EVALUATING THE BLENDING OF AN E-LEARNING MODULE INTO A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT COURSE: A CASE STUDY FROM THE SINGAPORE MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITY (SMU)

In 2005, the authors of this essay led the development and launch of SMU’s (Singapore Management University) first e-learning package on ‘Knowledge Management’. The package is aimed at supporting SMU’s mission to be “committed to an interactive, participative and technologically-enabled learning experience”. Since its inception in 2000, SMU’s educational and administrative practices are modelled after American institutions, in particular the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. To support SMU’s unique pedagogy, wireless technology for mobile computing is a central feature at SMU. Against this background, the paper features a self-critical and reflective case study of the roll out of an innovative elearning module blended into a ‘Knowledge Management’ (KM) course. In the paper, the authors share the rationale behind the design features of the module and the implementation platform, describe the effort to blend the module into the teaching of the KM course and provide a critical impact assessment of the module based on students’ feedback and evaluation results. Methodologically, the paper is based on the qualitative analysis of evaluative SWOT reports written by a group of 45 undergraduate students who enrolled in the Knowledge Management course taught by Thomas Menkhoff at SMU in Academic Year 05-06. Students were tasked to assess the effectiveness of the eKM courseware in form of a short essay, outlining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the new module.

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