This course will provide an overview of the knowledge cycle by focusing on skills and strategies to better generate, capture, share, and apply knowledge to development programs.
Course Description
Our digitally connected lives have made information increasingly available to all. How do you navigate this world of overabundant information, while making sure that the right knowledge is being incorporated into and captured by your project? How do you ensure that experiential knowledge from the field feeds back into program design, or that best practices from one project are shared with a similar project in another part of the world? The growing field of knowledge management provides a framework and introduces tools to help practitioners improve knowledge flow and ultimately development outcomes.
This course will provides an overview of the knowledge cycle by focusing on skills and strategies to better generate, capture, share, and apply knowledge to development programs. It will feature live interactive guest expert presentations with leading KM specialists, community of practice leaders, and online learning experts. It will also include a unique hands-on learning environment with technology demos, practical activities, networking events, immersive simulations and more. Ultimately, participants will leave the course with an understanding of the tools and techniques to effectively design, deliver and evaluate knowledge management activities.
Course Topics and Featured Tech
- Week 1: Introduction to Knowledge Management (People, Process, & Tech)
- Week 2: Tech for Collaboration and Capture (Conducting a Knowledge Audit)
- Week 3: Tech for Internalizing and Organizing (Developing a KM Strategy and Implementation)
- Week 4: The Future of Knowledge Management (M&E for your Project, Social Network Analysis, Technologies on the Horizon)
Course Methodology
The entire course is delivered online. The total time commitment is a minimum of 2-5 hours a week with suggested 7-9 hours per week. The course is designed to be highly interactive and social, but we also work hard to ensure that the majority of the content can be experienced in a self-paced manner. It will feature one or two real-time interactions each week, such as live discussions, live expert interviews, and live simulations. In order to accommodate busy schedules of mission staff from around the world, we’ve set up a learning environment where participants have plenty of options to explore content that is most relevant to them through live content and interactions, readings, and videos.
Facilitators will produce weekly audio podcast recaps for participants to catch up on key conversations and topics. Participants can also access all course content six months after course completion so the material can be revisited later.
Read the a working draft of the syllabus here.