Facilitating collaborative learning in distributed organizations

Authors:
Jim Greer;Gordon McCalla;Vive Kumar;Jason Collins;Paul Meagher
Affiliations:
ARIES Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada;ARIES Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada;ARIES Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada;ARIES Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada;ARIES Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Venue:
CSCL '97 Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Computer support for collaborative learning
Year:
1997

Citing 2
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Abstract

Increasingly, organizations are geographically distributed with activities coordinated and integrated through the use of information technology. Such organizations face constant change and the corresponding need for continual learning and renewal of their workers. In this paper we describe a system called PHelpS (Peer Help System) that facilitates workers in carrying out such "life long learning". When a worker runs into difficulty in carrying out a task, PHelpS provides a list of other workers who are ready, willing and able to help him or her. The worker then selects a particular helper with PHelpS supporting the subsequent help interaction. The PHelpS system acts as a facilitator to stimulate learning and collaboration, rather than as a directive agent imposing its perspectives on the workers.