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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
1. How should Higher Education integrate

2.
3.
4.

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 didnt 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 enteronce-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 Foundations 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 others work
Learn and build on each others work

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

Make teaching and leaning visible and public
Review and reflect on each others work
Learn and build on each others 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

KEEP Toolkit
(http://www.cfkeep.org)

Help present individual and

collective knowledge

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

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

MERLOT Gallery

CID Gallery

OSP Case Studies Gallery

Smart Indexing &

FederatedSearch Tools
KML Gallery
CASTL Gallery

Public Snapshot Archive

KEEP Toolkit Users: 8,300+

Snapshots: 33,000+
Projects/Initiatives: 100+

Implementing KM: Challenges and Issues

Departments, Facultys, 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 Duluths
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
UMDs Knowledge Management Center

Best Practice: ePortfolio use by UMDs

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 UMDs

Chemical Engineering Program
Selectivity
Repurposability
Interoperability
Individual Control
and ownership
Openness

Best Practice: ePortfolio use by UMDs

Chemical Engineering Program
Implementation Tips
1. Chemical Engineering faculty identify portfolio learning
artifacts for entry wizards and presentation templates
2. Portfolio sharing is a requirement, used for summative
purposes at key programmatic milestones
3. All students are taught how to use portfolio in a freshman
course. Faculty are taught how to use portfolio in short
workshops.
4. 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