1. Anita Mirijamdotter Sadaf Salavati Mary M. Somerville Edmond Hajrizi
University for Business and Technology Knowledge Center: Making Local Knowledge Visible
Anita Mirijamdotter
Sadaf Salavati
Mary M. Somerville
Edmond Hajrizi
International
Society for the
Systems
Sciences
July 10-14, 2017

2. Presentation Outline National and Local Context for Paper
Course Context and Design
Active Learning Approach Using Systems Ideas – Soft Systems Methodology
Outcome of SSM Application
National Impact and Future Work
Concluding Reflections on Course Design

3. National Context
In setting the institutional vision for University for Business and Technology in 2001, founder Dr. Edmond Hajrizi sought to educate Kosovo students to become active contributors to the society and in the workplace, within the country, the Balkan region, and beyond. The UBT Knowledge Center initiative extends the founding vision of national development through higher education. This initiative acknowledges a university’s responsibility to foster democratic civil society and regional economic growth, as well as further smart business practices and higher education efficiencies. Since local knowledge, identity, and learning are necessarily situated, Kosovo students, faculty, staff, and administrators serve as domain experts and international educators from Sweden and the United States serve as design facilitators.

4. Local Context: Knowledge Center
Reflective of its institutional maturity, the University now produces considerable local knowledge, including but not limited to faculty publications and presentations, student paper and projects, and commissioned studies and reports. Therefore, the Knowledge Center initiative aims to make local knowledge visible through creation of a repository system and associated workflows for acquisition, organization, and dissemination of student research projects, faculty research papers, and community research reports.
Library – repository system, acquisition, storing, curating

5. Course Context
Designing educational systems to encourage and enable participants to learn from each other to co-create relevant and useful knowledge
Course pedagogy: Active learning participatory design pedagogy
Course title: Information Systems Analysis, Design, and Modeling course
Course tools: Systems Thinking and Soft Systems Methodology
Course case: Making local knowledge visible and accessible
Course location: University for Business and Technology, Pristina, Kosovo
Constructivism recognizes that people construct their understanding and knowledge of the world through experience and reflection on those experiences. So we create conditions for learning that enable students, working together, to become active creators of their own knowledge.  Our teaching practices encourage students to use active techniques to improve real-world situations. We support their creation of knowledge and then encourage their reflection on how their understanding of the course topic, as well as their understanding of their own learning, has changing.
Finally, we believe that what is good for students in transition countries is also good for students in developed and lesser developed countries.

6. Course Design
Reading literature in advance of class sessions, so ‘flipped classroom’
Active learning of systems thinking and systems tools, using Soft Systems Methodology (SSM)
Participatory co-design of local knowledge center concept, with and for stakeholders
Reflection paper, noting changes in understanding of course topic and changes in understanding of personal learning

7. Soft Systems Methodology Approach
Students learned about systems thinking processes through using Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) tools, including Rich Picture and PQR techniques, to explore the UBT Knowledge Center concept. Design tools guided exploration of essential questions related to the why, what, and how of the Knowledge Center innovation generator. In addition, in recognition of the social context of learning – that knowledge is acquired and understood through action, interaction, and sharing with others, modeling explored social relationships necessary for information exchange and knowledge creation, oftentimes enabled by technology.

8. Expected Learning Outcomes
Explain information system aims and objectives in the context of human activity related to the UBT Knowledge Center, including concepts, models and methods, and Design applicable processes for inclusive information systems development, including models, for purposeful information systems for the UBT Knowledge Center.

9. Student Knowledge Center Concepts
Three initiatives surfaced as essential for advancing UBT knowledge ecosystem design through soft systems: A digital environment to advance local knowledge visibility – the focus of this paper An organizational environment to enhance boundary crossing collaboration A robust digital academic library environment for access to academic publisher content

10. Root Definition – System Purpose of Local Knowledge Repository
Examples:
Group #1:
Digital collection of student and faculty scholarship for exchange and usage to promote innovation.
Group #3:
Electronic archive (e-archive) for curating, storing, and sharing local knowledge through a global platform accessible by other universities within the region and around the world.

11. PQRs – What, How, and Why? – for Local Knowledge Repository
Group #1: What? Centralized accessible collection of UBT generated research and project content How? Curate, collect, organize, classify, and index qualified resources on exchange platform Why? Re-use knowledge, share knowledge, and produce knowledge Group #3: What? E-archive of UBT generated research and scholarship connected to other universities How? Interconnected open source software environment sustained by UBT Why? Advance faculty and student curation, classification, indexing, and usage of UBT knowledge

12. Rich Picture Knowledge Center Ecosystem

13. Local and National Impact
This work-in-process has significant implications for the University’s knowledge vision, which recognizes the critical importance of developing new and more complex ways for connecting people, information, and technology in the university and with the society, in Kosovo and beyond.

14. Future Development of the Knowledge Center
Further evolution of the Knowledge Center concept through additional visioning activities with university students, staff, and leaders, building upon Systems
Further engagement of faculty and students from multiple disciplines in co-design of aspects of a synergistic ecosystem for curation, discovery, and access to UBT-generated academic knowledge
The University aspires to further awareness and promote usage of knowledge produced by faculty and by students, within the institution and throughout the country, in a Knowledge Center. 

15. Concluding Reflections on Course Design
Active learning activities applied to improvement of real world situations motivates students to engage in course content and processes Systems thinking and systems tools applied to improvement of real world situations activates and extends students’ prior understanding Reflection and dialogue within groups and by individuals amplifies appreciation for learning about course topic and learning about learning In the words of one student: “I can say that my life will have two eras, before SSM and after SSM.”

16. Selected References
Bruce, C., Partridge, H., Hughes, H., Davis, K. and Stoodley, I. (eds.) (2014). Information Experience: Approaches to Theory and Practice., (Library and Information Science., 9): , Emerald, Bingley, UK
Checkland, P. (1981). Systems thinking, systems practice., John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK.
Checkland, P. and Poulter, J. (2010). Soft Systems Methodology, in Systems Approaches to Managing Change: A Practical Guide, (M. Reynolds and S. Holwell, eds.): 191–241, Springer, London, UK
Hajrizi, E., Mirijamdotter, A., Salavati, S. and Somerville, M. M. (2017. University for Business and Technology University Libraries and Knowledge Center: A concept paper. Fostering the As- A-Service Economy: International Conference Proceedings – Information Systems and Technology Innovations 2017 (ISTI 2017)., Tirana, Albania.
Lockwood, T. (ed.), (2010). Design thinking: Integrating innovation, customer experience, and brand value. 3rd ed., Allworth Press, New York, NY
Somerville, M. M. (2015c). Informed Systems: Organizational design for learning in action., Chandos Publishing, Oxford, England
Somerville, M. M., and Mirijamdotter, A. (2014). Information experiences in the workplace: Foundations for an Informed Systems Approach, in Information Experience: Approaches to Theory and Practice, (C. Bruce, H. Partridge, H. Hughes, K. Davis and I. Stoodley, eds.): (Library and Information Science, Vol. 9), Emerald, Bingley, England

17. Thank you for your attention!