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Knowledge Management Through Academic Portal: A Case Study of IIT Madras
Knowledge Management Through Academic Portal: A Case Study of IIT Madras
to individual needs, can be accessed by the users ticles, e-reserves, e-archives, databases, e-
via intranet or internet. Thus, it can be used as an books, e-dissertations, library catalogues,
interface to provide relevant data from a central and the university’s research database. Per-
source, through secure and password-protected sonal information sources should also be
entry. Password-protection is highly necessary be- available, for example, experts and informa-
cause the system can immediately identify its users tion specialists, etc.
and restrict unauthorized access to authorized ar-
The portal should provide: Web search en-
eas. Hence, once registered, a user can both access
gines, global search function, list servers, chat
and add information directly into the database, mak-
rooms, e-mail, adding of URLs, interface with
ing it a powerful tool for data management and up-
document delivery and inter library loan sys-
dating the database immediately and ensuring that
tems.
all information is current. The other benefits of the
e-portal include—easy access from any internet or Academics should be able to evaluate and
intranet connection, quick and easily available in- add information sources to the portal.
formation, involvement of parents and peers in the 2.1 Knowledge Management through Academic
educational processes, monitoring of self-progress,
Portal
simple interface for easy data input, improvised com-
munications between policy makers and other stake- The most popular form of knowledge management
holders and so on. technology that provides a secure central space
where staff, users, administrators, partners, and sup-
2. Academic Portals pliers can exchange information, share knowledge,
According to Pienaar (2003), to support academics’ and guide each other is the portal (Jotwani, 2005). It
personal knowledge management in an integrated is a networked platform that presents the knowl-
way, the academic portal must have the following edge resources and services to its users. It provides
characteristics: easy-to-use information discovery and management
systems. The following table (Table 1) shows the
The type of portal must be a combination of
possible influence of academic portals on the knowl-
a vertical portal (vortal) and a corporate or
edge management processes.
enterprise information portal.
focus on technology but also need to create a to proceed towards knowledge management. It can
‘knowledge sharing culture’ among the community.” provide a number of learning tools, including a
course content management, a course calendar, an
2.1.3 Portals in knowledge storing
online discussion board, information announcement,
Each and every piece of experience and knowledge reviews, auto-marked quizzes and exams, grade main-
is precious. Academic institutions are the aura of tenance and distribution, student progress track-
knowledge. But, very frequently we lose this knowl- ing, navigation tools, access control, online assign-
edge due to lack of proper storage of knowledge ment, electronic mail, chat room, etc. It is such a
and knowledge management culture. Scientific in- platform which provides the facility of interaction
formation and knowledge can be stored electroni- among knowledge holders and seekers. Indeed, the
cally and made available on the academic portal. portal technology can be combined with the pro-
For that institutional repositories and digital librar- cesses of knowledge management.
ies can be linked with the portal itself to store the
3. Objective of the Study
academic information and knowledge. Portals can
provide knowledge repository with filtering func- The study aims to investigate students’ perceptions
tion aim to store and disseminate relevant informa- of using academic portals as knowledge manage-
tion. This feature belongs to the element of asset ment tools at IIT Madras.
management. Moreover, academic institutions can
4. Research Questions
maintain their own wikis on the portal itself for stor-
age of knowledge. Similarly, faculties and research- The study is motivated with the following research
ers can maintain their own blogs for updating and questions:
storing their research outputs.
Are the students aware about the institutional
2.1.4 Portals in knowledge utilization academic portals?
Knowledge is worthless until and unless it is uti- What are the features of those portals and to
lized. Therefore, National Aeronautics and Space what extent these are used by the students?
Administration (NASA) has defined knowledge
Do students find the portals important for
management as, getting right information to the right
their academic purposes?
people at the right time. Portals provide sophisti-
cated web search engines for the end users. Also, Are the portals user-friendly?
traditional databases can be made available on the Do the portals support electronic scholarly
portal. The portals can be linked with the reference communication?
librarian for consultation for proper knowledge uti-
lization. Moreover, it can be linked with the subject Is there any social influence on students in
experts also for the same. using the portals?
Thus, the introduction of the portal concept to the Are the students self efficient to use the por-
academic institutions has opened new possibilities tals?
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Do the students need special training to use engineering and pure sciences, with nearly 100 labo-
the portals? ratories organised in a unique pattern of function-
ing. A faculty of international repute, a brilliant stu-
Do the portals support Knowledge Manage-
dent community, excellent technical and supporting
ment Processes, e.g., Creation, Sharing, Stor-
staff and an effective administration have all con-
age and Utilization of Knowledge?
tributed to the pre-eminent status of IIT Madras
5. Methodology (http://www.iitm.ac.in/about).
For the survey of the primary data, the selected in- 6.1 Knowledge Management at IIT Madras
stitution was physically visited and a self adminis-
6.1.1 Academic Portal of IIT Madras (http://
tered questionnaire was distributed among the ran-
www.iitm.ac.in/)
domly selected 100 students of the Indian Institute
of Technology, Madras. Moreover, a scheduled in- The academic portal of IIT Madras is the gateway
terview was conducted with the senior library pro- of the institute. It is like a one stop shop for all
fessionals of the concerned institute. information needs of the IIT-M community. It cov-
ers the links like Administration, Academic, Depart-
6. Overview of Indian Institute of Technology,
ments, Centres, Research, Central Library, Campus
Madras
News, Conference link, e-mail, Student portal, fac-
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT ulty portal, IJAESAM - New Journal, Industrial
Madras) is an autonomous public engineering and Consultancy and Sponsored Research, Alumni Re-
research institution located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. lations, International Relations, NPTEL, Placement,
It is recognized as an Institute of national impor- Research Park, Right To Information, Telephone
tance by the Government of India. Founded in 1959 Directory, JEE (Advanced), Annual Reports, Fac-
with technical and financial assistance from the gov- ulty Achievements, Heritage Centre, History, ISO
ernment of the former West Germany, it was the third 9001, Landmarks, Mission, Past Directors, Quality
Indian Institutes of Technology that was established Policy, Reaching IIT Madras, Strategic Plan etc. The
by the Government of India through an Act of Par- home page of the academic portal of IIT Madras is
liament, to provide education and research facilities given in Fig. 1
in engineering and technology.
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own portal, allowing the participants to download 6.1.7 Training and Placement Portal
the resources at leisure, anytime and from anywhere. (http://placement.iitm.ac.in/students/)
These portals also allow and encourage participants
It is a training and placement portal for the students
to carry on discussions on various topics of inter-
of IIT madras. This portal communicates students’ pro-
est, thus extending learning process across the
files with the recruiters and recruiters’ profiles with the
available 24 hours. Figure 5 is showing the course
students. Figure 7 shows the links of this portal.
categories on the e-learning portal.
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Table 3: Basic Information of the Respondents Table 4: General Understanding and Usage of
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ever, they tend to be a bit more neutral in terms of their perception regarding getting a better grade by using
the portal.
Table 6 provides a descriptive analysis of the students’ perceptions regarding Effort Expectancy. It appears
that majority of the students agreed that the Academic portal requires minimum effort; as it is understand-
able, easy to use and easy to learn.
The Table 7 reveals that majority of the students surveyed consider that the portals make classes more
interesting and understandable, of course, they are found to be neutral when asked whether learning with
the portal is fun.
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Interestingly, the descriptive analysis in Table 8 shows that students get influenced by others to use
academic portals. Majority of them are agreeing that the teachers and administrative staff support the use
of the portals. But unfortunately majority of the respondents are disagreeing about their parents motivating
them to use the portals.
Noticeably, the descriptive statistics in Table 9 expresses that majority of the students’ perceptions that
they have the necessary resources and knowledge to use the academic portal. But they are disagreeing
about that ‘a specific person (or group)’ is available for assistance with difficulties they experience with the
academic portal.
7.3.6 Anxiety
Not surprisingly, today’s techno-savvy students do not have a high level of anxiety while using the portals.
Of course, few students feel uneasy to use the academic portal because of scare of losing a lot of informa-
tion by clicking the wrong button. Moreover, quite a good number of respondents are willing to share their
knowledge through the portal.
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In addition to studying the academic portal more closely, this study also has tried to find the features and
functionality of the academic portal that students tend to use. As can be seen in Table 11, students use the
portal mostly for obtaining course information, announcements, old question papers and online testing/
quiz. Moreover, majority of the respondents use it to participate in the discussion forum as well as in the
chat room.
Table 11: Descriptive Statistics for Features of the Academic Portal (FB)
Features of the Portal (FP) Never Use Rarely Use Sometimes Use Often
Use Use
FP1: Administrative Information - - 2% 31% 67%
FP2: Academic Information - - - 37% 63%
FP3: Library Resources - 8% 10% 49% 33%
FP4: Study Materials - - - 11% 89%
FP5: Lecture Aids - - - 16% 84%
FP 6: Virtual Classroom 100% - - - -
FP7: Web Conferencing 100% - - - -
FP8: E-mail - 2% 23% 59% 16%
FP9: Discussion Forum - 7% 24% 51% 18%
FP10: Chat room - 19% 71% 8% 2%
FP11: Old Question Papers - 3% 5% 25% 67%
FP12: Online Testing/Quiz - 17% 14% 63% 6%
FP13: Online Tutorials - 11% 13% 71% 5%
FP14: Gradebook - - - 27% 73%
7.4 Need of Special Training on the use of v. Majority of the respondents have replied that
Academic Portal the portal supports both the teaching and learn-
ing.
Quite a good number of respondents asked to or-
ganize special training on the better utilization of vi. Majority of the respondents have acknowledged
the academic portal. For that, the institution should that the portal supports electronic scholarly
communication and it connects people with
introduce special user education programmes on the
common interests.
portal. It serves to instruct, inform and persuade the
users about the benefits of the portal. Faculties vii.Majority of the respondents have mentioned
should also be given proper training for self partici- that they can add information to the student
pation in the portal and they should be well informed portal.
about its importance in teaching and learning pro- viii.None of the respondents is informed through
cesses. Moreover, users should be motivated for their mobile phone regarding the current updates
using the portal as well as to participate in the por- and news in their areas of interest.ix. Ma-
tal. Some of the possible mechanisms for promotion jority of the respondents tend to agree that the
and advocacy include workshops, seminars and portal is understandable, easy to use and easy
presentations, leaflets, posters, newsletters and to learn.
other printed literature, library orientation x. Majority of the respondents get influenced to
programme, etc. use the portal by others like teachers, friends,
Table 12: Need of Special Training on the use of etc.
the Academic Portal xi. According to majority of respondents, the por-
Yes No No Response tal is easy to use, but seems to be easier if stu-
dents can call someone for help whenever they
88% 8% 4% get stuck.
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In this paper, the author has studied the use of an The present study is limited to one institution only.
academic portal designed to help higher academic Therefore, a further study is suggested including
institution in the context of knowledge management all the IITs or higher academic institutions of India
processes. The academic portal of IIT Madras, an for getting a generalized finding. Moreover, usage
integrated knowledge environment is working as a among different age groups was also not studied.
knowledge management initiative for the teachers However, gender study was also not taken into ac-
and learners. Students and teachers can manage count. Furthermore, the study will be appropriate
their knowledge on the portal very easily. It can be
by using an interview approach to place participants
utilized as a tool for capturing teachers’ explicit and
in a realistic environment where they will be able to
tacit knowledge for knowledge sharing. It is very
express the problems face during the use of the aca-
user-friendly for collaborative learning. The aca-
demic portal.
demic portal of IIT Madras is providing ways to
display and organize student-generated contents References
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