Using Knowledge Management Technology to Aid Knowledge Transfer

Abstract

This paper describes a practical system designed to create, maintain and manage teaching materials using knowledge management techniques. This system uses ISO Topic Maps to represent and store knowledge, which subsequently are accessed online or converted into multiple forms suitable for use as lecture materials. The benets of such a generic semantic knowledge store that represents information in a shallow and concise fashion include the ease of selecting pertinent material and of any subsequent transformation into presentations and lecture materials. Separating content lters and presentation rendering from the actual knowledge also allows for very ecient long-term maintenance of the knowledge. This environment has evolved over the last six years and become a major factor in reducing the eorts necessary to keep course materials up to date where the subjects cover fast-changing, emerging technologies and therefore require frequent revision. Our knowledge management approach to maintaining teaching materials also suggested itself as a novel assessment format: in advanced subjects we have had quite positive experiences with tasking students with research exercises where the deliverable is such a topic map instead of the more common essay format. This paper gives an overview of our integrated environment and outlines the benets and positive results we have experienced with its use for teaching purposes.