Managing Knowledge

Charles Shewell
Jun 1, 2023
3 min read

Introduction

Knowledge management (KM) refers in today’s world to the systematic process of capturing, organizing, storing, sharing, and utilization of knowledge within an organization or particular domain. "KM is an evolving discipline", (Jakubik & Muursepp, 2021). This involves creating an environment where knowledge can be shared effectively, accessible, and applied for decision-making enhancements, problem-solving, innovation, and organizational performance. “You can maximize efficiency and improve your teams’ decision-making abilities by harnessing your most valuable asset — employee expertise and knowledge”, (Starmind, 2020).

KM plays a role within education through multiple ways such as capturing and preserving knowledge, facilitating collaboration and sharing, supporting decision-making, promoting creativity and innovation, professional development enhancements, and supporting personalized learning. “Higher education may use knowledge management to improve efficiency, productivity, cooperation, and employee happiness while also encouraging high-level planning and innovation”, (Galgotia & Lakshmi, 2022). Through effective knowledge management, educational institutions can create adaptive and dynamic learning environments that empower the staff and students. "The most vital resource/asset in an organization is knowledge and the people who create knowledge", (Singh, Kukreja, & Kumar, 2022).

Knowing Your Role

Capturing & Preserving Knowledge

Institutions are able to capture and preserve knowledge and best practices through knowledge management, which includes the documentation of lesson plans and curriculum materials, research findings, and innovative methodologies. This helps institutions maintain continuity after educators leave.

Collaboration & Sharing

KN systems provide platforms and tools that enable collaboration and knowledge sharing, which promotes the exchanging of ideas, experiences, and resources for building up the overall quality of education.

Decision-making Support

Access to student performance data, academic research, emerging educational trends, and effective teaching practices are all benefits for educational leaders through knowledge management systems.

Innovation & Creativity

These are encouraged through providing platforms that allow educators and students to share ideas and practices, and collaboration through fostering a culture of innovation. Institutions can adapt to the changing needs by incorporating new technology and improving learning experiences for students.

Enhancing PD

KM systems can serve as resources for professional development that includes training material, online courses, and research publications that are accessible to educators for building their skills and staying up to date with pedagogical approaches, and continuous development.

Supporting Personalized Learning

Institutions can collect and analyze data from individual students’ learning preferences, strengths, and weaknesses to personalize instruction tailored to provide student support for improved learning outcomes and educational interventions.

Staying Relevant

KM emphasizes organization and structure of information and knowledge where instructional designers can effectively organize content. Through organization and structure, instructional designers are ensured that content is presented in coherent ways that facilitate retention. By aligning instructional content with specific learning outcomes, instructional designers can create materials that are targeted towards the desired outcomes and focused. KM emphasizes supportive learning environments that foster the sharing of knowledge for creating collaboration in order to actively engage learners with not only the content, but with their peers. Through continuous evaluation and feedback, KM helps with the effectiveness of resources such as formative assessments, and surveys for innovative learning experiences.

Websites Researched

Knowledge Management Products

References

Galgotia, D., & Lakshmi, N. (2022). Implementation of Knowledge Management in Higher Education: A Comparative Study of Private and Government Universities in India and Abroad. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.944153

Jakubik, M. and Müürsepp, P. (2022), "From knowledge to wisdom: will wisdom management replace knowledge management?", European Journal of Management and Business Economics, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 367-389. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJMBE-07-2021-0219

Singh, A., Kukreja, V. & Kumar, M. An empirical study to design an effective agile knowledge management framework. Multimed Tools Appl 82, 12191–12209 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-13871-3

Starmind. (2020, June 17). What Is Knowledge Management and Why Is It So Important? Www.starmind.ai. https://www.starmind.ai/resources/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-so-important