Shireen Haron

Bio: Shireen Haron is an academic researcher from Universiti Teknologi MARA. The author has contributed to research in topics: Learning environment & Descriptive knowledge. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 13 publications receiving 114 citations.

Online knowledge sharing mechanisms: a systematic review of the state of the art literature and recommendations for future research

Abstract: Knowledge sharing is an activity through which knowledge, namely, information, skills, or expertise, is exchanged between people, friends, families, communities or organizations. Online knowledge sharing activities are flourishing with the advent of social media and digital life. However, despite of the importance of the online knowledge sharing methods and mechanisms, there is not any comprehensive and systematic study about studying and analyzing its important techniques. Therefore, the main aim of this paper, the comprehensive, detailed, and systematic study, and survey of the state-of-the-art knowledge sharing mechanisms in an online environments is provided. Also, this paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) on the online knowledge sharing literatures up to end of 2015. We identified 348 papers, which are reduced to 251 primary studies through our paper selection process. Also, the broad overview of the literature provides insights into potential areas for further research. By providing state-of-the-art information, this survey will directly support academics and practicing professionals in their understanding of developments in online knowledge sharing mechanisms and techniques.

Social media for environmental sustainability awareness in higher education

Abstract: Purpose The explosion of social media use such as Facebook among higher education students is deemed to have great potential in widely disseminating environmental sustainability awareness. The paper aims to capture, summarise, synthesise and comment on the role of social media to garner interest of students and staff on environmental sustainability issues. Design/methodology/approach Systematic literature review technique is adopted, and three selected online databases were searched for relevant papers for review. Specific data were extracted from each paper, and the discussion section was based on the developed research questions. Findings Higher education needs to fully leverage the ubiquity of social media to extend how environmental sustainability is viewed by the students and staff. Sustainability practices conducted at the university level such as recycling, reduction of electricity and water consumptions and paper reduction in classroom and used to engage students on environmental matters. For staff, social media can be leveraged as to convey the university policy and assist in their quest to become full-fledged green universities. Research limitations/implications Some of the limitations of this research include the lack of keyword search using synonyms or related terms equivalent to the term “awareness”, lack of forward and backward searches, and the papers were searched until end of 2013 only. Future research needs to take advantage of the current limitations to investigate this topic and be empirically supported by theories using quantitative, qualitative or mixed-method-based research. Future studies could also develop relevant frameworks to propose an effective use of social media for creating environmental sustainability awareness in higher education. Practical implications Propagations of environmental sustainability awareness in higher education would be more effective with the use of social media. Social implications In principle, the increase of environmental awareness level would increase the students’ good behavioural conduct on environmental sustainability. Originality/value While the broad topic of environmental sustainability in higher education is widely discussed, the role of social media in shaping environmental sustainability awareness is still under researched. This situation provides a significant potential for exploration by sustainability researchers to craft their investigation on the effective role of social media in creating environmental awareness in higher education.