Enhancing Curriculum and Research in Higher Education with a Strategic use of Knowledge Management

Abstract

It#x2019;s very important for organizations to #x201C;know what they know#x201D; and make maximum use of their knowledge. The problem today is not how to find knowledge, but how to manage it. Being the power house of knowledge in our society, universities and other higher educational institutions have immense knowledge. There are hidden, untapped reservoirs of intelligence that exist in almost every organization. There is a difference in ranking in two universities with identical numbers of faculty, degree programs, expenditures, and enrollment as those surveys conducted by U.S. News and World Report. Milam (2001) suggests that the difference is often intangible value that is added by effective Knowledge Management. Two important aspects of KM in Institution of Higher education is to: i) acquire new knowledge and ii) i) disseminate knowledge. Thus Curriculum development and enhancing research are the premier domain areas of higher education. This is primarily the reason for choosing these two key areas in the present study. Different strategic ways of conservation and dissemination of knowledge such as repository, portal, blog etc. are suggested in this paper, which can be used by institutions of higher education to achieve their ultimate goal of creating new knowledge, i.e., through research and disseminating knowledge through effective curriculum. An overview of technologies used in knowledge management (KM) and other factors such as leadership, structure, role etc. which influence the success of KM in higher education are discussed.