CHAPTER FOUR Descriptive Statistics
4.7 Knowledge Creation, Process &Transformation of Knowledge, Interpretation, Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Capabilities
123 The scores marked with an asterisk (*) reflected areas in the 15 leading African universities where KM was not being used effectively. These were key areas in a university setting and yet showed minimal KM practices. Furthermore, the overall average of all scores reflected an average of 52% of strategic use of KM across the sample. This does not constitute a strong and strategic use of KM, but leans more towards a mediocre KM practice. This will be further discussed in the Chapter 5.
4.7Knowledge Creation, Process &Transformation of Knowledge, Interpretation,
124 Percent
Very Important 66.7
Important 20.0
Somewhat Important 13.3
Total 100.0
Table 6: Importance of Knowledge Management Information Systems for transforming data into knowledge
However, 13.3% of the selected leading universities rated it as somewhat important. These are leading universities and this showed a level of uncertainty and/or lack of importance for KM Information Systems.
4.7.3 What types of Knowledge Management Information Systems are used at your Division/Department and how often are they used? On a rating of (1= Least frequently used going up to 5 = most frequently used)
Least Frequent 1= 2=
Seldom 3=
Occasionally 4=
Frequent 5=
Very Frequent Organisational
Databases 6.7 6.7 86.7 *
Data Mining Systems 45.5 18.2 9.1 9.1 18.2
Data Warehouses 16.7 16.7 8.3 58.3 *
Digital Dashboards 46.2 7.7 23.1 7.7 15.4
OLAP 72.7 9.1 9.1 9.1
Predictive systems 72.7 9.1 9.1 9.1
Institutional
Intelligence Systems 36.4 9.1 45.5 9.1
Other 25.0 25.0 25.0 25.0
Table 7: Types of Knowledge Management information systems used and frequency of use
The most frequently used KM Information Systems, marked with an asterisk (*) were Organisational databases (86.7%) and Data warehouses (58.3%). This shows that very few institutions utilised sophisticated and powerful KM Information Systems that are highly used in developed countries. Digital Dashboards, Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), Predictive systems and Institutional Intelligence systems seem to be very infrequently used. Leading universities in Africa seem to be deficient in these types of systems.
125 Some of the variables identified under the option for ‘Other’ included:
- Library Integration Systems
- SharePoint Document Repositories
- Management Information System - Integrated Tertiary Software - Integrated Student Information Systems
4.7.4 The knowledge gathered from the Knowledge Management systems (selected in previous question) is being used to:
Figure 19 indicates what the knowledge gathered from the various Knowledge Management systems (selected in 4.7.3) is being used for.
Figure 19: Strategic use of Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence
It was interesting to note that even though there was complete agreement with all of the statements with majority leaning towards ‘Strongly Agree’. However, when it came to using
28.6
80 83.3 28.6
73.3 66.7
35.7 20.0
91.7 71.4
26.7 33.3
7.1 28.6
0 20 40 60 80 100
Monitor and improve academic and research methods,
standards and output Analyse student trends such as
registration, enrolment, performance, retention and
dropout rates
Identify new methods/ways of operating
Redefine processes and operations Provide reliable reporting for executive management/board
meetings
Improve decision making
Disagree Don't Know Agree Strongly Agree
126 knowledge gathered from KM Information Systems to ‘monitor and improve academic and research methods, standards and output, there was a mixed reaction of which there was a 28.6
% level of disagreement and a ‘don’t know’ of 7.1%. In addition, only 28.6% strongly agreed. This proved to be a strange pattern considering that academic and research methods, standards and output should be the core fundamentals of any leading university.
4.7.5 Does your Division/Department provide Knowledge Management systems that facilitate academic research?
Figure 20: Provision of Knowledge Management systems to facilitate academic research
The results showed that only 33.3% of the respondents indicated that their institution provided KM systems that facilitated academic research. Sixty per cent confirmed that they did not provide KM systems for academic research and 6.7% did not know. Research should be a critical element of any university and KM systems should be seen as a strategic facilitator and technology enabler of research as this is the case in various developed countries.
4.7.6 Is Research output (Publications, Journals, Dissertations etc.) stored in electronic knowledge repositories at your institution?
Yes Don't Know No Is Research output (Publications, Journals, Dissertations
etc.) stored in electronic knowledge repositories at your
institution? 93.3 6.7
Table 8: If research output is stored in electronic knowledge repositories 33.3
6.7 60.0
Yes Don't Know No
127 4.7.7 How would you rate the accessibility of the above knowledge
repositories to all students and staff at the university?
Very
Easy Easy Difficult How would you rate the accessibility of the above
knowledge repositories to all students at the university? 85.7 14.3 How would you rate the accessibility of the above
knowledge repositories to all staff at the university? 7.7 69.2 23.1 Table 9: Accessibility of knowledge repositories to students and staff
Table 8 and Table 9 depict the use of electronic repositories for storing research output.
Results show that 93.3% of the respondents do use electronic knowledge repositories for research output storage. However, even though most of the respondents indicated that the repositories were easily accessible to staff and students, 14.3% indicated that it was difficult for students to access these repositories while 23.1 % indicated that it was difficult for staff access them. Accessibility to research output should not be regarded as a difficult process.
Research should be a key output of any university especially as these are leading universities in Africa. Both students and staff should have easy access to research output as this can be used to expedite and support research that is being conducted by students as well as staff.
4.7.8 Has the usage of knowledge repositories increased at the institution relative to one year ago?
Figure 21: Usage of knowledge repositories at the institution relative to one year ago
Figure 21 shows that nearly two-thirds (64.3%) of the respondents indicated that there had been an increase in usage. This indicates that the usage of electronic knowledge repositories is growing at most of the institutions. However, 35.7% also indicated that the usage of
21.4
42.9 35.7
Significantly increased Increased More or less the same
128 electronic repositories had not increased and were constant. This should not be the case as these are leading universities in Africa and if they are to increase their research output, then knowledge repositories should facilitate this and should be used more frequently. This can be related to the previous question of whether these repositories are easily accessible or not.
4.7.9 Does your institution use e-Learning as a pedagogical tool?
Figure 22: Usage of e-Learning as a pedagogical tool
A high percentage of respondents (86.7%) indicated that e-Learning was used for pedagogical purposes.
4.7.10On a rating of (1= Least important and 5 = most important), the main reason/s for the use of e-Learning at your institution is to:
1 2 3 4 5
Improve academic teaching and
learning at the institution 15.4 84.6
Break geographical barriers in
terms of teaching and learning 8.3 16.7 8.3 66.7
Create an interactive online
university environment/experience 8.3 25.0 66.7
Make the institution a more effective knowledge provider to
students 7.7 61.5 30.8
Make education more affordable
for students 16.7 8.3 25.0 25.0 25.0
Table 10: Main reason/s for the use of e-Learning at institution
As shown in Table 10, the main reasons for the use of e-Learning by most of the leading universities were to:
86.7 13.3
Yes No
129 - Improve academic teaching and learning at the institution
- Create an interactive online university environment/experience - Break geographical barriers in terms of teaching and learning
- Make the institution a more effective knowledge provider to students
However, results show that e-Learning is not being used as a strategy to make education more affordable for students. Furthermore, 50% of the respondents rated the use of e-Learning for the provision of affordable education to students as less important. Africa houses some of the poorest nations and countries in the world and education is key to a prosperous future for all.
African institutions should be looking at innovative means such as e-Learning to make education more affordable and accessible to its students.
4.7.11On a scale of (1= Least effective and 5 = most effective), rate the