This paper describes academic evaluation methods from the perspectives of its components: professors, disciplines, learning and evaluation methods and graduates. The knowledge management model and its relations to the e-Learning environment are presented.knowledge management, evaluation, academic activities, learning methods

Alina Mihaela ION

English

Research Papers in Economics

Revista Informatica Economică, nr. 4(48)/2008 
 
80
Knowledge management and eLearning 
 
Alina-Mihaela ION 
Academy of Economics Studies, Bucharest, România 
alina.ion@ie.ase.ro  
 
  This paper describes academic evaluation methods from the perspectives of its com-
ponents: professors, disciplines, learning and evaluation methods and graduates. The know-
ledge management model and its relations to the e-Learning environment are presented. 
Keywords: knowledge management, evaluation, academic activities, learning methods. 
 
ntroduction 
Development of information society and 
of information technology brings a lot of im-
provements to classical study represented by 
daily form of learning but, more important, it 
eases distance study and on-line courses. 
Quality standards of learning in each of its 
forms are desired to be as high as possible. 
The interests are on both sides of education 
providers (universities) and education bene-
ficiaries (students) which also have different 
point of views:  
  The former, the universities, desire to at-
tract students by providing a good quality 
learning and a good adaptation to labor mar-
ket requests.  
  At the same time, the latter, the students, 
desire to attend a faculty which allows them 
to be prepared on a certain domain and to ob-
tain a recognized diploma. 
 
Components of academic evaluation 
In order to keep both parties satisfied, profes-
sors and students, it is necessary to periodi-
cally have academic evaluation of universi-
ties and, at certain moments of time, to have 
a general university evaluation. The client 
(student) will make the rules. He is the one 
going to choose the superior learning provid-
er that suits best his needs.  
When it is done, the academic evaluation of 
an university must take into consideration the 
following entities: 
a) Professors 
Professors are providing education and a 
good course depending on their professional-
ism and pedagogic abilities. Through the me-
thods they use, professors can increase or, on 
the contrary, can decrease students’ interest 
in their course. 
Academic evaluation implies didactic per-
sonnel evaluation based on feedback from 
students and colleagues, and on the number 
of articles and books published in a certain 
amount of time on a certain domain. It is also 
required to have permanent documentary and 
research activities in order to maintain the 
innovation character of the course and not to 
lose students interest and enthusiasm. 
Professors must have the ability to integrate 
results of their recent research along with re-
sults of others researchers on the domain into 
the courses they teach. In E-Learning sys-
tems, professors must also provide conti-
nuous feedback to the system in order to im-
prove its efficiency [5]. 
b) Disciplines 
Analytical programs that support disciplines 
for courses and seminars are those which at-
tract students the best. In most of the cases, 
when choosing a specialization, students’ op-
tions are based on the interest they have for 
studying certain disciplines.  
The quality standards that a university must 
fulfill state an exact structure of analytical 
programs. Proposed disciplines must be re-
lated to specialization of the faculty and, al-
so, must include novelty elements by refer-
ring to social and economic life. 
At the time of evaluation / reevaluation a su-
perior learning institute, it is checked, on the 
basis of analytical programs, if general and 
specific objectives, courses and disciplines 
structure are in accordance to faculty specia-
lization and according to reality. The check-
list includes: 
  Logic and clarity of course objectives 
from analytical program; 
IRevista Informatica Economică, nr. 4(48)/2008 
 
81
  Teaching support management with struc-
ture made for each course of the discipline;  
  Structuring of practical activities of the 
discipline (seminars); 
  Course adaptation according to feedbacks 
from students and colleagues. 
Lately, as a consequence of transition to-
wards informational society based on know-
ledge, the focus is set on the quality of the in-
formation the students should receive. 
There are many different study and access to 
information modalities but, inside a universi-
ty, these must be: 
  Filtered, in order to keep only scientifical-
ly correct information; 
  Structured, in order to give students the 
ability of quickly understand and assimilate 
knowledge; 
  Connected to real world, economic and 
social environment and also to other discip-
lines inside faculty specialization. 
Otherwise, students could assimilate, from 
the Internet, information provided by differ-
ent unadvised persons or by books and bro-
chures written by such persons, without suf-
ficient training and experience in the domain. 
c) Learning and evaluation methods 
A good course is based on a very good back-
ground in the learning domain combined 
with didactical abilities of the professor. An-
swers he gives to students, the way he com-
municates with them, the clarity of his 
speech, the dynamic of the course and the 
capacity of stimulating students’ interest lead 
to the interest of the students in studying tho-
roughly the discipline and the domain that 
this belongs to.  
Students have a diversified background. 
They approach different methods to study 
and assimilate knowledge. Universities must 
take very good care of the way students learn 
during their studies. They should have the 
opportunity to learn based on their character 
and personality. This would be possible by 
having an assisted, personalized instruction 
system.  
Evaluation of students must be correct and 
transparent. Students should now from the 
very beginning of the course the tasks re-
quired to promote the discipline. Depending 
on the discipline, the methods for evaluation 
of the students must be accordingly. 
On the basis of students’ results, the profes-
sor can evaluate its own course, he can eva-
luate the interest of the students and can take 
decisions of improvement or approach 
changes. 
d) Graduates 
A student choice for a certain facul-
ty/specializations signifies that he has already 
analyzed the opportunities he would have af-
ter the graduation. 
The evaluation of the university must take in-
to consideration also: 
  The number of students enrolled at the 
beginning of the faculty studies, 
  The number of those who graduated, 
  The ability of being related to requests on 
labor market. 
If graduates cannot find a job on the labor 
market or if abandonment or unpromotion 
rate is significant reported to the number of 
enrolled students, then the faculty should 
reevaluate its learning plans, methods of 
working with students, teaching personnel 
and, not at last, the socio-economic environ-
ment.  
  
Knowledge Management 
The efficient management of resources al-
ways represented a continuous challenge in 
the evolution of humanity. KM assumes col-
lecting, organizing and distributing informa-
tion in such forms that it can be practically 
used [2]. The simultaneous development of 
IT domain supported Knowledge Manage-
ment through continuously increasing storing 
facilities and updating of the information.  
Knowledge Management is found at the in-
tersection of several disciplines and practices 
like: cognitive sciences, information 
sciences, document management, decision 
support systems, organization sciences. 
Nonaka proposes a knowledge model 
represented by a two rows – two columns 
matrix, where knowledge can be divided into 
explicit knowledge (knowledge that the user 
is aware of) and tacit knowledge (knowledge 
that the user is not aware of). Revista Informatica Economică, nr. 4(48)/2008 
 
82
 
 Tacit  Knowledge  Tacit Knowledge   
Tacit Knowledge  Socialization  Externalization Explicit  Knowledge 
Tacit Knowledge  Internalization  Combination Explicit  Knowledge 
  Explicit Knowledge  Explicit Knowledge   
The four ways of knowledge conversion (Nonaka)[1] 
 
Explicit Knowledge, is mainly situated at a 
social level and expressed in formal lan-
guage. Explicit knowledge has a rational, ob-
jective character. Explicit knowledge, like 
textbooks or class notes can be easily cap-
tured and retrieved. 
Tacit Knowledge, situated especially at indi-
vidual level, hard to be formalized and com-
municated. These have, generally, a subjec-
tive character, being based on experience and 
intuition. Tacit knowledge like skills devel-
oped in the classroom or in the e-learning 
environment, and the enhancements and ex-
perience a professor has added to the curricu-
lum prove to be one of most important chal-
lenges in providing knowledge. Knowledge 
management has a unique model for handling 
both tacit and explicit knowledge: the ability 
to share and create knowledge as a group, 
archive that knowledge, and provide an easy 
space for future learners or e-learners to re-
trieve it [4]. 
Socialization represents the tacit knowledge 
transfer process from one person to another. 
Through this process, mental models and 
common abilities of those sharing tacit 
knowledge are obtained.  
The process of conversion tacit knowledge 
into explicit knowledge is called Externaliza-
tion and takes place inside a group of indi-
viduals, being based on dialogue. 
 
Conclusions 
Both e-learning and knowledge management 
have the same base: learning, improved ca-
pacity to perform work tasks, ability to make 
effective decisions, and positively impact our 
environment. The difference between them is 
time-based: knowledge management is dy-
namic while e-learning tends to be static. 
E-learning uses the knowledge that has been 
tested, researched, organized, while know-
ledge management always approaches new 
domains. In order to increase their dynamic 
characteristic, e-Learning environments 
should be periodically evaluated and have 
their content improved and updated through 
the feedback from the student and the profes-
sor, according with the requests of the infor-
mational society [6].  
Knowledge management becomes the base 
activity of knowledge society for all the le-
vels: enterprises, organizations, institutions, 
local and national administrations. The most 
dynamic domain which had a significant evo-
lution regarding knowledge management is 
represented by information technology – 
software, domain which uses knowledge 
management for acquiring the knowledge 
and the experience resulted during software 
development. 
 
References 
[1]  The Knowledge-Creating Company- 
Nonaka, Ikujiro, and Hirotaka Takeuchi 
Knowledge Advantage Conference held No-
vember 11-12, 1997, Dr. Ikujiro Nonaka 
[2]  Knowledge management projects - Prof. 
C. Bodea Ph.D., Prof. dr. Ion Gh. Roşca, 
Ph.D.,The AES Bucharest – Revista Militara 
de Management si educatie, ed. Universitatii 
de aparare nationala Carol I, june 2006 
[3]  Philosophy and Teacher Education 
Newman, Stephen -, Ashgate Limited, Lon-
don, 1999  
[4]  The e-Learning Design Challenge Tech-
nology, models and design principles - David 
Huffaker, Georgetown University 2003 
[5]  Evaluare academica - Raport asupra pro-
fesorilor. Cazul Universităţii "Babeş-Bolyai",  
http://unescochair.ubbcluj.ro/resurseunesco/E
valacademica/Ce%20trebuie%20evaluat.htm, 
2002 
[6]  Knowledge management and e-learning, Revista Informatica Economică, nr. 4(48)/2008 
 
83
http://www.elearnspace.org 
 

Evaluare academica - Raport asupra profesorilor. Cazul Universităţii &quot;Babeş-Bolyai&quot;,

Knowledge management and e-learning, Revista Informatica Economică,

The e-Learning Design Challenge Technology, models and design principles - David Huffaker,

Knowledge management and eLearning

http://www.revistaie.ase.ro/content/48/ION%20Alina-Mihaela.pdf

Knowledge management and eLearning

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Research Papers in Economics