Knowledge Management in Practice

Author(s):  
Fiona Masterson

Knowledge is created when individuals come together to solve a problem. Project-based learning focuses on solving problems. One aspect of the work of a 21st century design engineer is the requirement to work remotely on design projects. Engineers coming together to design a product face the problem of working remotely, collaborating, creating, and sharing knowledge. This chapter explores the use of wikis in a product design and development class at an Irish university. This chapter begins by giving an introduction to wikis and their use in education. The design project exercise and assessment process is described. The results of a study are provided that indicate that the vast majority of students found wikis to be a good tool for project collaboration. Wikis were found to be an excellent knowledge management tool that facilitates project-based learning.

Author(s):  
Austin Tonderai Nyakurerwa

The chapter focused on the institutional repository as a knowledge management tool that enhances the visibility of libraries in the 21st century. The researcher mainly relied on content analysis to gather research data. The researcher took a swipe on the uptake of institutional repositories the world over and an analysis of how an institutional repository could be used as a knowledge management tool was done. The researcher also conducted a situational analysis of the MSU institutional repository and assessed the impact of the digital repository on the visibility of the library. The author used the Webometrics Ranking of Universities in Zimbabwe to assess how universities are ranked in Zimbabwe.


Author(s):  
Barry Hyman ◽  
Sanjeev Khanna ◽  
Yuyi Lin ◽  
Jim Borgford-Parnell

This paper describes an NSF funded project in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Department at the University of Missouri. A primary goal of this project is to systematically increase project-based learning (PBL) experiences throughout the MAE curriculum. To accomplish this goal, recent capstone design projects that need further refinements serve as the basis for PBL activities throughout the MAE curriculum. A major tool for facilitating these refinement efforts is a new senior/graduate Design Management course in which each student in this course learns how to plan and manage design projects. These students then implement their learning by serving as project team managers in the courses in which the refinement activities are being conducted. This paper provides a detailed case study of five refinements to one capstone design that took place in four different MAE courses during the Spring 2011 semester. The paper describes a Fall 2009 capstone project that consisted of designing a portable wood chipper. The student design was very promising, leading to a chipper with significantly greater chipping capacity than commercially available chippers of the same size and weight. However, several faculty members reviewed the results and identified additional opportunities for refining the design. This paper describes activities during Spring 2011 when students in four different MAE courses developed refinements to the original design. The roles of the Design Management students in these activities are discussed. The paper also includes a discussion of the methods and findings of the formative assessment process, including interviews with, and surveys of, faculty and students.


Author(s):  
Edurne Loyarte ◽  
Olga Rivera Hernáez

Many organizations have developed Communities of Practice and they are one of the most important vehicles of knowledge management in the 21st century. Organizations use Communities of Practice for different purposes, but both, organizations and Communities, are limited by different context factors. Therefore, different goals are achieved with them: sometimes the intended goals and sometimes unintended goals. With this in mind, this chapter focuses on the context factors that influence the development of Communities of Practice. To this end, we review different cases of Communities of Practice within various organizations. Our analysis provides: (a) a reflection on the Context factors in the process of integrating Communities of Practice, (b) an analysis of the impact of these factors on the development of Communities of Practice in different organizations and (c) the conclusions of the study. This study is based on the general idea that Communities of Practice are a valid management tool for organizations. This chapter is therefore based on the study of Communities of Practice from the perspective of organizational management.


2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elfriede M. Ederer-Fick ◽  
Anita Giener ◽  
Helga Kittl-Satran ◽  
Brigitte Schachner

Author(s):  
Patricia Kristine Sheridan ◽  
Jason A Foster ◽  
Geoffrey S Frost

All Engineering Science students at the University of Toronto take the cornerstone Praxis Sequence of engineering design courses. In the first course in the sequence, Praxis I, students practice three types of engineering design across three distinct design projects. Previously the final design project had the students first frame and then develop conceptual design solutions for a self-identified challenge. While this project succeeded in providing an appropriate foundational design experience, it failed to fully prepare students for the more complex design experience in Praxis II. The project also failed to ingrain the need for clear and concise engineering communication, and the students’ lack of understanding of detail design inhibited their ability to make practical and realistic design decisions. A revised Product Design project in Praxis I was designed with the primary aims of: (a) pushing students beyond the conceptual design phase of the design process, and (b) simulating a real-world work environment by: (i) increasing the interdependence between student teams and (ii) increasing the students’ perceived value of engineering communication.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document