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Knowledge Management What is it? Why do you need to know? How do you support it? Kari Branjord, University of Minnesota Toru Iiyoshi, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Paul Treuer, University of Minnesota Duluth

Knowledge Management: Presentation Outline How should Higher Education integrate knowledge management tools and process? (Kari Branjord) National Agenda to Advance the Scholarship of Teaching (Toru Iiyoshi) Campus Implementation of Knowledge Management Tools (Paul Treuer) Summary and Questions

How should Higher Education integrate knowledge management tools and process? What is knowledge management? Why is knowledge management important in higher education? What are knowledge management tools in higher education? What is the framework for understanding knowledge management?

Framework for Knowledge Management Selectivity Repurposability Interoperability Individual Control and Ownership Openness

Selectivity Example: A researcher is completing a grant proposal. With whom should she collaborate? What should she include? How should she highlight her accomplishments? How does she hone her research question?

Selectivity defined Not all knowledge is created equal. Determine that which is important prior to moving forward. This includes the idea of compressing complex knowledge into a simpler presentation. Brown talks about not crushing knowledge under its own weight. This is not to say that it should be diluted; rather it should be distilled to its essence and presented in clear and obvious ways. Without forethought, the workgroup and/or institution will drown in information and knowledge and not be able to do anything about it.

Selectivity example 2 Enterprise Integration: How do you choose what to integrate? Criteria can include value to the individual, contribution to accelerating a process, credibility with the intended audience, etc. High value targets for integration are demographic data, academic records, job information, etc. Ideas I didn’t think about: Portfolio should integrate with RefWorks and del.icio.us

Repurposability A tenure track faculty member has created entries for every presentation he has given in his areas of interest. How can this information be reused? Tenure review Annual performance review Grant proposal Sharing with students Collaboration with peers What if it were granular enough to be (re)combined with other artifacts to tell a more compelling story?

Repurposability defined There are several concepts included in this term. Terms such as granularity, re-usability, and enter-once-use-many fall under this heading. In order for knowledge to be useful, it must be small enough to (re)combine with other pieces of knowledge, yet large enough to be meaningful. If individuals have to constantly re-enter knowledge or information that is already known to another system, sharing will diminish. No one has time to rehash the same stuff; individuals must be able to reuse the knowledge they have already documented.

Repurposability example 2 A medical resident creates a bibliography for a research project. She wants to continue to add to it as she develops research or personal interest in the area. She shares it: With peers to obtain further knowledge With her program director who can help focus her research even more effectively As part of her professional development records at annual review time In an application to be head resident

Interoperability Imagine the different roles a person plays in life. At each transition, he wants to preserve his history and continue to build upon his base of knowledge. A student starts a Portfolio as an undergraduate at the U of M. This student goes to Grad School at IU. Upon earning his PhD, he is awarded a tenure-track position at a UMD. As a tenured professor, he is involved in research, public engagement, and teaching. His knowledge never stops growing. This requires constant management and re-evaluation, as well as the ability to move his Portfolio information as he changes institutions.

Interoperability Defined Is a corollary to repurposability. It is not enough to be able to reuse collections of knowledge within a system; systems must be aware of the knowledge that other systems house and must be able to access it. This requires standards and integration technologies. Trusted sourcing and cross-system authentication is vital. Knowledge does not exist in just one domain; it must be permitted to “live” outside of a particular context, such as a class.

Individual Control and Ownership Defined Knowledge creation is an invisible activity that occurs in the human brain (Davenport, 1998). Only when this becomes explicit with supporting artifacts can it be shared. The knowledge that a person possesses or created is her own. It becomes more valuable, and the rate of acquisition accelerates when a person is participating in communities or groups. Thus, KM technologies, by definition, facilitate this sharing of knowledge in social networking. It is imperative, however, that the focus and highest level of consideration be given to the individuals rights to control and responsibilities to share.

Individual C & O example A professor has been pursuing a research interest for years. She wants to propose a new course in her department to share this knowledge. First, she selects artifacts to demonstrate that her area is significant and appropriate for undergraduate education. She pulls work products from her sponsored projects, her blog, her community of practice site, and her bibliography She shares the proposal and supporting documentation and ideas electronically with colleagues inside and outside her university. As she receives feedback, she modifies her proposal, continuing the cycle until she is satisfied that it is good enough to propose officially. Her new course is approved, and the learning objects she gathered populate her course web site, and the approved proposal is uploaded to the administrative systems.

Openness The information management group of a public institution has a very open, non-hierarchical environment. They work to ensure that everyone from the public to the president to the individual has access to the information needed in a context that makes it useful. Given this mission, their department culture contributes to knowledge management. Staff share their findings with one another. Holding knowledge is not power; sharing knowledge is powerful. No secrets are kept between the workers and the management. Ideas are documented and shared in all directions Prioritization of projects occurs as a group, using best practice methods to estimate size, duration, and value.

Openness defined KM technologies and processes must escape proprietary boundaries. This is not an advertisement for open source. This is to suggest that only when knowledge is shared and made explicit to all is it truly valuable. When it is exposed, others can comment and build upon it, make connections in new ways, and return the ideas and knowledge to the originator in enriched forms. While open source software is an example of this in practice, the connectedness the internet permits can enable all knowledge processes to behave this way.

National Agenda to Advance the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Mission, vision, and work of the Knowledge Media Laboratory (KML) of the Carnegie Foundation Scholarship of Teaching and Learning KEEP Toolkit, Workspace, and Knowledge Repositories Examples of Best Practices; Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate Howard Hughes Medical Institute Open Education: MERLOT, and OSPI

Knowledge Media Laboratory (KML): Mission, Vision, & Work The Carnegie Foundation’s Knowledge Media Laboratory helps educational institutions take advantage of the growing power of emerging technologies and new media to turn the knowledge implicit in effective teaching and learning into ideas, theories, and resources that can be used widely in a variety of contexts and situations.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Make teaching and leaning visible and public Review and reflect on each other’s work Learn and build on each other’s work

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Make teaching and leaning visible and public Review and reflect on each other’s work Learn and build on each other’s work How can technology support educational knowledge representation, sharing, and building? KEEP Toolkit Community Workspace Knowledge Repositories (Galleries & Exhibitions)

Make Teaching and Leaning Visible and Public Help select and organize resources, artifacts, data, and evidence related to teaching and learning Prompt analysis and reflection Help transform collections of “stuff” into compelling and engaging knowledge representations Help present individual and collective knowledge KEEP Toolkit (http://www.cfkeep.org)

Make Teaching and Leaning Visible and Public To examine, select and organize teaching and learning objects and transform them into visually appealing and intellectually engaging knowledge representation (with reflections) is a daunting task.

KM Framework #1: Selectivity The KEEP Toolkit provides the user with the necessary guidance and scaffolding for better selection, organization, reflection and representation through “flexibly-designed” templates (including frameworks, prompts and directions). Scholarship of T&L Project Course Transformation Class Anatomy

An Example Template (Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate)

KM Framework #2: Repurposability/Reusability An Example: Teacher Education

KM Framework #2: Repurposability/Reusability How can we use “captured” pedagogical knowledge and experience to study the use of OERs ? How can we make this process engaging, rewarding and sustaining that helps improve the quality of OERs? “Triple Play” in Teacher Education (Carnegie Quest Project) Teacher Educators Student Teachers Experienced Teachers

KM Framework #3: Interoperability/Portability KEEP Toolkit + Community Workspace (Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching)

KM Framework #4: Individual Control/Ownership Multi-layered knowledge representations for deep collective understanding (CASTL Campus Program, CASTL, CID, HHMI, and many others) Institutions Departments Link, stitch, exhibit, and remix knowledge representations and objects (Creative Commons?) Faculty Students

KM Framework #5: Openness Toward Building a National/International Distributed-Knowledge Network of Teaching and Learning CID Gallery MERLOT Gallery OSP Case Studies Gallery Smart Indexing & Federated- Search Tools KML Gallery CASTL Gallery KEEP Toolkit Users: 8,300+ Snapshots: 33,000+ Projects/Initiatives: 100+ Public Snapshot Archive

Implementing KM: Challenges and Issues Departments’, Faculty’s, and students’ lack of incentive Technical and intellectual challenges Time efficiency Return on investment Lack of support and guidance for the developmental reflective processes Knowledge representation “literacy” issues (reflective writing, multimedia composition, etc.) Sustainability

Implementing KM: Keys to Success Link KM initiatives with present and future needs (e.g., on-going transformation/reform efforts at your institution) Have stakeholders involved in planning and action Find/develop useful tools and resources to make your KM processes most efficient and painless (ideally engaging and rewarding) Invite key faculty/programs/departments to pilot Document and share successes and challenges Recognize excellence and make it public Build a support capacity to sustain your efforts

Campus Implementation of Knowledge Management Tools Vision: The University of Minnesota Duluth’s Knowledge Management Center (KMC) is committed to evaluation, assessment, development, and deployment of tools for managing personal, educational, and professional records. Chancellor Kathryn A. Martin speaking at KMC Grand Opening in August 2005

Campus Implementation of Knowledge Management Tools Students Faculty Staff UMD’s Knowledge Management Center

Best Practice: ePortfolio use by UMD’s Chemical Engineering Program Entry Wizard prompts students to put artifacts in ePortfolio Artifacts are repurposed for: Admission to program Graduation from program ABET accreditation Employment following graduation

Best Practice: ePortfolio use by UMD’s Chemical Engineering Program Selectivity Repurposability Interoperability Individual Control and ownership Openness

Best Practice: ePortfolio use by UMD’s Chemical Engineering Program Implementation Tips Chemical Engineering faculty identify portfolio learning artifacts for entry wizards and presentation templates Portfolio sharing is a requirement, used for summative purposes at key programmatic milestones All students are taught how to use portfolio in a freshman course. Faculty are taught how to use portfolio in short workshops. Course projects and assignments throughout program meet identified portfolio requirements

Best Practice: Health Services Use of Managed Information System Health Services enters and shares information and knowledge through MIS system, a web-based, password protected, database for entering and sharing: Strategic Objectives Measures Evaluation

Best Practice: Health Services Use of Managed Information System Health Services is part of Academic Support and Student Life (ASSL): Management by objectives Unit and Process Teams Quarterly Reviews Baldrige Assessments MIS System

Best Practice: Health Services Use of Managed Information System Selectivity Repurposability Interoperability Individual Control and Ownership Openness

Best Practice: Health Services Use of Managed Information System Implementation Tips The Health Services director, assisted by an administrative aide, developed strategies and measures The objectives and measures were peer reviewed The process of developing objectives and measures was done by all HS Staff. Results and evaluative comments are shared with HS staff, Group Leaders, Process Teams, and administrators Results are tied to unit planning process action steps

Emerging Best Practice: UM Enterprise System Advising Tools On-line UM System Advising Tools are integrated in ePortfolio platform: Advisee List APAS Report (degree Audit) Academic Profile in UM Advisor Reports College of Natural Resources Advising

Emerging Best Practice: UM Enterprise System Advising Tools On-line UM System Advising Tools are integrated in ePortfolio platform: Advisee List APAS Report (degree Audit) Academic Profile in UM Advisor Reports Grad Planner College of Natural Resources Advising

Knowledge Management: Summary and Questions Knowledge is created in an information-rich world through processes Technology facilitates creation and sharing of knowledge Higher Education is an environment where knowledge is created and shared KM is about contextualizing information and knowledge through the use of rapidly evolving on-line/electronic communication tools