KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES IN THE NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, BENIN STUDY CENTRE, EDO STATE

Abstract

The study investigated into the contribution of knowledge management to student learning outcomes in the National Open University of Nigeria, Benin Study Centre, Edo State. The study adopted the descriptive research design of the ex-post facto type. Two hundred and seventy respondents were selected through a multi-stage sampling procedure. The instrument titled, ‘Knowledge Management and Student Learning Outcomes Questionnaire (KMSLOQ)’ with a reliability coefficient of 0.81 was used for data collection. The findings of this study revealed that the weighted average of the levels of participation of the students (in the National Open University of Nigeria, Benin Study Centre, Edo State) in knowledge creation, knowledge storage and knowledge sharing activities were 80.6%, 88.5% and 88.1% respectively. The three elements of knowledge management explored in this study (knowledge creation, knowledge storage and knowledge sharing), when taken together, accounted for 20.8% of the variance in the student learning outcomes (R Square = 0.208). These elements were found to contribute differentially to the student learning outcomes with knowledge sharing (?=0.271) being the most potent predictor of student learning outcomes followed by knowledge storage (?=0.188) and knowledge creation (?=0.173). It was recommended that students should be encouraged to pay attention to the knowledge management elements viz., knowledge creation, knowledge storage and knowledge sharing.