A Review of Literature on Knowledge Management using ICT in Higher
Education
Prof. Ms. Ulka Toro(Gulavani) Dr. Milind J. Joshi Associate Professor, Bharati Vidyapeeth Systems Analyst, Institute of Management, Kolhapur. Computer Center, India, Shivaji University Email : [email protected] Kolhapur.
Abstract : The paper aims to survey the role of Knowledge Management (KM) using Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) in higher education by conducting literature review and classification of articles from 2000 to 2012 in order to explore how KM technologies and applications have been developed in
this period. The emergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the last decade has
opened new avenues in Knowledge Management that could play important roles in meeting the prevailing
challenges related to sharing, exchanging and disseminating knowledge and technologies in the higher
education. This paper provides a high level overview of KM using Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) in higher education. A critical analysis is done by studying attempts made by professionals to implement
KM using ICT in higher education .
Keywords: Knowledge, Knowledge Management, ICT, Network, higher education
1.Introduction : Knowledge is a capacity of people and communities
to continuously generate and renew themselves to
meet new challenges and opportunities. The growth
of the advanced service sector and the increasing
need of immaterial labour, have contributed
dramatically to change the way in which knowledge
is produced, disseminated and consumed.
Knowledge is a dynamic and smooth flow of
specialized experiences, values and insights. A
number of people, perceiving the value of measuring
intellectual assets, recognized the growing
importance of organizational knowledge as a
competitive asset. Universities and other higher
education institutions are involved in knowledge
creation, dissemination and learning hence they are recognized to be in the knowledge business.
.
Knowledge Management (KM) concept is
introduced in the beginning of 1990. Knowledge
management is concerned with the exploitation and development of the knowledge assets of an organization with a view to furthering the organization’s objectives Jennifer Rowley . KM is a
systematic, organized, explicit and deliberate
ongoing process of creating, disseminating,
applying, renewing and updating the knowledge for
achieving organizational objectives[Elias M. Awad
et. al., (2008). Knowledge management is
concerned with the exploitation and development of
the knowledge assets of an organization with a view
to furthering the organization’s objectives. The
knowledge to be managed includes both explicit,
documented knowledge, and tacit, subjective
knowledge. Management entails all of those
processes associated with the identification, sharing
and creation of knowledge. This requires systems for
the creation and maintenance of knowledge
repositories, and to cultivate and facilitate the
sharing of knowledge and organizational learning
Davenport et. al., (1998). KM has three basic
elements i.e. generation of new knowledge,
dissemination of the knowledge and application of
the knowledge. Organizational culture, technological
tools and human beings are the key elements
required for managing knowledge more effectively
for better education delivery in time phased manner,
Petrides et. al, (2003) . With KM higher education
institutes are better able to increase student retention and better graduate rates, work to analyze the cost
effective use of technology to meet more enrolment,
transform existing transaction based system to
provide information and compete in an environment
where institutions cross state and national borders to
meet student needs anytime/anywhere.
There have been many higher education
Institutions that have implemented KM principles,
methods, practices or tools. This paper provides a
high level of overview and attempts made by higher
education institutions about implementation of KM
using ICT. The rest of the paper is organized into
four sections . In the first section, overview is given
about the related work performed in higher
education related to KM using ICT , followed with
the tabular representation of different ICT tools and
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application area is discussed . Further findings and
suggestions are given and then paper is concluded.
2. Review of the related work in Knowledge
Management using ICT : ICT is a body of thought that focus on how
information is managed. A wide range of ICT tools
is used to create, codify and share knowledge across
both geographical and temporal boundaries. In this
section an attempt is made to conduct review of
literature related to implementation of KM using
ICT in higher education and then critical analysis is
done.
Jennifer Rowley (2000) made a study on
implementation of KM in higher Education in United Kingdom and reported that the existing
facilities like libraries , electronic collections of
learning materials, networks for e-mail
communication, and management information
system provide data on the student profile. With the
help of JANET network researchers and academic
staff have access to electronic documents, email,
access to network resources, training and awareness
etc. Jillinda J. Kidwell et al., (2001) stressed the
importance of KM techniques and technologies in
higher education which helps for decision-making
capabilities, reduced product development cycle
time i.e. curriculum development and research,
improved academic and administrative services and
reduced costs. He suggested to design web based
portal to offer the services such as research details,
curriculum development and its revision, faculty development programs, student services, career
placement services, alumni association services , for
accounting section and human resources details .
Saxena Anurag (2003) asserted the application of
KM technologies in different areas like study
material development data, student registration data,
support services data, study material production and
distribution data and evaluation and certification
data for distance education courses in IGNOU.
Through the work (John H. Milam , 2004)
emphasises the application of KM in higher
education with the help of web portal which is used
intensively for team collaboration and groupware,
natural language queries of data, sharing information
on best practices and anytime/anywhere online
learning. For sharing and distributing knowledge in
the organization, technologies suggested are data warehouses, data mining, and virtual reality
modelling to visualize and transcend extraordinarily
complex, transaction-based data. Rathinavelu et.
al.(2004) explored the importance of ICT to create
and share high quality multimedia contents through
web based knowledge sharing system by developing
Kshare system for collaborative learning among
teachers and students through intranet within the
institution to acquire, utilize and share knowledge by
using ICT.
A formal approach to the use of blogs as
learning spaces in the higher education sector has
been proposed by Jeremy B Williams, et al.(2004)
by conducting a survey about the usage of Blogs in
Harvard Law School, the Brisbane Graduate School
of Business (BGSB) at Queensland University of
Technology (QUT).In the paper, The
Implementation of Knowledge Management System
In Taiwan’s Higher Education, (Yaying Mary et al.,2005) states the application of knowledge
management systems in a private college in Taiwan,
which is facing administrative challenges and
cutting-edge competition. A complete technical and
organizational infrastructure is built by outsourcing
tailor-made Gweb e-KM solution software on Lotus
Domino System by creating a culture of
knowledge sharing using organization-wide
vocabulary. Jonice Oliveira et. al.[2005] has
proposed GCC - An environment for knowledge
management in Scientific Research and Higher
Education Centres.
Nory B. Jones et al.(2007) throws a light on
development of a web-portal to connect researchers
in university to fill a perceived gap in knowledge
sharing and accessibility within the University using
knowledge management methodologies. Web portal facilitate knowledge acquisition, sharing and
discovery by allowing people to publish documents,
share ideas, work collaboratively and store
information and knowledge in easily searchable
repositories. Neil Witt et al., (2007) in his study on
KM approach to developing communities of practice
amongst university and college staff suggested to
establish Higher Education Learning Partnerships
Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
(HELP CETL) to support staff involved in the
delivery of higher education level from foundation
degrees through a network of nineteen further
education colleges. To achieve this, a KM system
using a Community of Practice (CoP) Framework
was investigated and then employed as the key
HELP CETL communication and information
sharing tool. Prayong Thitithananon et al. (2007) explores an implementation of KM practices in
Thailand’s Higher Education development by using
ICT tools for improving the current education
systems in order to be agreement with the royal
decree of rules and regulations in excellence of
country management . Alok Sharma(2007) prepared
a software tool EDULOGIC for engineering
institutions for imparting quality education in a
highly structured, controlled and quantified manner.
The data, content and results produced over
contiguous years build the necessary ground for
managing the related accumulated knowledge for
students and faculty. Ruslai Abdullah[2007]
discussed the role of KMS for the benefit of faculty
communities in higher learning institutions to
promote knowledge sharing, storage and capture and
represent the knowledge. Author has further
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prepared a model of groupware facilitation for
knowledge sharing in higher learning institutions by
using K Portal, database server.
Noa Aharony (2008) made an investigation
on the use of Wiki in a Knowledge Management
Academic Course to support discussion during the
process of creating and sharing knowledge, for the
delivery of class curriculum and projects and to enable students and instructors to be in a continuous
discussion, which can be used as a knowledge
repository. The research is focused on comprising
wiki pages which were gathered from knowledge
management wiki course in Israel and aims to
explore and analyze the application and use of a
wiki, a key concept of Web 2.0 , in a knowledge
management academic course. Meena Kharatmal
(2009) has stated the objective of GNOWSYS for
managing library, knowledge management,
Information gateways(portals) and distributed
semantic grid for publishing knowledge. Using
GNOWSYS it is possible to develop semantic
network, concept graphs and circle diagrams .Frank
Nyame-Asiamah[2009] has stated to examine the
contributions and suitability of the available
knowledge management (KM) technologies, including the Web 2.0 for exploiting tacit
knowledge. It proposes an integrated framework for
extracting tacit knowledge in organisations, which
includes Web 2.0 technologies, KM tools,
organisational learning (OL) and Community of
Practice (CoP).
Thomas Bebensee et. al. (2009) explored
the Web 2.0 applications as a means of bolstering up
KM by conducting research in Germany by using
free Web 2.0 tools for collaborating and sharing files
with each other among students. Marjan
Mansourvar(2010) has stated that web portal as the
type of knowledge management system provides a
rich space to share and search information as well as
Communication services like free email or content
provision for the users. S.Rajlakshmi et al. (2011)
has prepared the Info-Ca-Sh dynamic web content
knowledge portal for information exchange of
knowledge among faculty and students. The knowledge portal Info-Ca-Sh focuses on the
improvement in knowledge collaboration,
codification, and social network analysis of higher
educational Institutions. Xiang Liu (2011) examines
how Chinese college students use Web 2.0
technologies for Personal knowledge management
and identifies existing problems in PKM
applications. Author also discussed the use of wiki
or blog to share or transfer knowledge. Nur Razia
Mohd Suradi(2011) has discussed about the
deployment of K-Portal by using open source tools
JOOMLA , PHP programming language , MySql as
database and Apache Tomcat as a web server. The
purpose is to catalyst centre of knowledge
information and encourage knowledge sharing
culture among academic staff, within UNISEL by
using K-Portal.
3. ICT Tools and Resources in Higher Education
: From the Related Work discussed above, it is
observed that KM uses ICT tools in higher
education for effective transfer and sharing of
knowledge. ICT tools are sued for communication,
collaboration, and networking functionality to
support knowledge capture, storage, structure and
distribution.
\Table1 : ICT Tools and Resources in Higher Education
Authors, Year Application Area ICT Tools
Jennifer Rowley (2000, 2006) Researchers and academic staff have access to
electronic documents , email, network resources ,
training and awareness , digitisation, pre-prints and
grey literature.
JANET network
Jillinda J. Kidwell, Karen M.
Vander Linde, Sandra L.
Johnson (2001)
Institutional Marketing, building community among
student and faculty, gateway for finding information
about university resources, curriculum development
and its revision, faculty development programs
Web based Portal , Lotus
Notes
Saxena Anurag , Khare, Pankaj,
and Misra, R.P. (2003)
Application of KM technologies in different areas
like study material development data, student
registration data, support services data, study
material production and distribution data and
evaluation and certification data for distance
education courses in IGNOU.
National digital repository
by IGNOU
John H. Milam (2004) Team collaboration and groupware, natural language
queries of data, sharing information on best practices
and anytime/anywhere online learning.
Web Portal , data
warehouses, data mining,
and virtual reality modelling
Rathinavelu et al(2004) Sharing of lecture notes, discussion forum,
WebOPAC, e-Books
K-Share web based
knowledge sharing tool
Jeremy B Williams, Joanne
Jacobs (2004)
Blogs for knowledge sharing purpose. Use of Blogs
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Yaying Mary (2005) By creating a culture of knowledge sharing using
organization-wide vocabulary.
Gweb e-KM solution
software on Lotus Domino
System
Jonice Oliveira, Jano M. de
Souza, Rodrigo Miranda, Sérgio Rodrigues [2005]
GCC: An Environment for Knowledge Management
in Scientific Research and Higher Education Centres
Personal Blogs and mental
maps , virtual communities
Alok Sharma , Harvinder Saini,
Raviteja Tiruvury[2007].
EDULOGIC - Used to check performance of
students and faculty and highlight the performance of
weaker group .
Software EDULOGIC
Nory B. Jones, Darylyne
Provost [2007]
To facilitate knowledge acquisition, sharing and
discovery by allowing people to publish documents,
share ideas, work collaboratively and store
information and knowledge in easily searchable
repositories.
University Research Web-
Based Knowledge Portal
Neil Witt, Anne McDermott,
Mike Peters and Mark Stone
[2007]
A Knowledge Management Approach to
Developing Communities of Practice amongst
University and College Staff
HELP CETL -
Communication and
Information Sharing Tool.
Prayong Thitithananon,
Tasapong Klaewthanong, Ubon
Ratchathani (2007).
To improve the current education systems Implementation of KM
practices in Thailand’s
Higher Education development by using ICT
tools
Ruslai Abdullah, (2007) Management of knowledge for student courses, to
improve internal document management, to increase
the level for information and knowledge
dissemination
K Portal, database server,
search engine,
videoconferencing,
discussion room
Noa Aharony[2008] Useful for creating and sharing knowledge, for
delivery of class curriculum and projects, useful to
support searching and indexing for retrieval of
information, used as a knowledge repository,
collaboration among students
Use of Wiki
Thomas Bebensee, Remko
Helms and Marco Spruit [2009]
Web 2.0 applications as a means of Bolstering up
Knowledge Management
Web 2.0 tools like Dropbox,
Google Docs , Spreadsheets
and Mindmeister, wikis,
GoogleApps etc.
Meena Kharatmal, Sandhya R.,
Nagarjuna G. [2009]
Information gateways(portals) ,distributed semantic
grid for publishing knowledge , data exchange , to
manage user profile, digital libraries, and to develop
semantic network, concept graphs, circle diagrams .
Web portal GNOWSYS
Frank Nyame-Asiamah[2009] Used to exploit tacit knowledge, provide access to
collaborative work capabilities, executive cognitive
support, enterprise knowledge portals, personal
information portal, & electronic discussion boards.
web 2.0 technology, web
based portal, SMS, PDA,
Marjan Mansourvar, Norizan
Mohd Yasin (2010)
Used to share and search information, to prepare
electronic catalogue, system integration & content
management.
Web Portal
S.Rajlakshmi et.al. (2011) The tacit and explicit knowledge of the registered
users , documents are shared and captured using web
portal.
Info-Ca-Sh dynamic web
content knowledge portal,
use of Blog and Twitter as tacit codification tools.
Xiang Liu (2011) Used for Students’ Personal Knowledge
Management
Web 2.0 Technology like
wiki or blog
Nur Razia Mohd Suradi, Hema
Subramaniam(2011)
To catalyst centre of core information, encourage
knowledge sharing culture, to discuss topics
regarding research interest group, Teaching material
details, collaboration details
K-Portal, open source tools
JOOMLA , PHP
programming language ,
MySql as database and
Apache Tomcat as a web
server.
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4. Findings & Suggestions :
From the above table it is clear that to facilitate
more expressive exchanging, sharing and
dissemination of knowledge and its management,
effective implementation of knowledge
management in higher education is required.
Colleges and universities have significant
opportunities to apply knowledge management
practices to support every part of their mission.
Good ICT infrastructure is an inevitable
precondition for any successful introduction of KM
approaches and methods into higher education.
Commonly used KM tools/ technologies are
Information and Communication Technology
(ICT), Knowledge-Based Systems, Data Mining,
Artificial Intelligence, Modeling, together with
their applications on different research and problem
domains. Faculties and students in higher education
uses ICT tools such as PPT, LCD, General
application software, Internet, Intranet, CDs, DVDs
etc. to distribute and share their knowledge. In
higher education institutions , web based
application tools uSed are Web Portal, Search
Engines, Blogs, Wiki, Chat session and
Discussion forums to share and generate
knowledge. ICT Tools and resources allow,
ubiquitous and multi channel access and delivery of
information, storing and retrieval of
data/information, development of interoperability
between systems, communication and exchange of
information in computer supported collaborative
learning. Also the approaches like data mining and
knowledge discovery open new avenues in higher
education for understanding the phenomenon and
more importantly in devising methods which will
ensure better teaching and learning process.
Kidwell et al (2000) asserted that if knowledge
management tools are applied effectively, they
could result in better decision-making capabilities,
reduced product development cycle time (for
example, curriculum development and research),
improved academic and administrative services,
and reduced costs.
5.Conclusion :
To face the competition and diminishing
supply of students, colleges can only survive by
creating core competencies in today’s environment
. Along with the technology to succeed in the usage
of knowledge management in higher education , it
is necessary that, the mind-set of people should
change from my knowledge to our knowledge. We
must try to make the institutional information base
accessible to all the members of the institution . If
we can develop collaboration and knowledge
sharing, it will be a great boo for institutions. The
requirement is proper cooperation, coordination
and collaboration among the employees in the
higher institution .
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