A Case Study of a Knowledge-Sharing Web-Based Platform for Energy Education

Abstract

This study presented the implementation and development of a knowledge-sharing web-based platform for energy education, called “Energy Magician”. The web-based platform was designed for the students who participating in “Energy Saving and CO2 Reduction Innovation Contest” to share their experience and ideas of energy saving. The researchers applied a web-based survey to explore how the participants with different personal characteristics value the key factors of functional mechanism design, reward system, and knowledge sharing of the platform. The research found that the participants valued differently the various key factors such as the reward system, the platform's functional mechanisms, and sustained knowledge sharing. Participants in different groups with different background, such as prior experience in using the platform, usage duration, and degree of participation, valued the platform's reward system differently, Moreover, participants in different groups ordered the importance of the platform's functional mechanisms in distinct ways. As for the key factor of sustained knowledge sharing, the participants with prior experience in web-based knowledge sharing tended to emphasize the “fostering of the ability in data compilation”; elementary school students tended to emphasize “level titles and privileges” and “cash and prize rewards” while contestants with high degrees of participation tended to emphasize the “joy in knowledge sharing”, “joy in taking part in the contest”, and “level titles and privileges”. When building similar platforms in the future, it is recommended that the design should be differentiated in terms of the reward systems and platform functions and be tailored to the participants' characteristics, so as to maximize their effective use.