Web-based Knowledge Management System for Camarines Norte State College: Analytical Essay

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Abstract—

One of the issues of the academic institution is knowledge management. How the academe disseminates information over the academic community on real-time and the availability of knowledge anytime and anywhere is a challenging task in every institution. The objective of this study is to bridge the gap between present and prior contexts of knowledge creation, sharing, or application by developing Knowledge Management System for Camarines Norte State College. The proposed system is designed specifically to cater the requirements of the academic institutions especially Camarines Norte State College in terms of knowledge management. Moreover, KMS in Higher Education Institution (HEI) could help in the growth of learner-centered knowledge and action learning, growth in work-related learning, movement from closed to open knowledge systems and extensive development in computer-based communication technologies.

Index Terms – knowledge management, knowledge management system, system development

I. Introduction

The new frontier towards the industrial economy is the knowledge or information-based system where this wealth of knowledge is an intellectual asset that if given proper management would offer greater benefits and competitive advantage to an institution. Knowledge management can be defined as: the systematic process of creating, exploiting and sharing individual, corporate and team knowledge (tacit and explicit) utilizing technology, culture, strategy and people in enhancing innovation, efficiency, completion times and organizational performance[1].

Knowledge management systems is not easy to develop and deploy, there are several challenges on the manner. It includes IT infrastructure to form new knowledge, store it, share and diffuse it, and to apply it for effective actions[2]. Moreover, knowledge management once applied to Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) poses a lot of challenges, particularly from the stakeholders. Given the growing needs of HEI’s as they are now more aware of the clear advantage of having KMS. However, there is limited research in this field while there is no evidence of an effective framework that will answer HEI’s needs for better KMS[3].

Being one of the members of SUC’s that aims for quality education and services as it enhances management efficiency, fiscal autonomy, and institutional competitiveness. Therefore, the Knowledge Management System (KMS) in CNSC is expected to benefit the organization through the utilization of its intellectual assets and foster a competitive edge and a capacity for learning. However, at present, there are no HEI’s in the Bicol Region that is equipped with a KMS deployed in their school. As a primer educational institution that will implement a fully working KMS in a Higher Educational Institution (HEI) this will establish a common benchmark that other institutions in Camarines Norte and possibly the Bicol region could adopt. Hence, this is the challenge and motivation that the researcher is trying to address in this study.

II. Related review

A. Knowledge Management System and its Features

Knowledge Management (KM) is an approach to achieving strategic objectives by visualizing, sharing, and using intangible resources of an organization and its stakeholders [4], [5]. In this regard, one of its core processes and techniques is data mining and knowledge production which is one of the important steps in knowledge discovery and a subfield of knowledge management [6],[7].

The concept of a knowledge management system (KMS) is not new but an important emerging technology that would enable better management towards better decisions for an organization. Although it found worldwide recognition as an important strategic tool, its integration into academic organization becomes lagged and it have much lesser collaboration with its counterpart which is the industry [8],[9],[10]. Even if there are disagreements in several studies regarding knowledge and knowledge management [11],[12],[13] but still most authors agree on the bases of KMS and its use as key to competitiveness.

As such, knowledge sharing is vital to the success of knowledge management practices in all organizations including universities. An effective KMS sharing is essential for the organization to benefit from the knowledge its employees have generated [14],[15]. However, even the higher administration and various stakeholders in universities might have heard KM but they do not have a clear idea how to initiate and implement it even the richness of literature for the past three decades have given various points in its development and implementation [16]. Knowledge sharing is vital to the success of KM practices and even though there are some factors affecting the willingness to share knowledge which can be classified as organizational, individual, and technology factors; this can be countered through driving academics to engage in knowledge sharing activity,[14].

In fact, KM can also support higher education in learning circle and social interaction which can be used by teachers and students to improve the teaching-learning process[17].

There is a need for KMS technology and systems to bridge the gap between present and prior contexts of knowledge creation, sharing, or application. KMS in Higher Education Institution (HEI) could help in the growth of learner-centered knowledge and action learning, growth in work-related learning, movement from closed to open knowledge systems and extensive development in computer-based communication technologies [18].

B. Knowledge Management System Development

Knowledge management system development involves different approaches and techniques. One of such, is that the KMS architecture based on four layers which includes the application layer, technology layer, infrastructure layer and repository layer. Its functions also required internet, extranet, and intranet infrastructure using client and server computing [19],[20]. Another is taking considerations of an organization framework through proper observation and survey to provide effective periphery participation within the system. Taken in consideration the design of KMS to facilitate movement of information and decisions from the center towards the periphery. It is highly encouraged to have a two-way interaction between center and periphery for effective utilization of KMS where character of periphery participation is generally directed at knowledge discovery and application, instead of than creation and sharing [21].

In terms of framework, there’s a very important factor to be considered such as setting up a schema as [22] have done which was utilized as a starting point of an iterative process until reaching the expected and desired final and common KM framework. Several schematic categories were identified such as knowledge and knowledge management artifacts, knowledge management frameworks and models, knowledge management systems, knowledge management ecosystem, influencing factors, and knowledge management reference disciplines and research method. It is necessary to have a proper infrastructure to fundamentally reengineer knowledge creation and delivery based on principles of knowledge management and organizational learning [23].

A different but relevant framework was presented in the study of [24] that might be used as a guide in developing and implementing KMS but this is often supported a Socio-Technical Systems based on Pan and Scarborough view. It consists of Infrastructure (technology), Info structure (organizational structure) and Info culture (organizational culture) which is believed to give clear understanding on KMS. Knowledge management systems can improve firms’ agility. Their framework supports the positive impact of knowledge management systems in the absorptive capacity through better collaboration and a decision-oriented management system promoting dynamic capabilities. [2]

Moreover, in developing a university knowledge management system essential points are to consider such as cooperation, tacit knowledge, knowledge continuity, power relationships, and social knowledge management. Cooperation is important to enhance KM performance while a multi-dimensional view of knowledge encompassing the tacit is better for capturing complex phenomena of knowledge in an organization [25]. There is a distinct difference between tacit and explicit knowledge types and determining the use of separate knowledge modules using their own knowledge management strategy depending on the knowledge type of the stored information was necessary to support KM initiative successfully [26].

Also, holding essential operational knowledge should be incorporated into KMS framework while considering that power and its consequences have both negative and positive impacts on the system where KM is expected to be seriously influenced by the potential of social/media software through interactivity, social processes to promote organizational knowledge. Tacit knowledge is never easy and its collection through interviews and videos has not succeeded hence, a story-telling approach might be useful on the process [27]. Therefore, it is important to be able to understand the whole concept and process before the actual development and such can be done using roadmap or even knowledge models [28] .

One of the challenges within the development of an effective KMS is the financial issue that may arise from building it towards its completion since there are many things to consider such as its value, internal business process, growth and learning, as well as the infrastructure that is involved. Moreover, KM is not widely adopted in industries due to a lack of an effective approach [29]. On the case of its development so far, there is not just one KMS “silver bullet” that is critical for the successful implementation of KMSs in organizations [30].

C. Knowledge Management System Implementation

The implementation of KMS have brought up different views and ideas based on its needs and purpose. Several implementation means have been covered by different literatures and one of the major concern in its deployment is to have an effective resolution of cultural and organizational issues which is consistent to information system management literature, advocating organizational and behavioral change management as critical success factors in the implementation of information systems [11]. Even its increased usage forms virtual communities, expert localization and establishment of knowledge taxonomies, knowledge transfer and sharing processes, incubation and Mentorship, collaborative software development and their role in creating entrepreneurship initiatives and knowledge economies [31].

However, in its implementation there are several challenges that could be used as motivations and even best practices that could be made to make key success in small and medium sized organizations [32],[33]. Some of the challenges in its implementation were financial and information security, technology and management, senior management support and strategy, acceptance, user’s motivation and culture and project management, change management and training. However, only four of these determined the success of its implementation such as financial and information security, senior management support strategy, technology and management, and acceptance [34]. Another research finds sustainability as one of the major challenged in KMS implementation because stakeholders have various expectations and firms need to decide how they intend to address these which becomes a great pressure in its effective implementation [35].

III. Methodology

A. Method of Research

The descriptive survey method of research was used in the study. The questionnaire-checklist supplemented by informal interview and evaluative observation was utilized in gathering the needed data.

B. Software Development Methodology

The researcher used the Rational Unified Process (RUP) methodology since the present study requires documentation and information processing that RUP can handle and because it is supported by tools, visual modelling processes as well as documentation guides and testing hence, it became an important component in the development and deployment of the proposed system entitled “Knowledge Management in the Academe: An Interaction of Technology and People”. The RUP Methodology is shown in Figure 1 which has nine (9) disciplines that use iterative approach for organizing projects in terms of workflow and phases, each consisting of one or more iterations. Each project iteration cycle begins with a plan outlining what were accomplished and concluded with an evaluation of whether objectives have been met.

Aside from that, the researcher believes RUP can help manage fast changing user requirements and the difficulty in gathering the data since KM in CNSC is a primer and so this particular methodology suits to the needs of the proposed system.

The RUP phase is shown below in figure 1.

Fig 1. The RUP Methodology

Phase 1: Inception. This is the phase to establish the business case for the system and delimit the project scope. This requires identification of all external entities with which the system interacts and define the nature of this interaction at a high-level. This involves identifying all use cases and describing a few significant ones.

In this phase, the researcher will conduct requirements analysis through series of interviews with the end-users to gather pertinent information such as document storage, retrieval and sharing process in the academic community. The researcher will provide proposed document storage, retrieval and sharing through initial use-case model for this part.

Phase 2: Elaboration. This phase is responsible for developing a visual tool to represent the system, a detailed plan for the construction phase, a proper scheduling for project and on determining the actual cost of the proposed system. Likewise, in this phase processes, tools, and automation support are put into place and development of system architecture are put into action.

In the phase, the researcher will design a logical as well as physical design using Unified Modeling Language such as use-case diagrams and a sequence diagram of the proposed KM System, a Gantt chart, and a proposed software and network connectivity design, hardware infrastructure setup and user interface design to handle the information system will also be developed.

Phase 3: Construction. This phase is anchored on the resource management, control and process optimization, complete component development and testing against the defined evaluation criteria, and assessment of evaluation of product releases against acceptance criteria for the vision.

In this phase, the researcher will conduct usability tests for the system usefulness, satisfaction, and ease of use. A user-manual and a description of the current release will also be develop and a package diagram will also be provided.

Phase 4: Transition. This phase involves deployment-specific engineering packaging, beta testing to validate the new system against user expectations, parallel operation, conversion of operational database, training of users and maintainers, rolling-out to the marketing, distribution and sales force, tuning activities, achieving user self-supportability and achieving stakeholder concurrence that deployment baselines are complete.

In this phase, deployment diagram will be provided along with beta testing with the employee of the Camarines Norte State College to validate user-expectations. Likewise, a comprehensive implementation plan will be developed.

IV. Results and discussions

The system design and development led to the creation of the full-packaged Knowledge Management System for academe especially the Camarines Norte State College.

Fig 2. Main Interface of CNSC KMS

The researchers developed the system with three main features:

A. Members Log-in Page

The system was design for academic community use only all users must register to use the system, different user has its own access level for security purposes.

B. KMS digital databank.

The system has database for storing digital knowledge/information that are useful for academic use, such as research, data gathering for accreditation, documentations and other academic uses.

Figure 3 shows the interface of the documents that are stored on the CNSC Knowledge management system. All documents that stored by different stakeholders has its own directory for convenience and easy access of the users of the system.Fig 5. The document upload interface of CNSC KMS

Fig 3. The databank structure of CNSC KMS

B. KMS knowledge creation and sharing.

The system allows the users to create and share documents. This features let the users to store and retrieve documents/information from the CNSC KMS. All documents that store by the users shall be available to the academic community for the purpose of academic use.

Fig 4. The document download interface of CNSC KMS

C. KMS knowledge collaboration

The system has its collaboration features, the users can be allowed to modify, edit and update the document. Only documents subject for revisions can be modify or edited.

Fig 6. The document modification interface of CNSC KMS

v. Conclusion

The researchers were able to determine one of the major problems in academic operations especially in Camarines Norte State College. This problem is focused knowledge management. The need to have knowledge management system with Digital Databank, Knowledge Creation and Sharing, and Knowledge Collaboration features will cater to the ever growing cases of knowledge management issues in the academic community.

The new system is designed specifically to cater the needs of the academic institutions especially Camarines Norte State College in terms of knowledge management. With the CNSC KMS helps in managing information and making sure that knowledge is available anytime, anywhere and 24/7 operational.

As a future work area, in order to increase the flexibility of the software, the researchers would like to include comprehensive data warehouse data analytics built with intelligent decision-support system for Camarines Norte State College administrations and personnel.

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