ACQUIRING AND SHARING TACIT KNOWLEDGE IN E-LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS: THE STATE OF THE ART

Knowledge and technology are the two essential ingredients of the current knowledge economy. The education and employment sectors are deeply affected and learners are turning to what seems more effective to gain employability skills. With a growing rate of 32% in the United Kingdom in 2013, apprenticeship (face-to-face) programs continue to gain popularity and considered as best mechanisms for novices (learners) to hone their practical skills by acquiring tacit knowledge from masters (experts). Although, e-learning is widely adopted in many institutions of higher education and corporate universities for its undeniable benefits, critics persist on the suitability of such a medium that typifies indirect contacts to facilitate tacit knowledge sharing among experts and novices. Conversely, technology provides potent tools (social web tools, virtual reality, etc.) to reinforce human interaction and learning experiences in e-learning and those tools are argued to be adequate to support tacit knowledge flow. This paper presents the state of the art of IT-mediated knowledge sharing in e-learning focusing on tacit knowledge acquisition and transmission. It highlights the need of empirical studies on measuring online learners' tacit knowledge to bridge the gap on e-learning effectiveness. Indeed attempts made so far are not fully satisfactory since major assessments used, are not meant to reveal individual tacit knowledge gain. Therefore, an online student's expertise (know-how) level claimed in e-learning remains blurred.