A Knowledge Management Model for Effective Knowledge Dissemination

Prachi Raje1, Seema Shah2

1 Lecturer, Dept of Computer Engg,

D. J. Sanghvi college of Engineering, Vile Parle (W), Mumbai - 400057

rajeprachi@gmail.com

2 Faculty, Patni Computers Systems, Mumbai

seema.shah@patni.com; 4.seema@gmail.com

Abstract

All institutions inherently store, access, and deliver knowledge in some or the other manner. Almost every institution in this country will make reference to the capturing of knowledge, the sharing of knowledge and the delivery of knowledge from faculty to students. Higher education institutions have significant opportunities to apply Knowledge Management (KM) practices in their profession. This paper discusses the basic concept of knowledge, its management, the techniques used to manage knowledge. We also present a model for enhancing the teaching learning process through knowledge management. Next we discuss importance of KM for educational institutes and the effective Knowledge dissemination plan for SVKM's D. J. Sanghvi COE. The model is based on the grid architecture which shares the existing underutilized resources and gets all available information under one roof .

Keywords: Knowledge, Knowledge Management (KM), Educational Institute, Grid

1. Introduction

With the growing cost for education and competition among educational institutes, it has become very important for organizations to recognize what they know, preserve it, share it and apply where possible. All institutions inherently store, access, and deliver knowledge in some manner. Almost all institutions in India will make reference to capturing, sharing and the delivery of knowledge from faculty to students. Higher education institutions have significant opportunities to apply knowledge management practices to support every part of their mission to educate the student fraternity [1 ].

In institutes KM is used to examine more effective ways to teach particular subjects and to track student grades, attendance patterns, and even suspension data. On college campuses, some administrators have focused on helping faculty and staff develop a set of practices to collect information and share what they know, leading to action that improves services and outcomes as part of a university-wide program review. Using KM in higher education can lead to better decision-making capabilities, reduced "product" development cycle time (for example, curriculum development and research), improved academic and administrative services, and reduced costs. The paper is organized as follows . In section 2 we first give a brief overview of knowledge management followed by a detailed account of the techniques used in the next section. In section 4 and 5 we describe the educational institute's perspective to KM and the proposed KM architecture respectively. The KM implementation and the KM dissemination plans are presented in the two subsequent sections 6 and 7. We next conclude the paper with closing remarks.

2. Overview of Knowledge Management

Knowledge is defined as "facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject" [5]. In knowledge-management circles, knowledge may refer to recorded information or to internalized information that is very difficult or impossible to record and communicate completely. In other words, the term knowledge is used very loosely. A popular framework for thinking about knowledge proposes two main types of knowledge, namely explicit and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is documented information that can facilitate action. It can be expressed in formal, shared language, for example formulas, equations, rules, and best practices. Explicit knowledge is packaged, easily codified, communicable, and transferable. On the other hand Tacit knowledge is know-how and learning embedded within the minds of the people in an organization. It involves perceptions, insights, experiences, and craftsmanship. Tacit knowledge is personal, context-specific, difficult to formalize, difficult to communicate and more difficult to transfer.

Knowledge Management comprises a range of practices used by organisations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning. Knowledge Management programs are typically tied to organisational