tested via statistical analysis on the data collected from a questionnaire survey against the students who actually involved in the case study. The result shows that the low perceived usefulness of the ODBS by the students played major role in the failure of the system. Also it is hinted that network externalities as an intrinsic motivator is more effective than extrinsic motivators to increase the students’ activities on the ODBS. Finally the paper provides the designers of eLearning systems with advice for successful operation of ODBS in eLearning.
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Lee, H., Kim, J.W., Hackney, R. (2008). The Determinants of the Effectiveness of Online Discussion Board Systems in eLearning: A Case Study. In: Lytras, M.D., Carroll, J.M., Damiani, E., Tennyson, R.D. (eds) Emerging Technologies and Information Systems for the Knowledge Society. WSKS 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 5288. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87781-3_30
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87781-3_30
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-87780-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-87781-3
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