BLENDED LEARNING ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTING A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT COURSE: LESSONS LEARNT AT THE SINGAPORE MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITY (SMU) Thomas Menkhoff Practice Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University 50 Stamford Road #05-01, Singapore 178899 Tel.: + (65) 6828 0397 Fax: + (65) 6828 0777 Thang Tze Yian Senior Manager, e-Learning Centre for Teaching and Learning, Singapore Management University Li Ka Shing Library, Level 5, 70 Stamford Road, Singapore 178901 Tel: + (65) 6828 0202 Fax: + (65) 6828 0777 Wong Yue Kee Practice Associate Professor and Director Centre for Teaching and Learning, Singapore Management University Li Ka Shing Library, Level 5, 70 Stamford Road, Singapore 178901 Tel: + (65) 6828 0298 Fax: + (65) 6828 0777 ABSTRACT In 2005, the authors of this essay led the development and launch of SMU’s (Singapore Management University) first e- learning package on ‘Knowledge Management’ (in short: ELM). The package is aimed at supporting SMU’s mission to be “committed to an interactive, participative and technologically-enabled learning experience”. To support SMU’s pedagogy, wireless technology for mobile computing is a central feature. Against this background, the paper features a self-critical and reflective case study of the roll out of an innovative e-learning module blended into a ‘Knowledge Management’ (KM) course. In the paper, the authors share the rationale behind the design features of the module and the implementation platform, describe the effort to blend the module into the teaching of the KM course and provide a critical impact assessment of the module based on students’ feedback and evaluation results. They also propose empirically derived hypotheses about interaction and presence as potential predictors of effective web-based learning to be tested in future studies. KEYWORDS Distance learning and the virtual classroom, design rationales, evaluation 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 SMU’s Knowledge Management Course SMU offers a Knowledge Management course (elective) for undergraduate students aimed at exploring the on-going shift towards a knowledge society/economy, the theoretical and empirical origins, definitions and domains of knowledge management (KM) as well as its use and practical implications in terms of human ISBN: 978-972-8924-68-3 © 2008 IADIS 34