1. Building Bridges between Academic Tribes
Group blogging for young researchers across academic disciplines
Martin Rehm, Florian Henning, Joeri Bruynickx, Koen Beumer, Daniëlle Verstegen, Jeroen van Merriënboer
AECT 2012, Louisville

2. Blogs
• January 2009 - 133 million blogs (Meyer, 2010)
• “new form of mainstream personal
communication” (Rosenbloom, 2004)
• “distributedness” (Lave & Wenger, 1991)
• “collective intelligence” (Chu, Hwang, Tsai & Chen, 2009)
• Group Blog (Philip & Nicholls, 2009)

3. Academic Tribes
- Common Culture

5. SHARE-IT
• Support & Help for Academic REsearchers by using
Information Technology
• Generic Skills:
– archive one’s literature (e.g. Mendeley)
– statistical software packages (e.g. STATA)
• Sharing (tacit) knowledge
 Community of Practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991)

6. Element of Ownership
• “from researchers
- for researchers”
• “Talents” share information
– free from domain-specific jargon
– practical example (from own research)

7. Linking Virtual and
Actual Worlds
• positively influences the level
of activity & general level of
recognition amongst the
target group
(e.g. Klamma, Chatti, Duval, Hummel, Thora, Kravcik, et al., 2007)
• Linking up with workshop-type events at e.g. the
university library

8. (Rich) Media
• positively influence user
concentration and contribute
to user perceived learning
outcomes
(Liu, Liao & Pratt, 2009)
• interactive presentations
• screen recordings
• social bookmarking
• …

9. “Perpetual Beta”
(Procter, Williams, & Stewart, 2010)
Web 2.0 structures should
not be fixed and capable of
adapting to new trends &
demands
 “the principle of evolvability”
(Dron, 2007)

10. “If you build it,
will they come?”
• Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of
Technology (UTAUT) – 2 items
(Venkatesh, Morris, Gordon, & Davis, 2003)
+ Focus Group Meeting
• Individuals’ knowledge
sharing intentions (IKSI) – 10 items
(Bock, Zmund, Kim, & Lee, 2005)
• Respondents (N) = 18
– 9 Social Science
– 9 Health Science

11. Focus Group Meeting (UTAUT)
• “If the contributions remain to generic, the blog becomes
“just another collection of tricks and tools” that do not
provide guidance on how to effectively implement them
(Performance Expectancy)
• “The fact that all blog contributions will be openly accessible
on the internet can create a disincentive for young
researchers to contribute”
(Anxiety)
• “need for some sort of management of the blog (e.g.
maintainenance, sparking contributions, facilitating
discussions)
(Facilitating Conditions)

12. Behavioural Intention to Use the System
(UTAUT)
5,00
4,50
4,00
3,50
3,00
All Faculties
2,50 Social Science
Health Science
2,00
1,50
1,00
0,50
0,00
I intend to contribute to the blog in the next 3 months. I plan to use the blog in the next 3 months.

13. Anticipated Reciprocal Relationships (IKSI)
My knowledge sharing via the SHARE-IT blog would ...
5,00
4,50
4,00
3,50
3,00
All Faculties
2,50 Social Science
Health Science
2,00
1,50
1,00
0,50
0,00
… strengthen the ties between … get me well-acquainted with new … create strong relationships with … expand the scope of my
existing members in the university members in the organization. members who have common association with other members in
and myself. interests in the organization. the university.

14. Sense-of-Self Worth (IKSI)
My knowledge sharing via the SHARE-IT blog would ...
5,00
4,50
4,00
3,50
3,00
All Faculties
2,50 Social Science
Health Science
2,00
1,50
1,00
0,50
0,00
… help other members in the organization solve problems.

15. Attitude toward Knowledge Sharing (IKSI)
My knowledge sharing via the SHARE-IT blog would ...
5,00
4,50
4,00
3,50
3,00
All Faculties
2,50 Social Science
Health Science
2,00
1,50
1,00
0,50
0,00
… be an enjoyable experience. … be valuable to me. … be a wise move.

16. Subjective Norm (IKSI)
5,00
4,50
4,00
3,50
3,00
All Faculties
2,50 Social Science
Health Science
2,00
1,50
1,00
0,50
0,00
People who influence my behaviour think that I should share my People who are important to me think that I should share my knowledge
knowledge with colleagues. with colleagues.

17. Open Questions
• I think this is a fantastic initiative not only for Maastricht,
but the broader research community. […] I would love to
share my knowledge and hopefully help others to avoid
pitfalls that I've encountered! (Social Science)
• Although I learned from some blogs […], I do not see
myself blog about something yet. I do check the website
regularly. (Social Science)
• I think the blog is a good start. But training users of
technology is a secondary challenge. Multimedia resources
can go far for the "self-helper" but there's always room for
hands on learning and teaching. (Social Science)

19. The Way Forward …
• Integrate / branch off:
– Graduate Schools
– other target groups
• Bachelor Students http://www.newavenergy.com/img/ti-16-3431-
• Master Students 1_907.png
• Teacher Training
• Comparative Research Studies
• Suggestions?

20. rehm@merit.unu.edu