Knowledge Management in Community College- Chapter 3 Progress

METHODOLOGY

 

Introduction

This chapter is explaining the methodology while conducting this research. Methodology is a combination of the strategy used in taking and collecting data based on research questions. There are several designs that can be used to do research including observation, survey, case research, correlation and experimental. In conducting the research of how knowledge management be applied in community college, the method had been used is qualitative. This chapter also explains the techniques of data collection in this research before the data had analyzed. Moreover, this chapter explains about the design, sample and research procedures used during conducting this research.

 

Research Design

The Survey with taking data in certain time only and will use questionnaire. The researcher do a survey in certain time and it is just like photo snapshot of an event, which is it cannot explain detail relationship unless a pole at certain level. Nevertheless, if it well planned, it can help the next research of full fill the research requirements of any researcher (Mohamad Najib, 1999).

According to Jack R. Fraenkel and Norman E. Wallen (1996), survey method or technique has a big potential untuk amass a lot of information from any individu's group of sample. This technique also has a purpose to depict the behaviour of population. Walter R. Borg dan Meredith D. Galll (1983), survey technique had been involved about 40 education research contained in the jurnal, 75 percent of them had been used the survey method. Hence, widely used to solving education problem very appropriate with using the survey technique.

This research is using survey technique because the required data for this research purposes based on the explainations gathered from respondants among the local community around community college located in Perak Darul Ridzuan. The information is gathered in quantitative which are the answers in statement type and the quantity of responded who had involved in this research represents quantitative type.

Meanwhile Mohd. Majid (1994) mentioned that questionaire that will be used is sufficient to get information about facts, belief, feeling and
request. Questionaire is more practical compare to interview to get the long distance's respondant and big population. Selain itu, from his view, a questionaire can afford to recognize characteristics or variable that has to be recognized even the sample size is big. He added, the adavantage of questionaire because the order and also the question is standardize and during complete the questiionaire the respondant is not influence by the researcher. He said that the important is the persistent and the truth responds of respondant can be increased. So to get more persist in data gathering, both technique had been used, questionaire and interview.

This reseach is conducted for recognizing the phenomena of implementing knowledge management in community college and build a model for KMS implementation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3.1: Research Framework

Operational Framework

In operation framework, the researcher is begin recognize the problem and issue that have to be studied and also the current situation through observation, self knowledge (embedded) from a variety of sources such as the internet, megazine, books, juornals and previous research. Below is the figure of Operational Framework:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3.2: Operational Framework

Qualitative Method

This study was conducted using a qualitative approach, as shown by X that it is getting attention in studying the KM system. According to Carolyn as set X in his thesis that empirical research is focused on data displayed in the form of images or text from the quantitative numbers that may be moved seriously. In the study of the KM system is appropriate to use a qualitative approach to explore the use of KMS itself and the factors that influence its use. Large-scale surveys do not necessarily enough to what to look for research and to reduce the wealth of information that may be found in the survey were compiled in the study. Interviews in the form of loose and not limited to the specified rules are independent individuals who are interviewed to give the desired response without concealment, especially the facts that could help the entire study. Interviewer had the opportunity through the actual experience can be a reflection of the research is not done well recognized to be part of the statistical study.

Another thing be concerned with the study is qualitative in nature it is not interpreted in terms of numbers, although the data available and were analyzed through interviews or observation of the witness himself the real thing is happening at a time can also be translated in the form of an essay. Therefore the study is an effort to double the subjective need to favor or support the data obtained. Researchers in an effort to follow the format of qualitative research carried out by referring to the qualitative research available such as XY Z.

 

Descriptive Statistic

Since there is no hypothesis, or prediction of proof in the course of the study, but sufficient data to be displayed in the form of descriptive statistics. The findings of this study analyzed responses based on the reaction scheme mentioned in the questionnaire. The findings have been analyzed to be displayed with the aid of SPSS which has a more interesting when using a conventional spreadsheet. However, the open responses obtained in the interviews will not be mapped, it is listed as a review in this study. Although it is not mapped and displayed, it is still referred to as the driving researchers to avoid the items that are useful and work in the questionnaire from negligible.

 

Sample

    In conducting the research, the particular sample in the population, so the requirement is respondant or the subjects that had been targetted by the research. The information searched by this case study is derived from an amount of quantity of local community members from the knowledge society population randomly Kampung Gajah, Perak around Koleje Komuniti Pasir Salak. Hence the quantity of respondent that had been recognized is about 28 people to represent a population of 30 people. This quantity of respondant is taken based on population and sample schedule introduced by Morgan dan Kreijcie (1970). Respondents concern included community members who have undergone training at the community college, including community college staffs themselves, the former community college student who studies at a higher level, public sector employees who have undergone training at community colleges, private sector employees who have received training at community colleges and individuals who succeed in business and has undergone training at community colleges.

 

Research Instrument

The reseach instrument that will be used are interview and questionaire. According to Mohd Majid(1994), stated that questionaire is a norm tool that have been using in research to find out a precise information about facts, belief, feeling and etc.

This instrument has to facing the pilot test stage which it will be reviewed by the supervisor and expert and also had been answered by the severel of lecturers to ensure the items are easy to understand instead of making a correction based on the given views. This has been chosen to ensure information in research instrument as considered as realibiIity and validibility.

Realibility and validibility value of the research instrument will be tested with using Alpha CronBach. Yusrizal (2006), realibilty and validity's value of reseach instrument to be accepted have to within 0.7 until 0.9 in score rate. Value nearest to 1 means realibility is high, good and effective, meanwhile value within 0.6 to 0.7 are accepted and if the value above 0.8 is considered as good. Hence, the items of survey will be modified until the realibity and validity is derived because a good test or measurement tool must have high in terms of realibility and validibility.If the realibility and validity value is not in the rate area, so changes wil be taken to the items o the qusetionaire untill it can achieve the accepted value of realibility and validity for getting consisitency views regarding to the content validity.

Questionaire is very suitable bacause it is more practical, effecient and reduce cost. In spite of that, questionaire can avoid the bias to the interviewer and also giving to the respondant for thinking while answering the question. Researcher choze questionaire as an instrument based on several reasons, which are:

1. Gathering more concrict data and the researcher believe that respondant can respond to the aspects have been studied compare to the another instrument.
   
   1. It can help researcher to keep in touch with the respondant fastly.
      
   2. It can reduce time, energy and cost of researcher.
      

Meanwhile Likert scale is used for item measurement and evaluation purposes to recognize the responds from respondent. There are five stages of agree's degree for the item given to be answered by the respondent.
Respondent simply just state the agree degree level or not agree for each item. Any item adding did by respondant will not taking for granted by researcher and will be measured and evaluated.

Questionaire Construction

Questionaire are concstructed by the reseacher himself based on research question. The constructed questionaire the, are distributed to the potential respondents with varied demographic. It was sent directly to the community in kampung Gajah around Kolej Komuniti Pasir Salak. The questionnaire was developed based on items that have been built by the Feliancino JL (2006) in the study of KMS success model criteria. However, researchers modify items to suit the scope of the study and respondents. To ensure there is no item that may be neglected, especially in the literature review, a space is also provided for open responses to address these problems. The survey was divided into two sections:    

    Session A : Demographic

    Session B : Organizational and technical perspective

Section A contains items related to respondant's personal details. Section B contains items related to respondant's organizational and technical perspective of KMS implementation. According to Feliancino JL, he suggested 10 characteristics that influence the success of a KMS. These criteria are also adopted from the IS success model. Given the KMS is a subset of the IS as described in chapter 2, the criteria that influence the success of both models are almost the same. Items in the questionnaire seeks to excavate the importance of characteristics if there exists KMS in an organization, how the KMS to meet the needs of knowledge society in the community. Characteristics are as shown in Figure 3.3.

Figure 3.3: Characteristics of KMS

( Source: Adapted from Felaincino JL (2006))

Question shaped as Likert scale are used to measure respondant's view about a statement. All items are constructed as positive's statement set. This scale contains five answer's value and response's set of respondant's opinion given as ordinal scale between1 until 5. Which is:

Table 3.1 : Ordinal Scale

1	Strongly Disagreed	(SD)
2	Disagreed	(D)
3	Not Sure	(NS)
4	Agreed	(A)
5	Strongly Agreed	(SA)

Ordinal scale 1 is given to answer "Strongly Disagreed" (SD) and ordinal scale 2 for answer "Disagreed" (D). Respondant who answers (SD) or (D) is assumed standing for the statement given as disagreed with that statement. Ordinal scale 3 given to answer "Not Sure" and this answer is assumed as do not stand or have particular stance of the statement given. Meanwhile scale 4 for answer "Agreed" (A) and scale 5 given for answer "Strongly Agreed"(SA). Respondant answers (S) ans (SA) is assumed standing as accept the statement. All the items are analyzed by using likert scale unless Section A.

The questionnaires were distributed to potential respondents of which is

1. Staff Community Colleges that have received training in community colleges
   
2. Members of the community who have received training in community colleges and worked in the public sector
   
3. Members of the community who have received training in community colleges and worked in the private sector
   
4. Members of the community who have received training in community colleges and self- career
   
5. Members of the community who have received training in community colleges and continue their studies at a higher level
   

 

Interview Materials

Before the interview sessions were held, participants identified will then be contacted by letter. Letter seeks to inform the participants about the interview to be conducted, particularly to the question should be asked and responses by participants. Through diplomatic means, which is actually easier for participants to prepare themselves in terms of physical and mental health during the interview later. Ideas that arose in the context and perspective is very useful in the study. All participants who wish to be interviewed the same questions and discussions will be recorded for analysis. (Appendix X)

 

Pilot Study

Pilot study will be conducted in Kolej Komuniti Pasir Salak (KKPS) and around Kampung Gajah, Perak. 10 community members are selected to answer the questionaire. This pilot study purposes to ensure the persistance of questionaire from local community member's understanding aspect in terms of languages, contents and meaning. Realibility and validity an instrument refers to how far the instrument can measure the approriate data(Mohd Majid,1990). The designed instrument able to measure content of the study field based on the study objective. The decision whether the realibility is high or low, Package for the Social Sciences ( SPSS for Windows) will be used to view every item either it have concrete relation or not. The Alpha Cronbach
value derived from this pilot study is 0.7950 (>0.7) thefore questionaire set is compatible and can be used for conducting this study.

 

Data Collection

    Research method is devided into descriptive and experiment. Descriptive method such as survey, correlation, qualitative, case study, hictorical method, effect and comparison, test and measurement. Meanwhile, experiment method likes single group, two group design, one subject design, multi policies design, interlaced design, multi groups design, factorial design and etc. (Wiseman Douglas C., 1999) Recollection questionaire forms and it have been studied to ensure no defect to any form. The questionaire form are distributed by face to face within researcher and repondents. This approach guarantees the safety of collected data. After completed data collection, it will be refined) to ensure only the forms which have realibilty and validity will be analyzed.

Survey Data Analysis

There are two statistic methods are used which are descriptive static and inference statistic. Collected data will be analyzed in quantitive. This approach is using descriptive statistic and Package for the Social Sciences to retrieve respondent anwer's analysis percentage. Descriptive statistic provide two purposes, first to explaining data with using only one or two numbers that simply to make comparison amon a group. Second, it provides an access for further nalysis when inference statistic is used. Amongst the methods surrounded by inference statistic are central tendency, variability, relationship and Z-score/Standard Score.

Central tendency measurement depicts certain circumstance and avarage marks. It have been called as central tendency because provide indicator for centre of mod, median and min. Measuring the changes circumstance is important to be decided in central tendency situation. Measuring is easy for random is ratio, which is distance from the highest score and lowest score different from each other. The better measurement is variance, which is it is using all of score, not only the higest or the lowerst score. The next random measurement is standard daviation. Relationship measurement the methods have been used is correlation, regreation and standard marks (Graziano Anthony M. & Raulin Micheal L., 2004).

Every single data derived from the questionaire is grouped, checked and analyzed and also will be presented in percentage by using software called Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 14.0. The data has been analyzed to get the frequency (f) and percentage value (%) respondent who answered the all five items. Statement "very agreed" and "agreed" will be combined to state the pro or suportive respondent's view. Meamwhile
statement "not agreed" and "very not agreed" will be combined to state the opposite or nan supportive respondant's view. Statement "Not Sure" will not measured and excepted in deciding weather it is support the items presented with value of min, median and standard diviation.

Table 3.2 : Scale and Result Analysis

Scale	value	Result
5	Strongly Agreed	Agree
4	Agreed
3	Not Sure	Not Sure
2	Disagree	Disagree
1	Strongly Disagree

 

According to Mohd Najib (1999), tedency of respondant results weather agree, not sure and disagree can be simplified as below.

Table 3.3 : Interpretation Level For Mean Rate

Interpretation Level
Interpretation Level	Mean
Strongly Disagreed	1.0 – 1.4
Disagreed	1.5 – 2.4
Not Sure	2.5 – 3.4
Agreed	3.5 – 4.4
Strongly Agreed	4.5 – 5.0

( Source: Adaptation from yusrizal (2006))

Interview Data Interpretation

Data can be translated and analyzed by various methods and ways. But in the case of this study will analyze data collected for each of the findings for each interview. Response obtained from respondents will be reviewed carefully to get the real information in the KMS with all community colleges and local communities. Data collected interview findings are important for this study because it is the only method to dig in deep on the KMS in a large organization. This kind of interaction that lends depth on how to prepare a questionnaire that is better for the validity of the study.
     Although the question specifically designed to confirm the specific model, the answer still be considered to be in line with the model. Access to interview participants will be restricted if there are cases that would require the opinion is issued. Data will be examined to explore how local communities can be enabled ideas to accept the implementation of KM as shown in the model and find ways to improve the implementation of KMS for a large-scale organizations. Although the answers given by participants on their experiences using the system that exists there, but easy to see their recommendations on improvements that benefit member organizations in the context of this community.

 

Summary

Chapter discussed about survey instrument which was used in this research work, type of questions asked, proposed framework, model construction processes,sampling technique, respondants and description of questions. Chapter also discussed about the results of realibility analysis and how data is analyzed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knowledge Management in Community College- Chapter 1 Progress

1. INTRODUCTION

 

Background

Knowledge management as a dicipline has witnessed fundamental changes during the past two decades, allowing knowledge seekers around the globe to have access to information which two decades ago, was inaccessible. In addition to his transformation, many traditional organizations and business enterprises have taken advantages of the technologies offered by the development of knowledge management systems in order to expand and augment their existing programs. This has allowed practioners and reserachers to serve their customers, employees and stakeholders more effectively and efficiently and efficiently in the modern virtual world. With continued technological innovations in information and communication technology and with on going discovery and research into newer and more innovative techniques and applications, the acknowledge management discipline will continue to witness an explosion of information within this rapidly evolving field.

Education, a major institutional force in the socialisation of the individual, is at least in part about managing the transfer of information for the creation of knowledge between lecturers and students. Let us consider the lecturer-student interaction for a moment. A lecturer is a trained expert in a particular field and uses different resources (books, articles) in order to teach a, usually, national standard curriculum. The different resources form the link between what the lecturer needs to convey and what the students need to learn. This is an informational link on the one level. On another level, however, it intends to 'form' the student's knowledge of a particular module or subject. We know that education – whether at the level of the curriculum, college/school or individual lecturer – is not objective, and the information intended to form students' knowledge can be managed for a desired effect.

     "Driving knowledgeable and skilled community " is a slogan, backed by all community colleges in the community Malaysia. As a training institution under the auspices of the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education, the purpose of community colleges is clear when it comes to the true meaning of the slogan. Community College began operating the pilot at ten colleges in June 2001 and is now the number rose to 38 community colleges and 18 branches throughout country. In early 2010, community colleges have gone through waves of transformation in which the strengthening of the institution itself in the rule center of excellence in knowledge sharing among local communities.
As a community college employees, who are directly involved with the modus operandi of community colleges, researchers look at the overall mechanism for knowledge sharing conducted by community colleges. There are researchers looking for ideas on how knowledge management (KM) can provide benefits to this transformation, or consolidation to be realized. Researchers expand his view on the idea to the broader scope of the local community. How KM at community colleges will benefit the entire organization in which researchers see as a local community organization. Various questions arise from the idea and indirectly led researchers to study more deep the scope. There are a variety of scholarly materials such as books, journals or theses published a range of KM. Among of them are, how KM helps an organization, especially those involving the corporations who make profits, Role of KM for Organization also said regardless of social or corporate organizations. However, the obstacles in the implementation of KM is not so dealt with and discussed. What more obstacles in the implementation of the KM community colleges, researchers found that it was never spoken but KM itself has not been studied in depth at the community colleges in Malaysia.

 

 

Statement of the Problem

Hence the study of KM in the community colleges is limited, researchers try to learn what KMS implementation in a community college that can be realized. How can KMS achieve a knowledge-based organization?, and within the scope of this study researchers have expressed the local community as an organization should be guided towards a knowledge based organization?. Observations on previous studies and actively committed to the diligent reading of all to answer the research questions triggered by the researchers. Although KM is an advanced in western countries, such as giant corporations like HP, BP, Shell has demonstrated that KM has a positive impact on the progress of the company and can be implemented, but whether it is carried out in parallel if KM is implemented in community college especially in Malaysia still a question. In fact, culture sharing of knowledge among Malaysians is still low and it is a principal issue to be refined. The impact as example, a situation that occurred at the community college, students still make mistakes in completing a task that is similar and often repeated.    

Regarding to the tranformation launched by the ministry of higher education in the early 2010, as community college get involved too, in learner-centered, all college members, including the director, lectures, staff, students and parents, are regarded as learners, and learning opportunities are provided for each and every single one of them to enhance their learning ability and knowledge; it is expected that learners will become autonomous and lifelonglearners, critical thinkers, and knowledge-producers. To this end, community college must become Knowledge-Creating institution. Thus, community college need to become boundaryless organizations, reinvent curriculums and adopt knowledge management (KM) for teaching and learning.

 

Purpose of the Study

     There are many methods and strategies in KM implementation at the community college even if it is not something that simple. Community members may not be skilled in using IT, culture of competition of life and the difficulty for community members to find the right time to use the system introduced. On behalf of the community college which serves as the center of the community gradually to foster a culture of knowledge sharing and thus form a KM initiative itself. The unit of information technology program Kolej Komuniti Pasir Salak, such as putting video on the process of identifying damage to a computer on the internet via the existing medium and indirectly it can be shared by local communities in Pasir Salak, such as computer repair shop and they can be applied in ensuring and identified that damage to computer more quickly and eventually became a total success in terms of quality of service the shop.

What is the status of implementation of KM in the college community college?
What model can be introduced and can be used for community college towards KMS implementation?

     Guided by the KM theory and implementation of KMS, it can be deemed as an advantage to obtain precise information on how the structure, components or groups of KM's components interact. There are also a successful implementation of KM in corporate institutions can be found and adapted at the community college. In the implementation of KM is not only the technical aspect of it involves the non-technical, community colleges can not say KM has been implemented only with a portal or web site.

 

Limitations

This research will cover some selected community colleges. It shall also make some comparison analysis among these selected organizations in the implementation of knowledge management. As this study aims at implementation of knowledge management from the person, academic in-charge through the lens of self-evaluation, all interview sessions with the interviewees and other materials gathered directly from those selected organizations would be used as primary source data. This research will limit it analysis to issues that were initially raised by the researcher and issues that were generated in the course of interviewing the selected individual. As this research is interpretive and explorative in nature, the research is limited only to the above mentioned criteria. This research is also limited in it analysis to the method supported by SPSS, an analysis tool.

 

Delimitations

     The study centered on the implementation of KM in an organization that can develop towards a knowledge organization and interaction among its members. Based on the KM is implemented in the organization can be adapted to produce a KMS model for the implementation of KM in the community college.

 

Thesis Structure

The structure of the rest of the thesis is as follows:

Chapter 2: In this chapter, the researcher briefly presents the field of education and the
role of teaching and learning improvement. The researcher focuses particularly on the use of knowledge management in education, or the learning organization as it also known. We also give an overview of research methods in education, and a detailed description of the research methods used in this thesis.

Chapter 3: Here the researcher presents the research method we have used for his different studies
with arguments for why this is suited for our cases. He explores his research themes and his chosen research questions. He also describes the different contexts of the studies.

Chapter 4: The researcher presents the main results of our studies. The chapter first explores all the
individual studies. He then sums up the contributions.

Chapter 5: The researcher discusses his findings within his three major research themes. Compare
them with his contributions and the literature. Next is researcher sums up the main findings from the discussion, and outline possible
further work in the field of knowledge management in community college.

Appendix A: The researcher presents the papers that submitted or published that
contain material this thesis is based upon.

 

Definition of Terms

There are certain terms are used widely in this study. Researcher are define the terms that will be used in this study as below:

KK: community college

KM : knowledge management

ICT: Information and communication technology

SPSS: Statistical Package for Social Science software

Qualitative Analysis: A process of examining and interpreting data in order to elicit meaning, gain understanding, and develop emperical knowledge.

 

Summary

This chapter discussed about KM implementation issues in community college, problem statement of this research and how research will be conducted. The background of this work, objectives and research purpose were also provided, followed by contributions, research limitations and overview for each chapter. Next chapter will be about literature review which will give an idea about the work done so far in KM implementation.