Return on investment
11-Nov-05
information for trainers. My question is: which is the return on investment that an organisation on the VET field can obtain to
introducing a KMS?
Anna Faggin
Details
- Author:
- Anna Faggin
- Publisher:
- KnowledgeBoard
- Date:
- 11-Nov-05
- Categories:
- Benchmarking and Measurement, KM Strategy and Vision, Assessment and Measurement, Strategy and Vision
- Sections:
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Return on investment
Thank you very much for your suggestions that I found very interesting.
According to this information, I will try to build a ROI of the KM on the VET field.
Anna
No clear answer
Anna,
I do not believe there is a clear, certain or fixed answer to your request. Here is why:
* Any calculated ROI is highly dependent on timelines, crude assumptions, selected baselines and weak causal links.
* There is no way to measure key attributes such as increased awareness, greater trust, personal learnings, the value of new connections & relationships, or benefits from mentors .....
* The real investments and returns will come from invested personal time and attention devoted to the project. This will greatly exceed any direct costs (software, training, booked time) by many fold.
* Benefits to end clients will be lagged, invisible, intangible and largely under the radar - so very difficult to evaluate, quantify and describe.
May I suggest you rather try and collect stories, anecdotes and practices from comparable VET organizations that have been down this path.
KM ROI in the field of TVET
Being a knoweldge worker in the field of TVET, in my view if you introduce KM as whole, ROI may be: (i)trainers quality of training (ii) no of modules/training material developed (iii) improvement in standardization of vocational skills (iv) good liason with industry etc.
Howevere, the context for KM is very important. By the way, what types of components of KM or KMS you implemented so for ?
Role of KM in Learning
Anna,
I do not think KM can bring very good ROI till it is open to the participants or the learners. Once it is open to the learners there are many parameters to measure and there are many opportunities to grow.
In the first part, I will answer questions related to ROI for Trainers KM. Bakhtiar Ali and Denham has already addressed some of them.
From the trainers’ perspective, the emphasis should be on:
1. Learning Content:
a. Quality: Useful, simple, easy-to-learn or understand
b. Quantity: Completeness
c. Accessibility: Organized, Retrievable
d. Cost: Involved in authoring documents, presentations and so on.
Collaborative practice of KM can dramatically bring down the cost and significantly increase quality and quantity.
'a' is tangible whereas 'b' and 'c' is intangible - metrics will not be complete till we address the 'learner' size
2. Delivering knowledge:
a. Scalability: Systematic approach
b. Effectiveness: It is also linked to quality of the content
c. Financial gain: Revenue growth, Profitability, Market share
Online or self-learning model can improve scalability.
Now, let us look at the other side of the equation:
3. Learners:
a. Effectiveness: Measured based on result of the assessments including number of attempts (online test environment)
b. Usability: How frequently the participants access the content, how long
c. Frequently accessed (read) content
d. Employability
e. Satisfaction: Feedback survey
There are many parameters and methods to measure the value. Then, it can be linked to the ROI. KM can do wonders in managing learning provided it is smartly managed with sophisticated systems.