Knowledge management systems can have many different features, and some systems have more features than others. Following are the key features that many knowledge managements systems will employ, organized into three major categories: services and tools, collaboration, and content.
Components of an eLearning systems
Knowledge Management
Feature
|
Functionality
|
Challenges
|
Portal
|
• Allows users to
select from a variety of functional modules, depending on need.
• Allows companies to position certain
modules as required and others as optional. • Provides a common design
environment for future module building, resulting in a
high degree of
interoperability and reusability. Once created, the module can be used
anywhere within the portal framework. Multiple departments and users can
reuse the functionality.
• Allows different
business units opportunities for differentiation, while
preserving a common
platform and look-and-feel and other enterprise-required elements. • Emerging
suppliers provide increasingly robust tools so that creating a portal from
scratch may not be necessary.
|
• A common portal
technology is essential to create enterprise or organizational impact;
multiple portal technologies can create confusion and waste.
• Decisions will be
needed as to who can build new modules and what standards to adhere to. This
is a governance issue. • Portals can become too crowded with too many
choices. Continuous usability testing is critical.
|
Document
Management
|
• Provides a common
repository for critical documents.
• Provides a common
and easy way for people to access documents.
• Ensures a higher level
of reliability through version control, access to authors,
document ownership,
and expiration strategies.
• Has flexible
entitlements to allow permissions at the user, organization, and document
level.
• Has metatags that
accurately define the document and its uses and makes searching
easier.
|
• Quality control of
incoming docu
ments will be an issue.
• Balancing “open publishing”
with
quality assurance and
other screen-
ing requirements will
be important
in preserving quality
without discouraging participation.
|
Content
Management
|
• Archives, tracks, and man ages a wide array of
content objects, including graphics,
text, animations,
video and audio, and code so that it can be accessed, updated, and
reused efficiently.
• Can be a general
content management system, which has broad application across
|
• Successful imple-mentation
re-
quires a great deal of
discipline and
process manage-ment,
across the
organization, to use
the tool
uniformly and appropriately.
|
Search
|
• Can search across
all knowledge repositories and file types.
• Does an analysis of the search request and
finds or orders results based on user requirements or needs (personalized
search).
• Can save searches
for future and regular use.
• Adjusts results
based on value, past searches (dynamic searching). • Can use metatags and
filters to refine searches.
|
• Personalized search
is difficult but very valuable.
• Getting search
engines to work across different databases is challenging.
• Reducing the number of irrelevant hits
will help make the search more valuable
• Inaccurate tagging of content may result
in inaccurate search results (for example, missing items, wrong items).
|
Work Flow
|
• Ensures that
knowledge flows to the right people in the right sequence.
• Allows individuals in the work flow to
perform one or more operations or tasks (such as editing or approval) on the
knowledge asset before passing it along.
• Very useful in
managing processes, especially where sign-offs are required.
• Leaves an electronic
“paper trail” for compliance and other requirements.
• Useful for quality
assurance purposes.
|
• Can get very
complex. • Cannot substitute for effective project or program management, although
some people may see it that way.
|
Publishing
|
• Creates a process
and a tool set to ensure that knowledge assets (such as documents and Web
sites) are added to the knowledge base (repository) in a similar manner.
• Can disperse document publication to
multiple authors.
• Can be combined with
templates and other support tools to ensure consistency and ease of
publication, as well as improving quality over time.
• Strongly linked to
document management.
|
• Publication tools
are essential whether the publishers are a special central group or dispersed
to end users.
• Governance of the process will be critical
so that publishers can effectively balance freedom to contribute within
style, quality, confidentiality,
approval, and other
necessary guidelines.
|
Alerts
|
• There are two basic
types of alerts: • “Notify Me”: end user sets some parameters within the
system to monitor activity. When a change (addition, modification) occurs that
matches those parameters, an alert is created. • “Notify You”: publisher
(content owner or author) makes a change (addition,
modification) and
generates an alert to a predetermined set of end users who were previously
identified as interested in the information. • Alerts can appear directly in
the portal or in e-mail with a link to the knowledge asset. • In
sophisticated systems, alerts can be generated through the matching of user
profiles and metatags.
|
• Too many alerts can
overwhelm the end user. • Publishers may need to use discretion in
determining who really needs to be alerted, lest they alert virtually
everybody about everything. • The same alert approach should
be used across all the
applications of the knowledge management system. • Alerts, by their very
nature, imply a priority or a sense of urgency. Too many dilute their value.
|
Personalization
|
• There are multiple
levels of personalization (in increasing level of sophistication): • Portal:
using portal technology allows the end user to select which functional or
content modules are on his or her screen. • Filters/metatags: allows the user
to personalize a search based on filters and metatags that are meaningful to
him or her. • Profiles: the end user’s profile (role, expertise, interests, and
so forth) is used by the system to present content that matches the profile. •
Previous work: the system monitors the end user’s work and searches on the
portal and attempts to find new material based on past use.
|
• The more complex the
personalization, the more complex the system (but also the more effective). •
Personalization improves efficiency and user satisfaction, but can be hard to
do and maintain.
|
Filters and Metatags
|
• A coding scheme that
categorizes knowledge assets by domain (sales, technology, HR), type (budget,
technical manual, user guide), or other taxonomy. • Publishers establish the
metatags when publishing a knowledge asset; end users use metatags as filters
when searching; administrators use the metatags as knowledge asset inventory
control points.
|
• Metatags are
normally used to categorize and filter knowledge assets. Using them to
organize expertise or people is often ignored but should be explored (see
personalization
|
Security
(Entitlements)
|
• Restricts access by
unautho
rized users and allows
differing access for authorized users according to a predetermined scheme. •
Enables knowledge owners to manage access to information by any number of
criteria (level, location, role).
|
• Creating the right
security around the
right content without overly restricting access. • Ensuring that security and
entitlements requirements are followed (governance).
|
Mobility
|
• Enables information
to be received by workers who have mobile or virtual jobs or who travel
extensively. • Promotes more 24/7 access and availability to key personnel. •
Promotes just-in-time and “just enough” information access at the moment of
need (performance support).
|
• Filtering
information so that only essential content is transmitted. • Security. •
Multiple platforms and devices may require multiple instances of the
solution.
|
Services of eLearning Systems
Collaboration Services
Knowledge Management
Feature
|
Functionality
|
Challenges
|
Communications
|
• Communication tools
are essential for community building and collaboration. • There are several
communication approaches: • Real-time: one-to-one or group tools enable
“conversations” on the Web (chat, instant messaging).
• Asynchronous:
one-to-one or one-to-many tools that enable the capturing of ideas and
content (e-mail, discussion groups).
• Conferencing:
one-toone or group tools enable interaction with content through
collaborative tools and document sharing. • These tools can be provided
independently from a portal but, ideally, there are links to them within a
portal.
|
•There is an equal
danger of overuse of these tools, leading to a glut of conversations or
content that loses its value, or an abandonment of these tools, diminishing
the collab orative benefit of the system.
• The key is to make the tools easy to use
and establish specific purposes for their use; incentivize and reward
contributions made through these tools. • Capturing and codifying
collaboration content is often difficult.
|
Application Sharing
|
• Enables people to
work in a collaborative way on documents, presentations, spreadsheets,
business software, and other material in real time. • Promotes efficiency by
reducing time for feedback and development of ideas and reports. • Creates a
sense of team by allowing more inclusive participation in knowledge
development.
|
• Need protocols for
managing the development. • Does not replace good document management and
approval
|
Community Building
|
• Can associate people
and the content they own and create collaboration opportunities. • There are
two types of communities:
• Vertical: resembles
an organizational hierarchy, consisting of different roles and levels
organized around a specific function (for example, everyone in a technology
organization).
• Horizontal: cuts across organizations to
bring together people with common roles, skills, interests (for example, all
Java developers).
• Allows new communities to be established
and dissolved as needed.
• Membership in multiple communities is
allowed.
|
• Need to control
proliferation of communities; some should be controlled centrally
. • Communities will
not succeed without leadership within a community; identify specific people to
lead or facilitate communities.
• Communities can
conflict with organizational charts and existing lines of authority.
• Communities may represent significant
cultural change.
|
Expert Locator
|
• Provides an
opportunity for experts to surface (either appointed or through
self-nomination).
• Enables the organization to identify
expertise that otherwise would be hidden.
• Enables experts to be recognized for their
expertise.
• Expertise can be shared online or off-line
(or in combination).
|
• Experts often resist
being identified, as it represents additional work that is often unrewarded.
• Danger of creating a schism between
experts and novices.
|
Content Services
Directories
|
• Provides direct,
one-click access to employee information (external contacts also possible).
• Allows individuals to update their own
information, ensuring greater accuracy.
• Can evolve into
personal pages that can contain more than contact information (expertise,
projects, interests).
• Can be linked to an online organizational
chart (dynamically generated).
|
• Ease of access to
e-mail addresses could result in a significant amount of e-mail traffic (not
necessarily bad).
• Important to instill responsibility for
individual maintenance of personal information.
|
Learning and
Development
|
• Direct links to
course reg
istration, competency
assessment, learning plans, university education and other forms of training,
often managed by learning management systems.
• Can use other
features of a portal to add value to the learning program (for example,
communities, access to knowledge assets).
|
• Effective learning
plans and programs
require manager involvement; it’s important to integrate this component, or
the process could create conflicts between employee and manager.
|
Bookmarks
|
• Placing bookmarks on
the portal instead of on the browser allows access from any networked
computer.
• Adds additional personalized value to the
portal for the end user.
|
• Too many bookmarks
may overwhelm the portal space.
|
Internal Content
|
• Serves as a uniform
internal news source. Key organizational information is pushed to all
employees or to selected employees based on their profile.
• Replaces e-mail as
key news source, although alerts can be sent through e-mail with links to the
portal.
• Ensures message
consistency.
• Examples: corporate
press releases, stock price, product information, IT policy, organizational
chart.
• Can consist of
enterprisewide news and/or content and news tailored for specific business
units, roles, departments, regions, or other divisions.
|
• While internal news
is critical to keeping employee attention focused on the knowledge management
system, it will be important not to let the content of the page be controlled
too much by any one source
. • It will be
important to balance internal company news with exter
nal news about the
company (adds relevance, authenticity).
|
Syndicated Content
|
• Content acquired
from outside, specialized content vendors.
• There are two types
of fee-based syndicated content:
• General: news, weather, sports,
entertainment (CNN, ABC, New York Times, Reuters).
• Specific: news
related to a specific industry (telecommunications, travel, financial
services).
• These services are
either provided to users in a set pattern, or users can select the
syndicated content
modules
they are interested
in.
|
• Content services can
be free or subscription based, sometimes part of the portal service. Special
services may carry license, copyright, or usage restrictions that can be
costly.
• For industry-specific
content sources, it will be important to
determine content
accuracy and relevance to the
business (avoid
ing wrong or
contradictory information).
|
Dashboards
|
• Collects information
from a specific set of sources (internal or external) and presents the
information in a unique way to give the user a customized view of an
organizational process, business results, progress toward a goal, status of
resources, or sales figures, for example. • Pulls data from different
databases and presents a dynamic representation of the information. • Some
dashboards can be set up and managed centrally; more sophisticated versions
can be customized by the end user.
|
• Important to select
the right data and not overwhelm the user. • Accuracy of the data will be
critical; if the data are inaccurate, the business can be severely affected
if decisions are based on dashboard information
|
Email
Technology: E-Mail
|
What It Does
|
How It Supports
Collaboration and Learning
|
Challenges in Use
|
As ubiquitous as
the telephone (or
more so), e-mail
has become the
primary messag
ing technology of
the modern orga
nization, as well
as for individuals.
|
People use e-mail to
ask
questions, distribute
informa
tion, and update each
other.
It is an excellent
vehicle to
notify people (provide
alerts)
of the availability of
new
information or
distribute
knowledge to entire
com
munities or organizations.
In addition, it can be used by members to “subscribe” to information
resources so that they receive the content as soon as it becomes available.
|
As instantaneous as
e-mail
seems, it is primarily
a one-way
medium. When people
use it
to hold synchronous
conversa
tions, the technology
becomes
cumbersome, as delays
in send-
ing and receiving each
piece of
the dialogue tend to
interfere
with collaborative
nature of the conversation. Furthermore, e-mail is often used by individuals
to archive content (in personal e-mail folders). This makes it difficult for
other members of the community to access the information when they need it,
adding more delay and noise into the conversation.
|
Recommendation: Use e-mail primarily to inform or alert
community members of new content, community activities, work assignments, or
other information appropriate for the membership. URLs of new content or
features can easily be transmitted to members (and subgroups of members). Do
not use e-mail to transmit the actual content, as it is usually unsearchable
by the community and is subject to loss or deletion by individual members.
|
Examples: News organizations such as CNN and MSNBC use
e-mail to alert subscribers when critical events important to them are posted
on their Web site.
|
Medical sites like
WebMD use e-mail to alert users when new advances in specific areas of
medicine are announced. This makes users aware of the existence of new
information by making it common knowledge. This is critical because if you
don’t know knowledge exists, you can’t learn from it.
|
Instant Messaging
Technology: Instant
Messaging
|
What It Does
|
How It Supports
Collaboration and Learning
|
Challenges of Use
|
IM has taken the
desired immedi-
acy of e-mail
and removed the
delay in sending
and receiving
each individual
piece of the dia
logue. The format
of IM more accu
rately represents
conversational
behavior. In ad
dition, multiple
and group con
versations can be
held just as easily
(much more so
than conference
calling on the
telephone).
|
The instantaneous
nature of
IM allows single or
multiple
conversations to begin
at the
moment of need, making
it
much more convenient
than
telephone or e-mail
commu
nications. More
important,
community members who
share IM “buddy lists”
can
instantaneously see
who is
online at any
particular
time. This “presence
aware-
ness” enhances
collaboration
by facilitating easy
connec
tions among community
members.
|
Community members
might
remove themselves from
“availability” (going
“invisi
ble”) or withdraw
completely
from the community if
they
perceive that the IM
traffic
they are receiving is
more than
they can handle or if
it is not
valuable enough for
them to
pay attention. If this
happens a
lot, IM conversations
are
either ignored or
become more
background noise. Like
any
other communication or
col-
laboration technology,
it can
be overused and
abused. Also,
IM may hog bandwidth
and is
perceived to be less
secure
than e-mail. Some
corporate
networks block IM
traffic.
|
Recommendation: Use instant messaging as a primary real-time
communication vehicle inside communities. The IM functionality can be
incorporated directly into your community work space, or it can be one of the
many external commercial tools that are available. Try to limit IM
conversations to community- or business-related activities so that users will
not get overwhelmed and turned off by all the chatter.
|
Examples: Accenture uses IM to enable experts within the
firm and those seeking expertise to use IM to build and manage their own
personalized knowledge networks (see the case study in Chapter Five). Because
these IM lists are personalized to each user, they have more value and are
more likely to be used and trusted. This makes the information shared more
trusted as well, and when trust within a collaborative environment is high,
more learning is likely to take place. Of course, why IM another person when
you can query an automated agent? Often called a bot (short for robot),
this type of software can find information for you; all you have to do is ask.
The sophistication of bots is always increasing; they can be “trained” by
users to find particular types of information or cover specific domains of
knowledge.
|
Discussion Threads and Chatrooms
Technology: Discussion
Threads and Chatrooms
|
What It Does
|
How It Supports
Collaboration and Learning
|
Challenges of Use
|
These tools allow
structured Web
sites to be devel
oped where indi
viduals can ask
and respond to
questions in a
way that allows
users to follow
the logic of the
conversation.
|
These tools overcome
the
limitations of e-mail
by
allowing all members
of a
community to have
access to
all discussion
threads. This
enables everyone to
see the
contributions of
everyone
else so that responses
can
more easily reflect
group
thinking. All
conversations
can be archived for
future reference. This can be very effective for problem solving, for
example, because everyone in the community can see how people previously
talked about and resolved an issue. Many technical support Web sites use this
technique so that customers can learn from prior discussions rather than ask
the same questions over and over again.
|
Logging on and using
these
tools requires significant
moti
vation—a need to solve
a spe
cific problem or ask a
specific
question, for example.
Once
the issue is solved,
users don’t
often return to the
site until
it’s needed again.
Characteris
tically, then, users
often get
very involved in a
discussion
thread for a short
time, until their need is met, and then don’t come back. So there is a great
deal of work to keep interest and involvement in discussion forums high over
time. This is where facilitators, alerts, and a careful attention to ease of
use become important. Without these extra efforts, most discussion threads
and chatrooms are either used by just a very small group of enthusiasts or
quickly wither and die.
|
Recommendation: Use discussion threads and chatrooms for
specific topics, issues, and problem-solving activities, not for general
dialogue or interaction among community members. Be sure that important
threads are monitored or facilitated and that access to these services is as
easy as possible. When new ideas emerge or problems are solved, do not expect
that all community members will check the thread to learn about them; be
proactive in publishing the findings using other collaborative and alert
tools.
|
Example: IBM wanted to query its thirty-two thousand
managers about the role of the manager in the twenty-first century. More than
eight thousand of those managers submitted ideas, stories, questions, and
suggestions over a forty-eight-hour Web discussion event called “Manager
Jam.” The company created the high level of participation, and collaborative
learning, by tying the event to a critical business issue, providing
extensive technical facilitation and leadership support, and limiting the
time frame to create a sense that this was special.
|
Web Conferencing
Technology: Web
Conferencing
|
What It Does
|
How It Supports
Collaboration and Learning
|
Challenges of Use
|
Allows individu-
als and groups to
collaborate over
distance. Com-
bines audio con-
versations with
codified knowl
edge assets, such
as presentations,
documents, Web
sites, and appli-
cations, and can
allow groups to
talk and work
with these
resources collec
tively. Many of
these tools
employ a form of
instant messag
ing for communi
cation between
presenters and
participants or
between partici
pants themselves.
|
Training organizations
have
embraced this
technology for
virtual course
presentations.
When used well, these
pro
grams allow
participants to
use the technology to
share
ideas and ask
questions in
ways that can approach
the
interactivity
advantage of
the traditional
classroom.
More interesting,
however,
this technology allows
work
teams and communities
to
collaborate on
projects by
working on knowledge
assets
and applications in
real
time.
|
Often this technology
is used
primarily for one-way
knowl
edge dissemination
(for exam-
ple, one-way delivery
of
training content).
This is an
acceptable and
efficient use of
Web conferencing
because it
facilitates the
distribution of
knowledge and
expertise to
large numbers of
people in a
short amount of time.
But it is
not collaboration,
because par-
ticipants have little
opportu
nity to share what
they know
and discuss what they
are
doing or learning. The
danger
is in confusing the
two pur
poses: if communities
tout
one-way presentations
as a
form of collaboration,
mem
bers may get
frustrated and
tune out of future
collabora
tive opportunities or
wait for
the recording of the
event to
become available and
watch it,
asynchronously, at a
later time.
|
Recommendation: Use Web conferencing to create opportunities
for members to work interactively on an application, document, presentation,
or something else. Use the application sharing features of the tool to enable
real-time participation, and be sure to post the work so that it can be
accessed asynchronously later. It is also appropriate to use these tools for
one-way information and training presentations, but be sure not to promote
them as pure collaborative activities.
|
Example: A retail company used Web conferencing to
enable buyers to collaborate on retail trends, competitive positioning,
vendor status, and other issues important to buying decisions. Buyers in
different parts of the company were able to learn about and comment on new
products as a team in a much shorter time frame. This allowed the company to
address the buying decisions, vendor management, and supply chain issues
faster and more uniformly, and it also provided a forum for each buyer to
offer guidance and ideas to the group. Over time, this collaboration created
a great deal of trust in the buyer community, resulting in a stronger and
more innovative team.
|
Knowledge Network Building Tools
Technology: Knowledge Network Building Tools
|
What It Does
|
How It Supports
Collaboration and Learning
|
Challenges of Use
|
Although almost everyone builds some sort of personal knowledge
network, specialized software can aid this effort by identifying people who
are likely
|
These tools address
one of the great promises of collaborative learning: if people could easily
find others with experience and expertise in the same area they are working
in, the knowledge that could be shared would be significantly greater. Just
|
While these tools have
tremendous potential for linking people, projects, and expertise, the fact is
that in order to do this, they have to “snoop” around your work activities,
e-mails, and other aspects of your virtual life. While most ask for
permission first, some
|
to be working on
similar projects or who have similar expertise. Some tools analyze the
resources people use to find affinities, while others might look at e-mail or
discussion threads to help people answer common questions like, “Who can help
me answer my question, or show me what to do?” or “Is there anyone else out
there working on the same things I am working on?”
|
being aware of others
working on similar projects or in the same knowledge domain as you are opens
up learning opportunities that would be impossible if the knowledge continued
to go undiscovered.
|
people may feel this
violates privacy rights, although privacy rights inside corporations can be
debated. More challenging is the tendency of some people to hide or protect
what they are doing, thus running counter to the knowledge-sharing goal.
Establishing the right balance between the advantage of work and knowledge affinities
across an organization, and creating a sense of being spied on or being
overly intrusive, will always be difficult.
|
Recommendation: Use knowledge network building tools
carefully. Where people all agree to use this approach, the results can be
very beneficial, especially in bringing expertise together, fostering
innovation, and reducing redundant work. However, caution is advised when
launching these tools to be sure that they are being used for the right
purposes and have some limitations on where they can look.
|
Example: Two groups of managers in two different
countries are working on very similar projects. Using a knowledge management
system that has an affinity component, one group queries the system to
identify anyone else who has accessed documents similar to the ones they are
using. They discover the other group by seeing documented usage patterns
almost identical to their own. After contacting the second group, they all
decide to pool resources and complete the project more quickly and at lower cost.
As each group contributes its knowledge, the expertise of both groups
increases, and the confidence everyone has in the final results is much
stronger.
|
Weblogs (Blogs)
Technology: Weblogs
(Blogs)
|
|
Does
|
How It Supports
Collaboration and Learning
|
Challenges of Use
|
Enables almost anyone
to be an instant publisher of content on the Web. Weblog software creates a
templated environment where “authors” publish news, commentary, and other
items, usually in reverse chronological order (most recent at the top). No
programming skills are needed. Most blogs can handle a rich variety of media.
|
Extensive use of
hyperlinks allows “bloggers” to link to related content, creating a vast
interconnected web of related knowledge. Weblogs tend to focus on specific
knowledge domains and therefore attract a community of people interested in
the same topics. Some weblogs allow readers to post commentary back to the
blog. Because of their ease and immediacy, weblogs can be an ideal way to
generate new ideas for comment by a larger audience.
|
The reliability and
accuracy of information on weblogs vary greatly, depending on the author.
Multiple blogs can have competing, sometimes contradictory information. This
may be fine in the arena of public debate, but in a business, this could have
the undesirable effect of communicating inappropriate or wrong content,
providing conflicting direction, or even putting the organization at risk from
a legal standpoint. Proper management and publishing permissions can reduce
this problem. Blogs can also get very long, and some early information can
become dated. Keeping up with content accuracy will be a constant challenge.
Finally, while the use of a great many links to other resources contributes
to a richer blog experience, users can get lost in the process. Good and
consistent navigation protocols can help here.
|
Recommendation: Weblogs can be useful tools to communicate
important and immediate information to communities of practice or an entire
organization. They can generate interest and participation in knowledge
creation. But they can get out of hand. Start slowly and carefully, and be
sure to restrict blog authoring, at least initially, to those who know the
content well, are highly responsible, can write well, and have some
journalistic sensibilities.
|
Example: A company is about to launch a major product
update. Many groups (sales, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, and
others) must be updated on a regular basis. Resellers, advertising agencies,
and other partners need time-critical information as well. The product
manager starts a weblog containing all relevant information about the launch.
Other project leaders can submit information and links. Everyone who is
authorized to have access to the blog has a secure log-in and password, so
the weblog is protected. Not only does the blog keep everyone informed, but
it provides a history of the project. The information it contains can be
transferred to more structured knowledge repositories and training courses,
so others can learn from the experience in the future.
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