Designing Knowledge Management Systems for Teaching and Learning with Wiki Technology

Journal of Information Systems Education, Fall 2005 by Raman, Murali, Ryan, Terry, Olfman, Lorne

Yes, the wiki technology is a powerful tool. The goals that it can support are knowledge creation, sharing, and dissemination. However, you have to keep in mind, that the objective must be clear in the beginning; otherwise, instead of supporting knowledge management efforts, it could be an obstacle towards the process.

The wiki is a very powerful tool. Due to the limited timeframe of the class it might even be too powerful. Therefore the features should probably be limited to the essential ones. In my opinion the wiki can support the following goals:

* Sharing of information/knowledge (papers, presentations)

* Demonstrating that there needs to be a benefit for the user otherwise it isn't used

* Show how information/knowledge needs to be organized to be found and to avoid duplicates

Another student provided an interesting insight on this issue, suggesting that systems should be kept simple. Specifically, this student mentioned:

The technology is a powerful tool. However, there needs to be focus on core features without having the need to build a totally sophisticated system. Focus on simple features to support knowledge creation and sharing such as article repository and use of powerful back links, which the wiki technology is capable of. In addition, there is need to provide motivation in using the wiki not based on time but on actual knowledge contribution. Also balance between quantity and quality of information and knowledge created and shared in the system. Finally, we should have focused on content generation based on the principles of supply and demand in that we should create knowledge based on what is needed. Knowledge is only useful if it is used and not for the sake of being created or shared. The wiki technology can support the goals of managing knowledge but the notion of mismatch between instructor-student objectives should be avoided.

Another student stressed the importance of finalizing the wiki technology design before it is introduced to the class. She mentioned that:

Wiki technology can be used as a collaborative learning technology, but a lot of design needs to be done before bringing it into the classroom. To simply place a tool in front of the students without knowing how they should or could use it is counterproductive.

The students perceived that the wiki technology is indeed a powerful technology to facilitate knowledge management within an academic setting. However, they felt that the objective of using the system both as a product (what and why) and as a process (how to use the system) needed to be addressed up-front. As one of the respondents mentioned, a system could even become counterproductive if its design is not well understood by the end users. Our findings suggest that wiki technology can support knowledge management efforts in a teaching and learning environment. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of using wiki technology is contingent upon how well the wiki features have been designed prior to its introduction and use by the students.