FIT3099 Knowledge management - Semester 2 , 2008

Caulfield

• A/Prof Frada Burstein

Prerequisites

Before attempting this unit you must have satisfactorily completed 36 points of your degree.

Some basic understanding of the process and techniques for systems analysis, design and implementation is assumed

Relationships

FIT3099 is a third core unit in the IM major of the BITS degree

It can be taken as an elective in any other BITS majors, where you have satisfied the prerequisites and course rules permit

It incorporates parts of the content of IMS3012 from the course 3323 Bachelor of Information Systems (BIS).

Unit leader

Lecturer(s) :

Additional communication information

Outside the scheduled class contact hours, you can contact
 me by email, phone, or during the consultation hours (available on unit webpage or at CaSIT Frontdesk) or by making an appointment.

If you need to pass me a message urgently and are unable to contact
me otherwise, please contact: CaSIT Frontdesk, Level 6 - Building H, Ph: 990 32535

Lectures will be used to introduce key themes and highlight the main points of interest within each theme.  Tutorials will be used to discuss the application of theory in practical situations and evaluate software systems from the Moansh KM Lab.  Case studies of knowledge management practice will be used as the basis for discussion of issues.  Students will be expected to carry out case study analyses and present the findings as the basis for discussions in class.  Students will be required to make use of reference material to provide examples of knowledge management issues and current practices.

Tutorial allocation

On-campus students should register for tutorials/laboratories using Allocate+.

Communication, participation and feedback

Monash aims to provide a learning environment in which students receive a range of ongoing feedback throughout their studies. You will receive feedback on your work and progress in this unit. This may take the form of group feedback, individual feedback, peer feedback, self-comparison, verbal and written feedback, discussions (on line and in class) as well as more formal feedback related to assignment marks and grades. You are encouraged to draw on a variety of feedback to enhance your learning.

It is essential that you take action immediately if you realise that you have a problem that is affecting your study. Semesters are short, so we can help you best if you let us know as soon as problems arise. Regardless of whether the problem is related directly to your progress in the unit, if it is likely to interfere with your progress you should discuss it with your lecturer or a Community Service counsellor as soon as possible.

Unit Schedule

Week	Topic	Key dates
1	Introduction:From Information to Knowledge Systems
2	The Knowledge Management life cycle
3	Guest lecture
4	Technologies for KM
5	KM Systems Analysis and Design
6	Designing the KM infrastructure
7	Analysis of knowledge resources in an organisation: Knowledge Audit
8	Assembling the KM team
9	Creating KM blueprint
10	KM System Development
11	Knowledge systems of the future
Mid semester break
12	Evaluating the KM initiative
13	Summary and revision

Prescribed text(s) and readings

Recommended Text:

Tiwana, Amrit, (2000) The Knowledge Management Toolkit: practical techniques for building a knowledge management system, Prentice-Hall International.

Recommended Reading:

1. Awad, EM and Ghaziri, HM (2004) Knowledge management, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

2. Jashapara, A. (2004), Knowledge Management an Integrated Approach, FT Prentice Hall, Pearson Education

3. Groff, Todd and Jones, Thomas (2003) Introduction to Knowledge Management : KM in Business; ISBN: 0750677287; Butterworth-Heinemann.

4. Davenport, T. H. (2005). Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performance and Results from Knowledge Workers. Boston, MA.: Harvard Business School Press.

5. Dalkir, K.(2005) Knowledge Management in Thory and  Practice, Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.

6. Becerra-Fernandez, I., Gonzalez, A., & Sabherwal, R. (2004). Knowledge Management: challenges, solutions and technologies. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

7. Debowski, Shelda (2006) Knowledge Management, Wiley.

Electronic KM resources will be available from the subject website

Text books are available from the Monash University Book Shops. Availability from other suppliers cannot be assured. The Bookshop orders texts in specifically for this unit. You are advised to purchase your text book early.

Recommended text(s) and readings

Recommended Text:

Tiwana, Amrit, (2000) The Knowledge Management Toolkit: practical techniques for building a knowledge management system, Prentice-Hall International.

Recommended Reading:

Davenport, T and Prusak, L (2000) Working Knowledge: How organisations manage what they know, 2nd edition, Harvard Business School Press.

Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) The knowledge creating company, Oxford University Press

Awad, EM and Ghaziri, HM (2004) Knowledge management, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Electronic KM resources are available from the subject website or directly through the KM resources website at: http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/units/FIT3099/KM_Websites.html

Equipment and consumables required or provided

Students studying off-campus are required to have the minimum system configuration specified by the Faculty as a condition of accepting admission, and regular Internet access. On-campus students, and those studying at supported study locations may use the facilities available in the computing labs. Information about computer use for students is available from the ITS Student Resource Guide in the Monash University Handbook. You will need to allocate up to n hours per week for use of a computer, including time for newsgroups/discussion groups.

Study resources

Study resources we will provide for your study are:

• Weekly detailed lecture notes
• Tutorial descriptions, outlining the learning objectives, discussion of the content, required readings and  exercises;
• Weekly laboratory tasks and exercises;
• Assignment specifications and marking guide;
• A sample examination
• Access to past examination papers;
• Discussion groups;
• This Unit Guide outlining the administrative information for the unit;
• The unit web site on MUSO, where resources outlined above will be made available.

Library access

The Monash University Library site contains details about borrowing rights and catalogue searching. To learn more about the library and the various resources available, please go to http://www.lib.monash.edu.au.  Be sure to obtain a copy of the Library Guide, and if necessary, the instructions for remote access from the library website.

Monash University Studies Online (MUSO)

All unit and lecture materials are available through MUSO (Monash University Studies Online). Blackboard is the primary application used to deliver your unit resources. Some units will be piloted in Moodle. If your unit is piloted in Moodle, you will see a link from your Blackboard unit to Moodle (http://moodle.monash.edu.au) and can bookmark this link to access directly. In Moodle, from the Faculty of Information Technology category, click on the link for your unit.

You can access MUSO and Blackboard via the portal: http://my.monash.edu.au

Click on the Study and enrolment tab, then Blackboard under the MUSO learning systems.

In order for your Blackboard unit(s) to function correctly, your computer needs to be correctly configured.

For example:

• Blackboard supported browser
• Supported Java runtime environment

For more information, please visit: http://www.monash.edu.au/muso/support/students/downloadables-student.html

You can contact the MUSO Support by: Phone: (+61 3) 9903 1268

For further contact information including operational hours, please visit: http://www.monash.edu.au/muso/support/students/contact.html

Further information can be obtained from the MUSO support site: http://www.monash.edu.au/muso/support/index.html

Unit assessment policy

To pass this unit, a student must obtain :

• 40% or more in the unit's examination and
• 40% or more in the unit's non-examination assessment
   and
• an overall unit mark of 50% or more

If a student does not achieve 40% or more in the unit examination or the unit non-examination assessment then a mark of no greater than 44-N will be recorded for the unit

Assignment tasks

• Assignment Task

  Title : Active participation

  Description :

  Students are expected to contribute their answers to the tutorial questions through the discussion board. The quality and frequency of contribution will be assessed out of mark of 10. 

  Weighting : 10%

  Criteria for assessment :

  Due date : week 1 till week 12

• Assignment Task

  Title : Group KM systems development

  Description :

  Weighting : 20%

  Criteria for assessment :

  Due date : week 9

• Assignment Task

  Title : Class test

  Description :

  Weighting : 10%

  Criteria for assessment :

  Due date : week 6

Examinations

• Examination

  Weighting : 60%

  Length : 3 hours

  Type ( open/closed book ) : Closed book

Assignment submission

Assignment report will be submitted by paper submission to Assignement submission box at level 6, H block, Caulfield. On-campus students Submit the assignment to the the tutor or a submission box by week 9, Friday, 5pm with the appropriate cover sheet correctly filled out and attached. Presentations will be arranged individually. 

Do not email submissions. The due date is the date by which the submission must be received/the date by which the the submission is to be posted.

Assignment coversheets

The students have to include an assignment coversheet. Assignment coversheets can be found  form  "Student assignment coversheets" ( http://infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/student/assignments/ ) page on the faculty website

Due dates and extensions

The due dates for the submission of assignments are given in the previous section. Please make every effort to submit work by the due dates. It is your responsibility to structure your study program around assignment deadlines, family, work and other commitments. Factors such as normal work pressures, vacations, etc. are seldom regarded as appropriate reasons for granting extensions. Students are advised to NOT assume that granting of an extension is a matter of course.

Requests for extensions must be made to the unit lecturer at your campus at least two days before the due date. You will be asked to forward original medical certificates in cases of illness, and may be asked to provide other forms of documentation where necessary. A copy of the email or other written communication of an extension must be attached to the assignment submission.

Late assignment

Assignments received after the due date will be subject to a penalty of 5% per day, including weekends. Assignments received later than one week (seven days) after the due date will not normally be accepted.

This policy is strict because comments or guidance will be given on assignments as they are returned, after assignment marking or with the returned assignment.

Return dates

Students can expect assignments to be returned within two weeks of the submission date or after receipt, whichever is later.

Assessment for the unit as a whole is in accordance with the provisions of the Monash University Education Policy at http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/assessment/

We will aim to have assignment results made available to you within two weeks after assignment receipt.

Plagiarism, cheating and collusion

Plagiarism and cheating are regarded as very serious offences. In cases where cheating  has been confirmed, students have been severely penalised, from losing all marks for an assignment, to facing disciplinary action at the Faculty level. While we would wish that all our students adhere to sound ethical conduct and honesty, I will ask you to acquaint yourself with Student Rights and Responsibilities (http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/about/committees-groups/facboard/policies/studrights.html) and the Faculty regulations that apply to students detected cheating as these will be applied in all detected cases.

In this University, cheating means seeking to obtain an unfair advantage in any examination or any other written or practical work to be submitted or completed by a student for assessment. It includes the use, or attempted use, of any means to gain an unfair advantage for any assessable work in the unit, where the means is contrary to the instructions for such work. 

When you submit an individual assessment item, such as a program, a report, an essay, assignment or other piece of work, under your name you are understood to be stating that this is your own work. If a submission is identical with, or similar to, someone else's work, an assumption of cheating may arise. If you are planning on working with another student, it is acceptable to undertake research together, and discuss problems, but it is not acceptable to jointly develop or share solutions unless this is specified by your lecturer. 

Intentionally providing students with your solutions to assignments is classified as "assisting to cheat" and students who do this may be subject to disciplinary action. You should take reasonable care that your solution is not accidentally or deliberately obtained by other students. For example, do not leave copies of your work in progress on the hard drives of shared computers, and do not show your work to other students. If you believe this may have happened, please be sure to contact your lecturer as soon as possible.

Cheating also includes taking into an examination any material contrary to the regulations, including any bilingual dictionary, whether or not with the intention of using it to obtain an advantage.

Plagiarism involves the false representation of another person's ideas, or findings, as your own by either copying material or paraphrasing without citing sources. It is both professional and ethical to reference clearly the ideas and information that you have used from another writer. If the source is not identified, then you have plagiarised work of the other author. Plagiarism is a form of dishonesty that is insulting to the reader and grossly unfair to your student colleagues.

Register of counselling about plagiarism

The university requires faculties to keep a simple and confidential register to record counselling to students about plagiarism (e.g. warnings). The register is accessible to Associate Deans Teaching (or nominees) and, where requested, students concerned have access to their own details in the register. The register is to serve as a record of counselling about the nature of plagiarism, not as a record of allegations; and no provision of appeals in relation to the register is necessary or applicable.

Non-discriminatory language

The Faculty of Information Technology is committed to the use of non-discriminatory language in all forms of communication. Discriminatory language is that which refers in abusive terms to gender, race, age, sexual orientation, citizenship or nationality, ethnic or language background, physical or mental ability, or political or religious views, or which stereotypes groups in an adverse manner. This is not meant to preclude or inhibit legitimate academic debate on any issue; however, the language used in such debate should be non-discriminatory and sensitive to these matters. It is important to avoid the use of discriminatory language in your communications and written work. The most common form of discriminatory language in academic work tends to be in the area of gender inclusiveness. You are, therefore, requested to check for this and to ensure your work and communications are non-discriminatory in all respects.

Students with disabilities

Students with disabilities that may disadvantage them in assessment should seek advice from one of the following before completing assessment tasks and examinations:

• Faculty of Information Technology Student Service staff, and / or
• your Unit Coordinator, or
• Disabilities Liaison Unit

Deferred assessment and special consideration

Deferred assessment (not to be confused with an extension for submission of an assignment) may be granted in cases of extenuating personal circumstances such as serious personal illness or bereavement. Information and forms for Special Consideration and deferred assessment applications are available at http://www.monash.edu.au/exams/special-consideration.html. Contact the Faculty's Student Services staff at your campus for further information and advice.