Designing collaborative learning and innovation systems for education professionals

Abstract

Designing online systems to stimulate and support knowledge exchange, collaborative learning and innovation in distributed communities of professionals is a challenging task. In this paper we document the design of CMTube, a system aimed at stimulating and supporting value-adding online interactions among a distributed group of independent higher education professionals using the same learning approach, i.e., a management simulation. CMTube is based on latest web trends and makes extensive use of video, profiling, game dynamics, agents and network visualizations in order to capture the attention and involvement of community members by generating three different types of value: connection value, actionable learning value, as well as entertainment and instant gratification value. We also discuss the assessment of these different value dimensions, as well as ongoing and planned research directions. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.