It is important to develop understanding of what underpins the engagement of students in online learning environments. This article reports on a multiple case study that explored student engagement in a set of postgraduate degrees offered on a fully online basis. The study was based on a theorization of student engagement as the exercise of intentional human action, .or agency. It identified ways in which tasks and social relations in the online learning environments triggered reflexivity on the part of students, with 'reflexivity' understood to mean the ordinary mental capacity to consider oneself in relation to one's social setting. A different relationship between reflexivity and student engagement was in view than that identified by Margaret Archer with regard to reflexivity and social mobility. Rather than displaying one dominant mode of reflexivity, the students considered in the study were seen to draw on a range of modes. The engagement of these students in their learning was also seen to depend on the manner in which they engaged in reflexivity centred on the pursuit of shared goals, that is in collective reflexivity. Specific practices were seen to trigger constructive forms of collective reflexivity, while fractured and restricted forms of collective reflexivity were linked to student disengagement in relation to joint tasks. As well as adverting to the importance of collective reflexivity to learning, the study highlights scope for dissonance between the modes of reflexivity and practices favoured by an online learning environment and the reflexive profile of the student.

The research described in this paper demonstrates how individual operational capabilities and the collective knowledge and expertise of a collaborative customer-supplier network can be harnessed to manage the challenges associated with the provision of a requisite level of product variety and customisation. It concerns the discussion and application of a previously published approach to the classification of collaborative networks, the justification of the extension to this approach and the use of the approach as a knowledge-based reference framework to demonstrate how product variety and customisation can be supported across different forms of collaborative customer-supplier networks. In addition, explanations are provided on how collaborative networks can be classified, on how their adaptive capabilities can be established, and on the characteristics and attributes that particular types of network require in order to handle their commitment to the provision of variety and customisation. IntroductionContinued success for many businesses is predicated on their ability to innovate new ideas and introduce new products. Global competition and the search for growth have created a business environment where sales can be rarely increased from a fixed range of products or markets. More often, sales growth is dependent on the ability of a business to stimulate an existing market or penetrate a different one by offering new choices. Consequently, product development has become more rapid, manufacturing systems have become more flexible and product proliferation and variety continue to increase. Differentiation of products has gone beyond the simple and prosaic categories of age, size, and gender to include regional and national tastes, aesthetics, and personal attributes and lifestyle. The management of the complexity associated with wide product diversity is often dependent on harnessing the knowledge and cooperative efforts of the members of a collaborative network (CN). This paper focuses on the utilisation of shared information and knowledge and the operational know-how involved in managing product variety across collaborative customer-supplier networks. More specifically, the aim of this research is to attempt to support decision-making in CNs by demonstrating how the effective execution of appropriate sales, production and supply-chain policies within and between network partners can be used to support the efficiency of the processes associated with the management of product variety. In addition, explanations are provided on how CNs can be classified, how their adaptive capabilities can be established and on how the characteristics and attributes that particular types of network require in order to handle their commitment to the provision of variety and customisation.Previous research on knowledge management in networks or supply chains is limited but where it does exist it has tended to focus on how (explicit) knowledge can be used to improve performance. Examples include Yuva (2002) and Wadhwa and Saxena (2005). T...

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