Keywords

1 Introduction

With the rapid development of information and communication technologies, technology-based collaborative learning (TBCL) is becoming important for improving the performance of teaching and learning in universities [1]. The popularity of TBCL is due to the benefits that collaboration technologies have providing learners with effective learning environments. The utilization of collaboration technologies can improve learners’ participation in collaborative learning. It can facilitate the sharing of learning information. To fully realize the benefits of collaboration technologies, many universities have integrated open learner models (OLMs) in their teaching and learning processes as a collaborative learning tool for promoting the engagement of learners in TBCL.

An OLM is a learning data visualization and collaboration tool. It can be used to visualize learners’ knowledge status and their misconceptions in a specific subject area [2]. The adoption of OLMs in TBCL allows learners to share their learning information and compare with each other’s progresses. It provides learners with an effective learning environment so that learners have an opportunity to develop their self-reflection and self-assessment skills. Furthermore, the use of an OLM in web-based educational settings has the potential to enhance the sharing and dissemination of learning information by facilitating inter-personal interaction and collaboration.

Despite the benefits of OLMs for facilitating the sharing of learning information in TBCL, the utilization of this technology is not encouraging [3]. Existing studies try to address this issue mainly through introducing new methods of interactions between OLMs and learners and suggesting different knowledge representation formats [2]. Few studies have empirically investigated the determinants of learners’ information sharing intentions in collaborative learning.

This study aims to investigate the determinants of learners’ information sharing intentions through the adoption of OLM. Scenario-based and web mediated prototyping is adopted for the introduction of OLM. Statistical analyses are performed on the data collected through an online survey. The result reveals that there is a significant positive relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, and the information sharing intention of learners in the adoption of OLM for improving the performance of collaborative learning. The findings can assist educational institutions to develop appropriate strategies and policies in their development of collaborative teaching and learning in TBCL.

2 Literature Review and Motivation

TBCL is a social interaction that involves the acquisition and sharing of experience and knowledge in a community of learners and instructors through the support of collaboration technologies [6]. It is becoming popular for improving learners’ cognitive performance and stimulating learners’ engagement in their knowledge construction [1]. In TBCL, the utilization of collaboration tools facilitates the sharing of learning information and encourages learners’ participations in learning. The successful implementation of TBCL depends on the willingness of learners to share learning information through the adoption of collaboration technologies [7].

Information sharing refers to the provision and acquisition of information between individuals [7]. Learners’ active involvements in generating and transferring information and making collaboration an essential and highly valued process are the prerequisite for the successful information sharing in TBCL [7]. Recognizing the importance of the collaboration tool in facilitating the sharing of learning information in TBCL, collaboration tool such as OLM have been introduced.

OLM is an effective collaboration tool for facilitating the sharing of learning information in TBCL [2]. It is used to visualize learners’ learning information such as learning progresses, knowledge status, competency, misconception, and concepts [2]. The benefit of adopting this tool is its ability to allow a direct engagement of learners with their own pedagogical models. This openness of the tool allows learners to directly contribute to the development and maintenance of their own content models. It facilitates the sharing of learning information by allowing stakeholders to have an opportunity to get involved in this pedagogical practice. Such a learning information exchange provides learners with opportunities to compare their own learner models with their stakeholders as well as enables learners to collaborate critical reflection [2].

Despite various benefits associated with the sharing of learning information through the utilization of OLM, there are many factors impeding the information sharing between learners. Often learning information is not shared effectively in OLM-based collaborative learning due to the low engagement rate on the utilization of OLM as a collaboration tool for sharing learning information in learning processes.

To address this issue, many initiatives have been proposed. Chen et al. [3], for example, represent OLM as animal companions to encourage learners’ engagement in collaborative learning. Kerly et al. [8] adopt a conversation agent in their adoption of OLM to facilitate collaboration between learners. These studies are conducted for improving learners’ motivation to utilize OLM to share their learning information with a focus on the technical issues of OLM such as the interaction method and the knowledge representation format [9]. There is a dearth of empirical studies from the perspective of learners. Little research has been done in investigating the determinants of learners’ information sharing intentions through the adoption of OLM.

Many studies have been conducted in identifying the determinants of learners’ information sharing intentions through the adoption of various collaboration tools. Hung and Cheng [4] investigate learners’ information sharing intentions through adopting social networks in virtual learning communities. Hwang [10] explores the factors that affect learners’ willingness to exchange learning information in the Backboard learning management system. Liu et al. [11] examine the determinants of learners’ readiness in sharing their learning information in the creative commons sharing platform. Table 1 presents a summary of the literature discussed above.

Table 1. Summary of the determinants that affect learners’ information sharing intentions
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The studies above in exploring the determinants of learners’ information sharing intentions focus on the adoption of different collaboration tools in TBCL. These studies show that learners’ willingness in sharing learning information is influenced by the features of the technology and the characteristics of learners [12, 13]. Different collaborative technologies have their own characteristics. As a result, the information sharing intention of learners in different collaboration technologies would be different [12, 13]. There is little research in the investigation of the determinants of learners’ information sharing intentions in OLM-based collaborative learning.

3 A Conceptual Framework

In OLM-based collaborative learning, learners are able to utilize the collaboration tool to perform various activities such as (a) sharing learning information, (b) accessing learning information, (c) comparing learning progress with peers, and (d) obtaining constructive feedback and assistance from peers and instructors [2]. To facilitate these activities, a well-design interface with simple and easy-to-use features as well as easy-to-understand learning information representation is essential [9].

With the comprehensive review of the related literature on the factors affecting the adoption of collaboration tools for information sharing, a conceptual framework consisting of trust, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness is developed for facilitating the investigation of the determinants of learners’ information sharing intentions through the adoption of OLM, given as in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.
figure 1

A conceptual framework for the information sharing intentions

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Trust is about an individual learners’ willingness in dealing with the risks which come from actions conducted by other learners in TBCL [11]. It is an influential factor that affects the willingness of learners in exchanging and disseminating their learning information [14]. Trust not only plays a critical role in promoting the dissemination and sharing of learning information and knowledge among learners. It also influences learners’ intentions for actively sharing learning information [11].

Trust can help to create and facilitate the formation of interpersonal relationships in the teaching and learning process, leading to effective knowledge creation and sharing [11]. It encourages the engagement of learners in TBCL. Trust allows learners to exchange learning information more effectively and efficiently. Existing research shows that the successful implementation of collaboration tools in facilitating the sharing of learning information is built on trust [14]. Tamjidyamcholo et al. [15], for example, reveal that trust is essential for creating a successful knowledge sharing atmosphere in virtual communities. Liu et al. [11] point out that trust has a significant effect on learners’ willingness to share their learning information for supporting the acquisition of knowledge and learning information. In OLM-based collaborative learning, learners’ willingness to share learning information would increase if a trust relationship can be built. The above argument leads to the following hypothesis:

  • H1. There is a positive and significant relationship between trust and the information sharing intention of learners in OLM-based collaborative learning.

The technology acceptance model is widely used for explaining the acceptance of collaboration tools for information sharing [4, 16]. In this situation, the perceived usefulness refers to an individual learner‘s belief of the likelihood with which information sharing behaviors can help improve his/her learning performance through the adoption of collaboration tools [1]. Learners’ intention to share their learning information through the adoption of collaboration tools would further increase if they are able to improve their academic performance [1]. Cheung and Vogel [16] show that learners’ willingness to actively engage in TBCL is affected by the usefulness of the collaboration tool. In OLM-based collaborative learning, learners’ willingness to share their learning information will increase if they are able to improve their academic performance through the adoption of OLM. If learners believe that the adoption of OLM for sharing their learning information can enhance their academic performance, their willingness to share learning information would be improved. Based on this discussion, the following hypothesis is proposed.

  • H2. There is a positive and significant relationship between perceived usefulness and the information sharing intention of learners in OLM-based collaborative learning.

The perceived ease of use is about the degree to which a learner believes that using collaboration tools for information sharing is free of efforts [16]. If learners are able to adopt a collaboration tool for information sharing without difficulties, the intention to share their learning information would be higher [17]. Cheung and Vogel [16] indicate that the perceived ease of use has a significant positive impact on the willingness of learners to adopt a collaboration tool in transferring learning information. In OLM-based collaborative learning, learners’ willingness to share their learning information through OLM would be encouraged if learners can utilize this collaboration tool without difficulties. Thus, the following hypothesis is presented.

  • H3. There is a positive and significant relationship between perceived ease of use and the information sharing intention of learners in OLM-based collaborative learning.

4 Research Design and Methodology

This study aims to investigate the determinants of information sharing intentions of learners in collaborative learning through the adoption of OLM. To achieve this objective, the research question is formulated as follows: What are the determinants of learners’ information sharing intentions through the adoption of OLM?

To adequately answer this question, a quantitative research design with a scenario-based and web-mediated prototyping tool is employed. Such a design is frequently used in human-computer interaction research for describing the design specifications and the functionality of a prototype [18, 19]. This technique is practical in the initial development of an information system where the feedback from learners would put into consideration [18, 19]. Scenario-based and web mediated prototyping is appropriate for the introduction of new information systems to specific users [18]. In this study, the description of the pedagogical features of OLM such as the functionalities and interaction tools for facilitating the sharing of learner information are made available for each respondent. This transparency affords the respondent to become aware of the adaptable features available in OLM for information sharing.

Surveys are commonly utilized for gathering information directly from respondents on their views, attitudes and behaviors about the adoption of specific technologies [21]. They are suitable for this study because direct questioning is used to investigate respondents’ acceptance on their adoption of OLM for information sharing.

The measurement items for measuring the perceived usefulness and the perceived ease of use are adopted from [22]. The construction of the trust measurement item is adopted from [23]. A seven-point Likert scale is employed for each statement ranging from one describing strongly disagree to seven to indicate strongly agree. Before administering the pilot study, the survey is reviewed by four experts to ensure the semantics correspondence between measurement items in the item pool and the underlying variables intended to be measured. The questionnaire consists of three parts. Part-1 involves the participant’s profile. Part-2 is about individual learning styles. Part-3 is related to OLM scenarios presented to each participant. The focus of these scenarios is to explore an individual learner’s acceptance of OLM for sharing learning information. A pilot study is conducted to test and validate the reliability of the questionnaire. Several of the original items are revised based on the test results. The improved version of the survey instrument is used for the actual study.

Convenience sampling [21] is adopted in this study because the selection of respondents is based on voluntary and availability [24]. The participants are undergraduate students with experience in engaging learning management systems in their studies in Malaysian universities. Obtaining the learning experience from these participants provides reliable data regarding their OLM acceptance for information sharing. This study employs a web-mediated survey to collect data from the participants. Before assessing learners’ acceptance of OLM for information sharing, participants are introduced to OLM through a scenario-based OLM prototype by using Adobe Captivate 7 [25]. The online survey is distributed to 270 undergraduate students in universities in Malaysia. A total of 235 participants have responded.

A correlation analysis is used for evaluating the strength and direction of the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, and information sharing intentions [26]. The use of correlation analysis is due its ability to show how strong these relationships are in OLM-based collaborative learning.

A multiple regression analysis is adopted for predicting the information sharing intention of learners in OLM-based collaboration learning [26]. The applicability of the correlation analysis in this study is due to its ability to investigate how well the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust are able to predict the information sharing intention of learners.

5 Data Analysis and Results

A correlation matrix for showing the strength and the direction of the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, and information sharing intentions of learners is presented in Table 2. The correlation coefficient (r) is used as the indicator for representing the strength and direction of the relationship. In the correlation analysis, the r value between 0.5 and +1.0 indicates a strong positive linear relationship [26]. The r value in Table 2 for all the factors ranging from 0.694 to 0.760 is more than +0.5. This shows that there is a strong positive linear relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, and information sharing intentions of learners. In particular, the highest r value of 0.76 between the perceived usefulness and the information sharing intention of learners indicates a strong positive relationship. This shows that learners’ perceived usefulness positively affects the information sharing intention of learners in OLM-based collaborative learning.

Table 2. The correlation coefficient of the factors that affect information sharing intentions
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The results of the multiple regression analysis for predicting learners’ information sharing intentions in OLM-based collaborative learning is presented in Table 3. The value of the variance inflation factor (VIF) for all the factors is less than 10 indicating that no factors are highly correlated between each other. This shows that the identified factors distinctly predict the information sharing intention of learners in OLM-based collaborative learning. The F-test is used to test the fitness of the regression model. A significant F-test value (F = 131.66, Sig. F < 0.01) implies that the research model is not much difference from the perfect base model.

Table 3. The statistical results of the multiple regression analysis
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Table 3 shows that the coefficient of determination R2 is 63.1 %. This indicates that the proposed factors in this study are able to predict 63.1 % of the information sharing intention of learners in OLM-based collaborative learning. The multiple regression analysis is applied to test the research hypotheses empirically through examine whether the beta values of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust are non-zero [26]. Significant and positive beta values imply strong support for the hypothesis. The higher the beta value is, the more influential the corresponding variable is on the information sharing intention of learners in OLM-based collaborative learning. Based on the information in Table 3, the corresponding beta values for perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust are 0.446, 0.163, and 0.022 respectively. As a result, hypotheses H1, H2 and H3 are all supported.

6 Discussion

This study aims to investigate the determinants of learners’ information sharing intentions through the adoption of OLM in TBCL. The findings show that the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust are critical for the information sharing intention of individual learners in OLM-based collaborative learning.

The perceived usefulness is critical in determining the willingness of learners to share their learning information through the use of OLM. This result is consistent with the finding in [27], suggesting that learners’ intention to share information would increase if they are able to improve their work by utilizing the collaboration tool in sharing learning information. The adoption of OLM in facilitating the sharing of learning information in TBCL are able to attract learners’ attentions because it helps promote learners’ self-reflection and improve their academic performance. This result suggests that educational institutions need to have experienced and properly trained OLM educators to promote the advantages of using OLM in fostering the sharing of learning information. Furthermore, explaining the benefit to learners about integrating OLM into TBCL would further enhance the adoption of OLM in TBCL.

The significant impact of the perceived ease of use on the information sharing intention of learners in OLM-based collaborative learning identified in this study is in line with previous findings in the information sharing literature [4]. The perceived ease of use plays an important role in determining the successful implementation of collaboration technologies in facilitating the sharing of learning information in TBCL. Learners are willing to adopt a technology for information sharing if they are able to use that technology without any difficulties [4]. The positive relationship between the perceived ease of use and the information sharing intention of learners suggests that OLM is considered as an easy-to-use collaboration tool for facilitating the sharing of learning information in TBCL. This means that OLM instructional designers need to design simple and easy-to-use OLM interfaces in order to encourage the active engagement of learners in sharing their learning information in TBCL.

Trust shows a significant relationship with the information sharing intention of learners in OLM-based collaborative learning. This finding is consistent with the previous studies including Chai and Kim’s [28] and Ye et al.’s [29]. Trust is critical for effective knowledge and information exchange [28–30]. In this study, the positive relationship between trust and information sharing intentions of learners reveals that the adoption of OLM can establish a learning environment in which learners can obtain reliable and trustworthy learning resources shared by each other learners.

The contributions of this study are twofold. Firstly, the study provides a better understanding of the determinants of learners’ information sharing intentions in OLM-based collaborative learning. Secondly, this study provides insight towards the adoption of OLM for information sharing from the perspective of learners. This can assist practitioners to apply appropriate instructional strategies for effective integration of OLM in TBCL. The research findings in this study have practical implications for educational institutions in the development of efficient and effective strategies and policies that promote the adoption of OLM for facilitating the sharing of learning information in collaborative learning.

7 Conclusions, Limitations and Future Research

This study examines the determinants of learners’ information sharing intentions in OLM-based collaborative learning. It shows that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust affect learners’ information sharing intentions in OLM-based collaborative learning. Such findings provide educational instructors with insights on the acceptance of OLM for information sharing in TBCL.

There are some limitations in this study. Firstly, the sample of this study is only from universities in Malaysia. To generalize the findings, the sample should be extended. Secondly, scenario-based and web-mediated prototyping is used in this study. Further study can be conducted in a real environment in which learners can reflect on their real experience in engaging with OLM tools for information sharing.