Help-seeking in communities of practice: Design and evaluation of a help system supporting knowledge sharing

Abstract

Due to the widespread use of information technologies, call centers for technical support are increasingly demanded and often overloaded. Interactive online help systems are considered to be a fruitful supplement to traditional support systems. The paper at hand proposes a conceptual frame for this alternative, based on knowledge sharing in communities of practice (CoPs). A literature review is done bringing together theoretical issues and recent research from the fields of CoPs and academic help seeking. Both approaches are well represented in the empirical research literature. While they are complementary, hence compatible to each other, their combination is not yet sufficiently explored from the psychological and educational point of view. To explore and foster help-seeking in CoPs, we developed a help system based on active participation and knowledge sharing between CoP members. The empirical part of this paper presents the evaluation of the help system, which is based on acceptance theories. The evaluation results are encouraging, and suggest possibilities of further development of the help system in the CoP context, as well as means to foster CoPs and support knowledge sharing. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.