GROUP MENTORING AND COLLABORATIVE KNOWLEDGE MODELING TO SUPPORT EXPERTISE SHARING IN UNIVERSITIES

Resum

This paper reports a small-scale experiment of a strategy designed to support the sharing of academic and professional expertise in a distance university. Two small groups of academic staff members (one of 4 professors and one of 5 instructional designers, each including experienced and new employees) volunteered to meet monthly over a one-year period to elaborate a collective knowledge map representing a portion of their professional knowledge. This tool- and peer-mediated mentoring activity created an informal learning context in which participants were encouraged to externalize and thus share some tacit as well as organisational explicit knowledge related to their professional practices.