Which personal values are most relevant to knowledge development through e-learning? insights from a Delphi study

This paper focuses on one of the factors that influences personal knowledge development in e-learning environments, namely personal values. It outlines a Delphi study in which the participating experts were asked what they consider to be the most relevant value types of the ten individual-level values of the Schwartz Value Survey (SVS) in the context of personal knowledge development in an e-learning environment. It is argued that due to the contextual situatedness of learning processes, the value types of the SVS differ in terms of importance and relevance to knowledge development through e-learning. In order to determine which value types are particularly relevant, a Delphi study was conducted. Particular care was taken to identify experts from the three main topic areas involved, namely knowledge management, personal values, and e-learning. The experts were presented with definitions of all ten value types and asked to identify a maximum of five types as being particularly relevant for knowledge development through e-learning. The results of the Delphi study show that the ten value types can be grouped into three clusters in terms of differing degrees of relevance for knowledge development in the context of e-learning. A high consensus was found among experts in that Achievement, Stimulation and Self-Direction were regarded as being particularly relevant in the investigated context. Less agreement was found for the value types of Hedonism, Benevolence and Conformity, which are considered to be particularly relevant by roughly a third of respondents. Finally, Tradition, Universalism, Security and Power are only relatively rarely regarded to be particularly relevant. The results suggest that the impact of personal values in a given context differs due to the characteristics of that particular situation. The findings help to understand the relevance of personal values to knowledge development through e-learning and the implications for the design of effective knowledge management systems as there is no one right way of designing them for different people, particularly if they are from different countries. An awareness of personal values and their impact on knowledge development is crucial to make knowledge management initiatives more effective and successful.