academic portal

- 89 -

Knowledge Management through Academic Portal 9th Convention PLANNER 2014

Knowledge Management through Academic Portal A Case study of IIT Madras

Nirmali Chakraborty

Abstract

The study aims to investigate studentsrsquo perceptions of using academic portal as knowledge manage-ment tool at IIT Madras A self administered questionnaire was distributed among randomly selected100 students of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras Moreover a scheduled interview wasconducted with the senior library professionals of the concerned institute This research paperintroduces the relationship between academic portal and knowledge management practices Thestudy shows that all the respondents are very much interested to use the academic portals of theirinstitute and quite a good number of respondents are participating in those portals Of course theawareness level of the respondents regarding the utilization of academic portals as knowledgemanagement tool is low Therefore the institution should create awareness among the users byconducting programmes such as orientation programs demonstrations workshops conferencesseminars and through notices regarding the complete potential of the academic portals and their useas knowledge management tool Moreover faculties should also motivate their students to createshare store and utilize knowledge on the academic portals

Keywords Knowledge Management Portal Academic Portal IIT Madras

1 Introduction

Knowledge management is the most powerful meansfor any organizational success It is a managementattitude which unites streamline information man-agement with a culture of organizational learningspirit Knowledge management needs a systematicapproach to develop the evolution of knowledgeinto a key organizational resource Most importantlyeffective knowledge management is now acknowl-edged as the key driver of new knowledge and newideas Therefore knowledge management has be-come a significant issue in all types of organiza-tions across the world irrespective of profit-makingand not-for-profit organizations Academic institu-tions also have considerable prospects to apply

knowledge management practices to support everypart of their goal Because an institutionrsquos wideapproach to knowledge management can lead toenormous improvements in creation and sharing ofknowledge within the academic fraternity In factthe greatest knowledge creators are the academicsKnowledge creation is best performed by universi-ties or higher academic institutions Therefore it issaid that the application of knowledge managementprocesses in academic sector is as essential as it isin the corporate sector

The introduction of the portal concept to the aca-demic institutions has opened new possibilities toaddress some of the issues concerning the manage-ment of academic information and knowledge Con-ceptually the portal is nothing but a gatewaythrough which members can access data informa-tion and knowledge An e-portal uniquely adapted

9th Convention PLANNER-2014Dibrugarh University Assam September 25-27 2014copy INFLIBNET Centre Gandhinagar

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9th Convention PLANNER 2014 Knowledge Management through Academic Portal

to individual needs can be accessed by the usersvia intranet or internet Thus it can be used as aninterface to provide relevant data from a centralsource through secure and password-protectedentry Password-protection is highly necessary be-cause the system can immediately identify its usersand restrict unauthorized access to authorized ar-eas Hence once registered a user can both accessand add information directly into the database mak-ing it a powerful tool for data management and up-dating the database immediately and ensuring thatall information is current The other benefits of thee-portal includemdasheasy access from any internet orintranet connection quick and easily available in-formation involvement of parents and peers in theeducational processes monitoring of self-progresssimple interface for easy data input improvised com-munications between policy makers and other stake-holders and so on

2 Academic Portals

According to Pienaar (2003) to support academicsrsquopersonal knowledge management in an integratedway the academic portal must have the followingcharacteristics

The type of portal must be a combination ofa vertical portal (vortal) and a corporate orenterprise information portal

High levels of functionality and integrationare needed - a seamless interface This mustinclude advanced personalization andcustomization capabilities

The portal must support both the teachingand research roles of academics

The portal should give access to the follow-ing information sources e-journals e-ar-

ticles e-reserves e-archives databases e-books e-dissertations library cataloguesand the universityrsquos research database Per-sonal information sources should also beavailable for example experts and informa-tion specialists etc

The portal should provide Web search en-gines global search function list servers chatrooms e-mail adding of URLs interface withdocument delivery and inter library loan sys-tems

Academics should be able to evaluate andadd information sources to the portal

21 Knowledge Management through AcademicPortal

The most popular form of knowledge managementtechnology that provides a secure central spacewhere staff users administrators partners and sup-pliers can exchange information share knowledgeand guide each other is the portal (Jotwani 2005) Itis a networked platform that presents the knowl-edge resources and services to its users It provideseasy-to-use information discovery and managementsystems The following table (Table 1) shows thepossible influence of academic portals on the knowl-edge management processes

- 91 -


Table 1 Knowledge Management throughAcademic Portal

KM processes Possible influence ofAcademic Portal

Creation of Knowledge Discussion Forum Idea generation Share Thinking Add Knowledge Brain Storming Session Workspace for Research

Projects Student Account Reward amp Recognition

Sharing of Knowledge Chat Rooms Bulletin Boards List Serve Communities of Practices E-Mail Virtual ConferencesMeet

ings Virtual Classrooms Lectures amp Tutorials People Search

Storage of Knowledge Institutional Repositories Digital Libraries Databases Theses amp Dissertations Wikis Blogs

Utilization of Knowledge Sophisticated Web SearchEngines

Link to the SubjectExperts

Link to the reference

Librarian

211 Portals in knowledge creation

Academics are the best knowledge creators andacademic environments are the best knowledge cre-ation platforms Academic portal is a kind of tech-nology that organization can use as a dais in knowl-edge management project Therefore portal should

be designed to create and manage knowledge toinfluence knowledge assets within an organizationPortals have collaborative function discussion fo-rum and push functions that help in innovation andknowledge creation process For personalized viewportals can create a customized environment for dif-ferent users so that they can share their thinkingeasily (McDermott 1999) Moreover knowledgeproducts can be created by web editors and pub-lished on the academic portals A portal must pro-vide e-publishing facilities to support creation ofknowledge products Academics should be allowedto evaluate and add knowledge to the portal More-over knowledge contributions should be awardedto motivate knowledge creation Such an awardshows that organization is concerned about the pro-cess It also acts as a motivating factor for the mem-bers in the organization to share more Indeed knowl-edge creation can give identity to the employees inthe organization

212 Portals in knowledge sharing

Knowledge sharing is the most important processin knowledge management framework Knowledgeis useless until and unless it is shared Academicportals provide internet communication instrumentssuch as chat rooms bulletin boards list serverscommunities of practice and e-mails to support in-ternational contact and the creation of virtual com-munities Traditional publications such as journalsbooks dissertations can be published through por-tals on the web Even portals can deliver educa-tional materials via web (e-education) Moreover aportal can provide virtual conferences web teach-ing virtual classrooms demonstrations and lecturesworkspaces for research projects etc In the wordsof Lam (1996) ldquoIf we want to use portal to achieveknowledge sharing process we not only have to

- 92 -


focus on technology but also need to create alsquoknowledge sharing culturersquo among the communityrdquo

213 Portals in knowledge storing

Each and every piece of experience and knowledgeis precious Academic institutions are the aura ofknowledge But very frequently we lose this knowl-edge due to lack of proper storage of knowledgeand knowledge management culture Scientific in-formation and knowledge can be stored electroni-cally and made available on the academic portalFor that institutional repositories and digital librar-ies can be linked with the portal itself to store theacademic information and knowledge Portals canprovide knowledge repository with filtering func-tion aim to store and disseminate relevant informa-tion This feature belongs to the element of assetmanagement Moreover academic institutions canmaintain their own wikis on the portal itself for stor-age of knowledge Similarly faculties and research-ers can maintain their own blogs for updating andstoring their research outputs

214 Portals in knowledge utilization

Knowledge is worthless until and unless it is uti-lized Therefore National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration (NASA) has defined knowledgemanagement as getting right information to the rightpeople at the right time Portals provide sophisti-cated web search engines for the end users Alsotraditional databases can be made available on theportal The portals can be linked with the referencelibrarian for consultation for proper knowledge uti-lization Moreover it can be linked with the subjectexperts also for the same

Thus the introduction of the portal concept to theacademic institutions has opened new possibilities

to proceed towards knowledge management It canprovide a number of learning tools including acourse content management a course calendar anonline discussion board information announcementreviews auto-marked quizzes and exams grade main-tenance and distribution student progress track-ing navigation tools access control online assign-ment electronic mail chat room etc It is such aplatform which provides the facility of interactionamong knowledge holders and seekers Indeed theportal technology can be combined with the pro-cesses of knowledge management

3 Objective of the Study

The study aims to investigate studentsrsquo perceptionsof using academic portals as knowledge manage-ment tools at IIT Madras

4 Research Questions

The study is motivated with the following researchquestions

Are the students aware about the institutionalacademic portals

What are the features of those portals and towhat extent these are used by the students

Do students find the portals important fortheir academic purposes

Are the portals user-friendly

Do the portals support electronic scholarlycommunication

Is there any social influence on students inusing the portals

Are the students self efficient to use the por-tals

- 93 -


Do the students need special training to usethe portals

Do the portals support Knowledge Manage-ment Processes eg Creation Sharing Stor-age and Utilization of Knowledge

5 Methodology

For the survey of the primary data the selected in-stitution was physically visited and a self adminis-tered questionnaire was distributed among the ran-domly selected 100 students of the Indian Instituteof Technology Madras Moreover a scheduled in-terview was conducted with the senior library pro-fessionals of the concerned institute

6 Overview of Indian Institute of TechnologyMadras

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITMadras) is an autonomous public engineering andresearch institution located in Chennai Tamil NaduIt is recognized as an Institute of national impor-tance by the Government of India Founded in 1959with technical and financial assistance from the gov-ernment of the former West Germany it was the thirdIndian Institutes of Technology that was establishedby the Government of India through an Act of Par-liament to provide education and research facilitiesin engineering and technology

IIT Madras is a residential institute that occupies a620 acres campus that was formerly part of the ad-joining Guindy National Park The institute hasnearly 550 faculties 8000 students and 1250 ad-ministrative and supporting staff It has establisheditself as a premier centre for teaching research andindustrial consultancy in the country The Institutehas sixteen academic departments and a few ad-vanced research centres in various disciplines of

engineering and pure sciences with nearly 100 labo-ratories organised in a unique pattern of function-ing A faculty of international repute a brilliant stu-dent community excellent technical and supportingstaff and an effective administration have all con-tributed to the pre-eminent status of IIT Madras(httpwwwiitmacinabout)

61 Knowledge Management at IIT Madras

611 Academic Portal of IIT Madras (httpwwwiitmacin)

The academic portal of IIT Madras is the gatewayof the institute It is like a one stop shop for allinformation needs of the IIT-M community It cov-ers the links like Administration Academic Depart-ments Centres Research Central Library CampusNews Conference link e-mail Student portal fac-ulty portal IJAESAM - New Journal IndustrialConsultancy and Sponsored Research Alumni Re-lations International Relations NPTEL PlacementResearch Park Right To Information TelephoneDirectory JEE (Advanced) Annual Reports Fac-ulty Achievements Heritage Centre History ISO9001 Landmarks Mission Past Directors QualityPolicy Reaching IIT Madras Strategic Plan etc Thehome page of the academic portal of IIT Madras isgiven in Fig 1

Figure 1 Academic Portal

- 94 -


612 The Library Portal(httpwwwcenlibiitmacindocslibraryindexphp)

The library portal of IIT Madras is based on VTLS-Virtua software It provides the Open Access Cata-logue access e-resources and list of electronic jour-nals and print periodicals In addition users canlogin view and renew their books in their accountMoreover it allows users to assign tags to theirfavourite contents in library catalogue and to putmarking on the OPAC Fig 2 is showing the homepage of the Library Portal with its various links likei-portal E-books E-journals Thesis Ask the librar-ian service etc

Figure 2 Library Portal

613 Portal for Faculty and Staff(httpwwwiitmacinfsportal)

This portal holds the information regarding facul-ties and other staffs The site is only for Facultyand Staff using their login ID The portal provideslink like Faculty List Staff List Publications List ofConferences Academic Curricula Employee ImageFile List of Campus News Recent Post etc (Fig 3)

Figure 3 Portal for Faculty and Staff

614 Student Portal(httpstudentsiitmacinhome)

It includes information regarding the studentsand links necessary for the students It coverslinks like Student Search Project Survey StudentWiki (swiki) Messages Mess Registration MessRating etc Moreover the page has link withsocial networking sites Facebook Twitter etc(Fig 4)

Figure 4 Student Portal

615 E-Learning Portal

The e-learning portal of IIT Madras is based onMoodle 263 software It facilitates course manage-ment using its different modules ndash course assign-ment chat-room calendar task discussion boardonline test message glossary quiz survey and soon In addition each course is provided with its

- 95 -


own portal allowing the participants to downloadthe resources at leisure anytime and from anywhereThese portals also allow and encourage participantsto carry on discussions on various topics of inter-est thus extending learning process across theavailable 24 hours Figure 5 is showing the coursecategories on the e-learning portal

Figure 5 E-Learning Portal

616 CWW Office of the Hostel Management(httpccwiitmacin)

It is an intranet based hostel management portalwithin IIT Madras providing information like - Hos-tel Information Rules and Regulations StudentsAllocations Wardens Department wise List of Stu-dents Hostel Council List My Advisees Peoplewith Privileged Role Anti Ragging Information etc(Figure 6)

Figure 6 CWW Hostel Management Portal

617 Training and Placement Portal(httpplacementiitmacinstudents)

It is a training and placement portal for the studentsof IIT madras This portal communicates studentsrsquo pro-

files with the recruiters and recruitersrsquo profiles with the

students Figure 7 shows the links of this portal

Figure 7 Training and Placement Portal

7 Data Analysis

The primary data collected from the randomly se-lected 100 students of IIT Madras were tabulatedfor analysis in accordance to the objective of thestudy Some respondents furnished some valuablecomments in the space provided for the purposethose comments were incorporated in the appropri-ate places

71 Basic Information of the Respondents

The Table 3 gives a brief account on the basic infor-mation of the respondents of the study It was seenthat out of 100 respondents 79 are male and 21 arefemale Similarly out of 100 respondents 82 comeunder 20 to 25 age group 17 come under 26 to 30age group and the remaining one is of above 30years Moreover all the respondents are having e-mail account

- 96 -


Table 3 Basic Information of the Respondents

72 General Understanding and Usage of Portal

In this section a descriptive statistical analysis isgiven in order to provide a richer understanding ofthe studentsrsquo general understanding and usage ofacademic portal From Table 4 it is can be seen thatall the respondents use computers and web tech-nologies for their study Similarly all the respon-dents claimed to be familiar about the term lsquoe-learn-ingrsquo as well as lsquoe-learning portalrsquo Moreover all therespondents are aware about the academic portal oftheir institute Of course no respondent has receivedtraining on the use of the portal But majority of therespondents replied that the portal supports boththe teaching and learning and the portal enablesusers to access all the collection from one place andto search across Moreover all the respondentsadmitted that the portal supports electronic schol-arly communication and it connects people withcommon interests who work in different depart-ments Again majority of the respondents have re-plied that they can add information to the portalRespondents informed that they are not informedthrough their mobile phone regarding the currentnews and updates in their areas of interestTable 4General Understanding and Usage of AcademicPortal

Table 4 General Understanding and Usage of

Academic Portal

73 Studentsrsquo Perceptions in Using Academic Portal

731 Performance Expectancy

A descriptive statistical analysis is described in thissection in order to provide better understanding ofthe studentsrsquo perceptions in using the academicportal Table 5 summarizes the percentages of thestudentsrsquo perceptions with respect to PerformanceExpectancy It can be seen that majority of the stu-dents tend to believe that the portal is a useful andproductive tool it enables them to accomplish taskmore quickly and it increases their creativity How-

Gender Male (79) Female (21) Age Group 20-25 yrs (82) 26-30 yrs(17) 30+ (1) E-mail Account Yes (100) No (-)

General Understanding and Usage of Academic Portal

Yes No No Response

i Do you usually use any computer applications for your study

100 - -

ii Do you use the Web in your academic activities

100 - -

iii Are you familiar with the term ldquoE-Learningrdquo

100 - -

iv Are you familiar with the term ldquoE-Learning Portalrdquo

100 - -

v Are you aware about the E-Learning Portal of your institute

100 - -

vi Have you ever received training on the use of that Portal

- 78 22

vii Does the portal support both the teaching and learning

83 - 17

viii Does the portal enable users to access all the collections in one place and to search across them

97 - 3

ix Does the portal support electronic scholarly communication

93 - 7

x Does the portal connect people with common interests who work in different departments

100 - -

xi Can you add information to the portal

96 - 4

xii Are the members of the portal informed through their mobile phone regarding the current news in their areas of interest

- 92 8

- 97 -


ever they tend to be a bit more neutral in terms of their perception regarding getting a better grade by usingthe portal

Table 5 Descriptive Statistics for Performance Expectancy (PE)

Performance Expectancy (PE) Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyDisagree Agree

PE1 I find the Academic Portal useful inmy studies 0 0 24 64 12

PE2 Using the Academic Portal enables meto accomplish tasks more quickly 0 2 16 72 10

PE3 Using the Academic Portal increasesmy creativity 0 0 12 84 4

PE4 If I use the Academic Portal I willget a better grade 0 6 68 8 0

732 Effort Expectancy

Table 6 provides a descriptive analysis of the studentsrsquo perceptions regarding Effort Expectancy It appearsthat majority of the students agreed that the Academic portal requires minimum effort as it is understand-able easy to use and easy to learn

Table 6 Descriptive Statistics for Effort Expectancy (EE)

Effort Expectancy (EE) Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyDisagree Agree

EE1 I find the portal understandable - - 12 75 13

EE2 I have necessary knowledge to use the portal - - 19 73 8

EE3 I find the portal easy to use - - 11 66 23

733 Attitude toward Using the Portal

The Table 7 reveals that majority of the students surveyed consider that the portals make classes moreinteresting and understandable of course they are found to be neutral when asked whether learning withthe portal is fun

Table 7 Descriptive Statistics for Attitude toward Using Portal (A)

Attitude toward Using the Portal (A) Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyDisagree Agree

A1 Portal makes classes more interesting - 10 66 24A2 Portal makes classes more understandable - - 3 78 19

A3 Learning with portal is fun - - 59 37 4

- 98 -


734 Social Influence

Interestingly the descriptive analysis in Table 8 shows that students get influenced by others to useacademic portals Majority of them are agreeing that the teachers and administrative staff support the useof the portals But unfortunately majority of the respondents are disagreeing about their parents motivatingthem to use the portals

Table 8 Descriptive Statistics for Social Influence (SI)

Social Influence (SI) Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyDisagree Agree

SI1 My teachers have been supportive in theuse of the academic portal - 19 39 42 -

SI2 In general the university has supported inthe use of the portals - 16 34 50 -

SI3 My parents advice me to use theacademic portal 17 56 27 - -

SI4 My friends suggest to use the portals - 5 26 69 -

735 Facilitating Conditions

Noticeably the descriptive statistics in Table 9 expresses that majority of the studentsrsquo perceptions thatthey have the necessary resources and knowledge to use the academic portal But they are disagreeingabout that lsquoa specific person (or group)rsquo is available for assistance with difficulties they experience with theacademic portal

Table 9 Descriptive Statistics for Facilitating Conditions

Facilitating Conditions (FC) Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyDisagree Agree

FC1 I have the resources necessary to use theportals - - 6 67 27

FC2 I have the knowledge necessary to use the - - 12 71 17portals

FC4 A specific person (or group) is available for - 34 58 - -assistance with difficulties I experience withthe portals

736 Anxiety

Not surprisingly todayrsquos techno-savvy students do not have a high level of anxiety while using the portalsOf course few students feel uneasy to use the academic portal because of scare of losing a lot of informa-tion by clicking the wrong button Moreover quite a good number of respondents are willing to share theirknowledge through the portal

- 99 -


Table 10 Descriptive Statistics for Anxiety (ANX)

Anxiety (ANX) Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyDisagree Agree

ANX1 I feel uneasy to use academic portals 23 54 14 9 -

ANX2 It scares me to lose a lot of informationby clicking the wrong button 8 53 7 31 -

ANX3 I hesitate to use the system for fear ofmaking mistakes that I cannot correct 32 51 7 10 -

ANX4 I donrsquot like to share my knowledgethrough the academic portal 62 33 5

737 Features of the Academic Portal and their use

In addition to studying the academic portal more closely this study also has tried to find the features andfunctionality of the academic portal that students tend to use As can be seen in Table 11 students use theportal mostly for obtaining course information announcements old question papers and online testingquiz Moreover majority of the respondents use it to participate in the discussion forum as well as in thechat room

Table 11 Descriptive Statistics for Features of the Academic Portal (FB)

Features of the Portal (FP) Never Use Rarely Use Sometimes Use OftenUse Use

FP1 Administrative Information - - 2 31 67

FP2 Academic Information - - - 37 63

FP3 Library Resources - 8 10 49 33

FP4 Study Materials - - - 11 89

FP5 Lecture Aids - - - 16 84

FP 6 Virtual Classroom 100 - - - -

FP7 Web Conferencing 100 - - - -

FP8 E-mail - 2 23 59 16

FP9 Discussion Forum - 7 24 51 18

FP10 Chat room - 19 71 8 2

FP11 Old Question Papers - 3 5 25 67

FP12 Online TestingQuiz - 17 14 63 6

FP13 Online Tutorials - 11 13 71 5

FP14 Gradebook - - - 27 73

FB15 Online Help - 28 32 32 8

- 100 -


74 Need of Special Training on the use ofAcademic Portal

Quite a good number of respondents asked to or-ganize special training on the better utilization ofthe academic portal For that the institution shouldintroduce special user education programmes on theportal It serves to instruct inform and persuade theusers about the benefits of the portal Facultiesshould also be given proper training for self partici-pation in the portal and they should be well informedabout its importance in teaching and learning pro-cesses Moreover users should be motivated forusing the portal as well as to participate in the por-tal Some of the possible mechanisms for promotionand advocacy include workshops seminars andpresentations leaflets posters newsletters andother printed literature library orientationprogramme etc

Table 12 Need of Special Training on the use ofthe Academic Portal

Yes No No Response

88 8 4

8 Findings

After due analysis of the data the following majorfindings were drawn

i All the respondents usually use computer aswell as web technology for their study

ii All the respondents are familiar with the termlsquoAcademic Portalrsquo

iii All the respondents are aware about the Aca-demic Portal of their institute

iv Majority of the respondents have not receivedtraining on the use of the Academic Portal

v Majority of the respondents have replied thatthe portal supports both the teaching and learn-ing

vi Majority of the respondents have acknowledgedthat the portal supports electronic scholarlycommunication and it connects people withcommon interests

viiMajority of the respondents have mentionedthat they can add information to the studentportal

viiiNone of the respondents is informed throughtheir mobile phone regarding the current updatesand news in their areas of interestix M a -jority of the respondents tend to agree that theportal is understandable easy to use and easyto learn

x Majority of the respondents get influenced touse the portal by others like teachers friendsetc

xi According to majority of respondents the por-tal is easy to use but seems to be easier if stu-dents can call someone for help whenever theyget stuck

xii Majority of the respondents do not have a highlevel on anxiety while using the portal

xiiiMajority of the respondents use the portalmostly for obtaining course information admin-istrative information study materials lectureaids old question papers online testingquizgrade-book etc Moreover some of them use itto participate in the discussion forum as well asin the chat-room

xivMajority of the respondents have asked to or-ganize special training on the use of the academicportal

- 101 -


9 Conclusion

In this paper the author has studied the use of anacademic portal designed to help higher academicinstitution in the context of knowledge managementprocesses The academic portal of IIT Madras anintegrated knowledge environment is working as aknowledge management initiative for the teachersand learners Students and teachers can managetheir knowledge on the portal very easily It can beutilized as a tool for capturing teachersrsquo explicit andtacit knowledge for knowledge sharing It is veryuser-friendly for collaborative learning The aca-demic portal of IIT Madras is providing ways todisplay and organize student-generated contentsand thus it helps to move this knowledge to subse-quent semester classes and other groups It is alsoproviding the sense of community working togeth-erness problem solving the joy of learning etc Itis providing a platform to learn create share helpand improve All the modules of the academic portalof IIT Madras are supporting knowledge manage-ment processes and organizational learning Ofcourse there is less participation seen from theteachersrsquo as well as studentsrsquo ends The studentsare thus advised to make good use of these onlinee-learning resources to gain better understandingof the subject matter and to facilitate better partici-pation The study reveals that the awareness levelof the respondents regarding the utilization of e-learning portal as knowledge management tool islow Therefore the institution should create aware-ness among the users as well as faculties by con-ducting programmes such as orientation programsdemonstrations workshops conferences seminarsand through notices regarding the complete poten-tial of the academic portal and their use as knowl-edge management tools Moreover faculties shouldalso motivate their students to participate in the por-tal

9 Limitations of the Study

The present study is limited to one institution onlyTherefore a further study is suggested includingall the IITs or higher academic institutions of Indiafor getting a generalized finding Moreover usageamong different age groups was also not studiedHowever gender study was also not taken into ac-count Furthermore the study will be appropriateby using an interview approach to place participantsin a realistic environment where they will be able toexpress the problems face during the use of the aca-demic portal

References

1 BOSS R W Library Web Portals 2002 Avail-able at wwwalaorgalaplaplapubstechnoteslibrarywebportalshtm (Accessedon 1242014)

2 BOYE J Are all Portals the same Internet re-lated technologies 1999 Available at httptechirtorgarticlesjs147 (Accessed on 1242014)

3 CHATTI MA Jarke M and Frosch-Wilke DThe Future of E-learning a shift to KnowledgeNetworking and Social Software InternationalJournal of Knowledge and Learning 2007 3(45) pp 404ndash420

4 COX A and Yeates R Library Portal SolutionsAslib Proceedings 2003 55(3) pp 155ndash165Available at httpdxdoiorg10110800012530310472642 (Accessed on 1042014)

5 DEMAREST M Knowledge management Anintroduction 1997 Available at http

- 102 -


wwwmarcnoumenalcomkm1pdf (Accessedon 1242014)

6 FOX E and Cassel LN Convergence of Knowl-edge Management and E-learning the GetSmartExperience ACMIEEE Joint Conference onDigital Libraries (JCDL) 2003 135-146

7 GROENEWEGEN D and Huggard S The An-swer to all our Problems Trialling a LibraryPortal Library Review 2003 52(9) pp 452ndash459Available at httpdxdoiorg10110800242530310501473 (Accessed on 1242014)

8 httpwwwiitmacin (Accessed on 672014)

9 httpwwwcenlibiitmacindocslibraryindexphp (Accessed on 672014)

10 JACKSON M E Portals A Strategic new di-rection to improve access to Information Re-sources VINE 2003 33(1) pp 33ndash36 Avail-able at httpdxdoiorg10110803055720310698443 (Accessed on 142014)

11 JOTWANI D (2005) Library portal A knowl-edge management tool In Multilingual Com-puting and Information Management in DigitalNetworked Environment 3rd InternationalCALIBER Kochi India February 2-4 2005 or-ganized by INFLIBNET Centre and CochinUniversity of Science and Technology

12 LAM C M How to use portals as knowledge-sharing mechanism 1996 Available at httpwwwprovidersedgecomdocskm_articlesHow_To_Use_Portals_as_a_Knowledge-Shar-ing_ Mechanismpdf (Accessed on 1342014)

13 McDERMOTT R Why Information Technol-ogy Inspired but cannot deliver Knowledge

Management California Management Review1999 41(4) pp 103ndash117

14 PIENAAR H Design and Development of anAcademic Portal Libri 2003 Vol53 pp 118ndash129

15 SHRESTHA S AND Kim J M Bridging theGap between E-Learning and Knowledge Man-agement (KM) An enhancement of Moodlesystem by applying KM Functions Interna-tional Journal of Science and Technology 20132 (1) pp 104-111

16 STOFELL B and Cunningham J Library par-ticipation in campus web portals An initial sur-vey Reference Services Review 2005 33(2)pp 144ndash160 Available at httpdxdoiorg10110800907320510597354 (Accessed on 1342014)

17 YOUNG Ron [nd] Available at httpwwwknowledge-management-onlinecomwhat-is-Knowledge-Managementhtml (Ac-cessed on 242014)

About Author

Mr Nirmali Chakraborty North Eastern HillUniversity Shillong MeghalayaE-mailnirmaligulzargmailcom

- 90 -


to individual needs can be accessed by the usersvia intranet or internet Thus it can be used as aninterface to provide relevant data from a centralsource through secure and password-protectedentry Password-protection is highly necessary be-cause the system can immediately identify its usersand restrict unauthorized access to authorized ar-eas Hence once registered a user can both accessand add information directly into the database mak-ing it a powerful tool for data management and up-dating the database immediately and ensuring thatall information is current The other benefits of thee-portal includemdasheasy access from any internet orintranet connection quick and easily available in-formation involvement of parents and peers in theeducational processes monitoring of self-progresssimple interface for easy data input improvised com-munications between policy makers and other stake-holders and so on

2 Academic Portals

According to Pienaar (2003) to support academicsrsquopersonal knowledge management in an integratedway the academic portal must have the followingcharacteristics

The type of portal must be a combination ofa vertical portal (vortal) and a corporate orenterprise information portal

High levels of functionality and integrationare needed - a seamless interface This mustinclude advanced personalization andcustomization capabilities

The portal must support both the teachingand research roles of academics

The portal should give access to the follow-ing information sources e-journals e-ar-

ticles e-reserves e-archives databases e-books e-dissertations library cataloguesand the universityrsquos research database Per-sonal information sources should also beavailable for example experts and informa-tion specialists etc

The portal should provide Web search en-gines global search function list servers chatrooms e-mail adding of URLs interface withdocument delivery and inter library loan sys-tems

Academics should be able to evaluate andadd information sources to the portal

21 Knowledge Management through AcademicPortal

The most popular form of knowledge managementtechnology that provides a secure central spacewhere staff users administrators partners and sup-pliers can exchange information share knowledgeand guide each other is the portal (Jotwani 2005) Itis a networked platform that presents the knowl-edge resources and services to its users It provideseasy-to-use information discovery and managementsystems The following table (Table 1) shows thepossible influence of academic portals on the knowl-edge management processes

- 91 -












Librarian






- 92 -




















- 93 -




5 Methodology










- 94 -













- 95 -












7 Data Analysis




- 96 -






Academic Portal






Yes No No Response


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


- 78 22


83 - 17


97 - 3


93 - 7


100 - -


96 - 4


- 92 8

- 97 -






















- 98 -

















736 Anxiety


- 99 -



















FP8 E-mail - 2 23 59 16


FP10 Chat room - 19 71 8 2






- 100 -





Yes No No Response

88 8 4

8 Findings















- 101 -


9 Conclusion




References






- 102 -
















About Author


- 91 -












Librarian






- 92 -




















- 93 -




5 Methodology










- 94 -













- 95 -












7 Data Analysis




- 96 -






Academic Portal






Yes No No Response


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


- 78 22


83 - 17


97 - 3


93 - 7


100 - -


96 - 4


- 92 8

- 97 -






















- 98 -

















736 Anxiety


- 99 -



















FP8 E-mail - 2 23 59 16


FP10 Chat room - 19 71 8 2






- 100 -





Yes No No Response

88 8 4

8 Findings















- 101 -


9 Conclusion




References






- 102 -
















About Author


- 92 -




















- 93 -




5 Methodology










- 94 -













- 95 -












7 Data Analysis




- 96 -






Academic Portal






Yes No No Response


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


- 78 22


83 - 17


97 - 3


93 - 7


100 - -


96 - 4


- 92 8

- 97 -






















- 98 -

















736 Anxiety


- 99 -



















FP8 E-mail - 2 23 59 16


FP10 Chat room - 19 71 8 2






- 100 -





Yes No No Response

88 8 4

8 Findings















- 101 -


9 Conclusion




References






- 102 -
















About Author


- 93 -




5 Methodology










- 94 -













- 95 -












7 Data Analysis




- 96 -






Academic Portal






Yes No No Response


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


- 78 22


83 - 17


97 - 3


93 - 7


100 - -


96 - 4


- 92 8

- 97 -






















- 98 -

















736 Anxiety


- 99 -



















FP8 E-mail - 2 23 59 16


FP10 Chat room - 19 71 8 2






- 100 -





Yes No No Response

88 8 4

8 Findings















- 101 -


9 Conclusion




References






- 102 -
















About Author


- 94 -













- 95 -












7 Data Analysis




- 96 -






Academic Portal






Yes No No Response


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


- 78 22


83 - 17


97 - 3


93 - 7


100 - -


96 - 4


- 92 8

- 97 -






















- 98 -

















736 Anxiety


- 99 -



















FP8 E-mail - 2 23 59 16


FP10 Chat room - 19 71 8 2






- 100 -





Yes No No Response

88 8 4

8 Findings















- 101 -


9 Conclusion




References






- 102 -
















About Author


- 95 -












7 Data Analysis




- 96 -






Academic Portal






Yes No No Response


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


- 78 22


83 - 17


97 - 3


93 - 7


100 - -


96 - 4


- 92 8

- 97 -






















- 98 -

















736 Anxiety


- 99 -



















FP8 E-mail - 2 23 59 16


FP10 Chat room - 19 71 8 2






- 100 -





Yes No No Response

88 8 4

8 Findings















- 101 -


9 Conclusion




References






- 102 -
















About Author


- 96 -






Academic Portal






Yes No No Response


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


100 - -


- 78 22


83 - 17


97 - 3


93 - 7


100 - -


96 - 4


- 92 8

- 97 -






















- 98 -

















736 Anxiety


- 99 -



















FP8 E-mail - 2 23 59 16


FP10 Chat room - 19 71 8 2






- 100 -





Yes No No Response

88 8 4

8 Findings















- 101 -


9 Conclusion




References






- 102 -
















About Author


- 97 -






















- 98 -

















736 Anxiety


- 99 -



















FP8 E-mail - 2 23 59 16


FP10 Chat room - 19 71 8 2






- 100 -





Yes No No Response

88 8 4

8 Findings















- 101 -


9 Conclusion




References






- 102 -
















About Author


- 98 -

















736 Anxiety


- 99 -



















FP8 E-mail - 2 23 59 16


FP10 Chat room - 19 71 8 2






- 100 -





Yes No No Response

88 8 4

8 Findings















- 101 -


9 Conclusion




References






- 102 -
















About Author


- 99 -



















FP8 E-mail - 2 23 59 16


FP10 Chat room - 19 71 8 2






- 100 -





Yes No No Response

88 8 4

8 Findings















- 101 -


9 Conclusion




References






- 102 -
















About Author


- 100 -





Yes No No Response

88 8 4

8 Findings















- 101 -


9 Conclusion




References






- 102 -
















About Author


- 101 -


9 Conclusion




References






- 102 -
















About Author


- 102 -
















About Author
