doiSerbia

A case study on research assistant system: From knowledge management perspective

Yang David Tan Jin (National Kaohsiung Normal University - Center for General Education)
Tsai Chun-Yen (National Kaohsiung Normal University - Graduate Institute of Science Education)
Huang Jey Ming (National Kaohsiung Normal University - Graduate Institute of Information and Computer Education)

The purpose of this study is to develop a web-based Research Assistant System (RAS), a Knowledge Management System by community of practice, to improve the group performance of Research Assistants (RAs). Knowledge management is concerned with effective and efficient access to internal and external knowledge that enable an organization to be informed of its environment. The methodology of this study consists of system analysis/design. This study focuses on the implementation of such a system, a system based on free software-PhpBB that allows people to add special features to meet RAS's requirements. The testing phase in this study was also obtained from RAs' feedbacks. Two contributions of RAS are: (a). With shared memory, the RAS exposes to an interest in how research performance being not merely a function of an individual's achievement, but in a way that tasks and problems are being shared; the organization memory implies an emphasis on how individual insights are combined in a group, and how the structure and dynamics of such group thought processes; (b). The RAS plays as an organizational learning support system that individual problem solving is inspired by how groups of experts can come together and solve problems in a way that the individuals could not do on their own. Finally, the implications of RAS in terms of Knowledge Management are also discussed.