CohMat: Cross-Campus Collaborative Social Networking System for Knowledge Sharing

Abstract

Campus life affords learners time to interact and, in the process, discover new interests and passions in a particular field of study. Cross-campus interactions are now possible with the dynamic change in technology, increasing the scope for learners to collaboratively harness convergent study interests through knowledge sharing. While there are extant social networks (SN) like Facebook and WhatsApp with various technological affordances, many of these applications are general purpose and house people of diverse interests. Consequently, content shared on these platforms can be grouped into different categories, including Personal, Professional, Entertaining, Promotional, and Educational. Despite the richness of these platforms in content, learners still struggle to find information on specific topics, and if they do, they often land on stale information that is of little help in academic success. This research aims to develop a dedicated and collaborative networking platform that connects learners across campus based on their study interests. Once connected, learners can share knowledge and get real-time peer-to-peer assistance to enhance competency in their study interests. As such, CohMat for ‘Cohort Match’ is developed to help in achieving this objective. The application is based on the main assumption that the learners' interest changes based on what one is learning at each particular time, supporting both one-to-one and one-to-many communications. The project could help new students find their study community within multiple institutions with ease. The collaboration will encourage learners to improve their competency in a particular area of interest and become more skillful in the job market.