Learning to manage in knowledge based organizations: the role of portfolios

At the forefront of organizational performance are organizations which recognise that information, knowledge and their intelligent application are the essential factors of success. The know-how to promote these activities must now become a part of the "skills and abilities armoury" acquired by graduates in the domain of "Information Systems" and "Information Management". This paper will address the use of "individual reflective portfolios" (IRP), either as "learning" or as "learning and assessment" tools in modules of the "Knowledge Management" course taught at two Portuguese Universities - Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Universidade de Coimbra. This learning and assessment approach is aimed primarily at developing students; it enables them to reflect and make a meta-analysis of their learning process. At the same time, it gives students an opportunity to integrate their learning across subjects that are relevant to knowledge-based management. In one of the case studies described, it also provides an opportunity to expose them to a wide literature base, where several approaches to the use of knowledge in organizations are discussed. Results show that, in the initial stages, students do not see this methodology as useful (only time-wasting) but by the end of the course they recognise that it helps them to reflect on their learning processes, deepens their learning and helps keep up-to-date with the course content. This paper introduces best practices for this teaching and learning approach and includes an evaluation of the methodology by a student sample.