IS371 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT. Preliminary Course Syllabus (Version 11/27/2006) Table of Contents

Transcription

1 IS371 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Preliminary Course Syllabus (Version 11/27/2006) Spring, 2007 Table of Contents Table of Contents...1 General Information Meeting Information Instructor Class Technology Prerequisites and Corequisites...2 Reading Material Required Textbook Supplemental Books Web Pages Journal and Magazine Articles...4 Goals and Objectives Mission Themes...4 Class Conduct Climate Academic Honesty Class Sessions Discovery Learning Conceptual Age Thinking Outline...6 Grading Requirements Grades...7

2 General Information 1. Meeting Information Day Time Place: Tuesday 6:00-8:50PM CalTech campus 2. Instructor Name: Lorne Olfman Office: CGU ACB216B/ office hours 5-6 Tuesday or by appointment Phone (area code 909) Internet office (through web page secretary or voice mail) or (direct) fax home TikiWiki 3. Class Technology This class will be facilitated through use of wikis and other social learning technologies. A large amount of information already resides on the above-noted wiki site. In addition, we will be using a MediaWiki, SISATSpace.com, ClaremontConversation.org, FreeMind, and possibly other tools and technologies. 4. Prerequisites and Corequisites It is assumed that you have already completed an introduction to information systems class, IS303 or equivalent. 1. Required Textbook Reading Material There will be one main textbook for this course: Dalkir, K. Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice, Butterworth-Heinemann, San Diego, CA, Check out the following URL for book-buying options: IS371 SYLLABUS: SPRING

3 2. Supplemental Books There are a number of good books on knowledge management that are worth exploring. Some of them are textbooks; some of them are guides for practitioners. A sampling of these books is given in the following list. Awad, E.M., and Ghaziri, H. Knowledge Management, Prentice Hall, E. Rutherford, NJ, Becerra-Fernandez, I., Gonzalez, A., and Sabherwal, R. Knowledge Management and KM Software Package, Prentice Hall, E. Rutherford, NJ, Davenport, T.H., and Prusak, L. Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know, NetLibrary Incorporated, Boulder, CO, Firestone, J. M., and McElroy, M. W. Key Issues in the New Knowledge Management, Butterworth-Heinemann, Burlington, MA, Frappaolo, C. Knowledge Management, John Wiley Sons, Incorporated, Hoboken, NJ, Groff, T.R., and Jones, T.P. Introduction to Knowledge Management, Butterworth- Heinemann, San Diego, CA, Holsapple, C.W. (Ed.) Handbook on Knowledge Management 1: Knowledge Matters, Springer, New York, Holsapple, C.W. (Ed.) Handbook on Knowledge Management 2: Knowledge Directions, Springer, New York, Tiwana, A. The Knowledge Management Toolkit: Orchestrating IT, Strategy, and Knowledge Platforms, (2nd ed.) Prentice Hall, E. Rutherford, Web Pages There are a few web sites that have compiled a significant amount of information on knowledge management. Some of these are listed below. Brint.com ( IS371 TikiWiki ( KmWiki ( IS371 SYLLABUS: SPRING

4 4. Journal and Magazine Articles There are many articles that have been written on the subject of KM. As of the end of 2004, I identified more than 150 of these, many of which have been summarized on the IS371 TikiWiki. Additional articles published since then should be consulted. 1. Mission Goals and Objectives This course focuses on the aspects and issues of knowledge management (KM) and information systems used for knowledge management. The goal is to enable you to learn about this practice in the context of managing the design, development and operation of information technologies that can facilitate KM. 2. Themes There are three underlying themes for this course: 1) Behavioral, social, cultural, organizational and technical factors are responsible for successes (or alternatively, for failures) of any information system, including KM systems. 2) There is a difference between data and information, and knowledge. Moreover, knowledge resides in both tacit and explicit forms. 3) Organizations learn. It is unclear whether organizational learning takes place only through individual actions or if it can also be identified as something different than the sum of the individual knowledge bases. 1. Climate Class Conduct The approach we will use for this course takes the view that the instructor and students work in a collaborative effort that recognizes the uniqueness of each person. As such, we are all co-producers in learning. The underlying assumptions are that individuals are capable of changing their behavior, and are responsible for what happens to them; and that one person can never assume responsibility for another person's change. This means that you must assume responsibility for learning and for the evaluation of that learning. 2. Academic Honesty It is understood that each student is subject to rules related to academic honesty. In no case is plagiarism accepted in academic endeavors. If you use someone else s work, you IS371 SYLLABUS: SPRING

5 must provide a citation about that use, whether it comes from a published paper, an unpublished paper or assignment, or any other source. Failure to meet this ethical standard will result in disciplinary action, which can range from receiving a failing grade on an assignment, to automatic failure of the class, to a withdrawal from your academic program. In order to ensure that all quotations and references to other work have been properly cited, we will use a service called Turnitin ( Each student will have a Turnitin account, and can utilize the service to ensure that all material in written documents has been properly cited. 3. Class Sessions Format of class sessions to be determined. 4. Discovery Learning A learning strategy that you can use in this course is called the discovery frame. The discovery frame emphasizes learning from your own experiences discovering new knowledge rather than only importing it from someone else's knowledge base. The key characteristics of this frame are: (1) All resources necessary for learning are resident in the individual. (2) It is learning through doing. (3) It is information gathering without evaluation. Ask yourself: "How did I do that? Can I do it again?" rather than "Did I do it right?" (4) It causes you to identify behavior patterns that make a difference for you. (5) It focuses on success and the use of feedback you cannot succeed unless you stop and ask: "How did I succeed?" The use of the discovery frame highlights additional goals in this course: to help you learn how to learn, and to learn that learning can be fun. This course aims to teach you important concepts and procedures that will help you continue to learn about knowledge management from your own experiences. You can use the discovery frame to apply these concepts and procedures by developing your own exemplar(s) and using them throughout the course. 5. Conceptual Age Thinking 1 The Conceptual Age has been referred to as the age that will follow (or already is following) the information age. Going beyond knowledge work, Pink (2005) says that six senses will be valuable for people who hope to thrive in the conceptual age. He argues 1 The following ideas and concepts are from Pink, D. H. A Whole New Mind: Moving From the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, New York: Riverhead Books, IS371 SYLLABUS: SPRING

6 that these senses depend on right-brain thinking; that is, they are simultaneous, metaphorical, aesthetic, contextual, and synthetic (p. 26). The six senses are: (1) Design utility enhanced by significance (p. 70). (2) Story the ability to fashion a compelling narrative (p. 66). (3) Symphony integrating and seeing the big picture. (4) Empathy understanding how others think, developing relationships, and having compassion for others. (5) Play laughter, lightheartedness, games, and humor (p. 66). (6) Meaning creating purpose, using transcendence, and having spirituality. 6. Outline The following outline lists the general topic area for each class session. Date Week# Topic Jan 16 1 Introduction to the Course Jan 23 2 Introduction to KM Jan 30 3 The KM Cycle Feb 6 4 KM Models Feb 13 5 Knowledge Capture and Codification Feb 20 6 Knowledge Sharing and CoPs Feb 27 7 No Class Mar 6 8 Knowledge Application Mar 13 9 Spring Break Mar Organizational Culture Mar KM Tools Apr 3 12 KM Strategy and Metrics Apr The KM Team Apr Future Challenges for KM Apr Topic TBD May 1 16 Topic TBD May 8 17 Wrap-up Meeting and Conclusion 1. Requirements Grading Format of course requirements to be determined. IS371 SYLLABUS: SPRING

7 2. Grades Each formal assignment will be given points according to a specified grading scheme. Points will be summed (where necessary) and converted to a percentage, and weighted according to the percentages for eaah assignment (to be determined). Weighted points will be summed, and then a course grade will be assigned based on this value. For this course, percentage scores translate into letter grades in the following fashion: A+ = 97% or more, A = 93.50% to 96.99%, A- = 90% to 93.49%; B+ = 87% to 89.99%, B = 83.50% to 86.99%, B- = 80% to 83.49%; C = 70% to 79.99%, U = less than 70%. IS371 SYLLABUS: SPRING