KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT BASED ON PERSONAL E-PORTFOLIO

The paper describes the different aspects of e-Portfolio usage for knowledge management and competency development. It presents the information structure of personal e-Portfolio, which contains systematized data about knowledge acquisition and competency development for students and employees as a result of education and professional development throughout their life cycle.

The basic information structure of e-Portfolio is based on the new national standard (GOST R), which was developed in the Russian technical committee 461 «Information and Communication Technologies in Education» (TC 461 ICTE) with the contribution of the authors. The national standard harmonizes the requirements of the international standards (ISO/IEC) and takes into account the specifics of Russian law. The standard includes description examples of personal e-Portfolio for university students and IT specialists of all qualification levels. It presents relationships between knowledge, competencies and skills in accordance with the requirements of Federal State Educational Standards (FSES) and Professional Standards.

The basis of e-portfolio includes personal data, description of education levels and learning results, individual differences and achievements. Structures and information models of digital objects are developed to describe the above components. The e-Portfolio creation process in educational organizations of all levels (schools, colleges, institutes, universities, etc.) can be unified on this basis.

The knowledge of staff (personnel, employees) is one the most important intangible assets of an organization, the human capital. Creating a Knowledge Management System allows to manage processes using the existing and creating new personal and/or corporate knowledge in organization. The most effective way to use e-Portfolio is to implement it in learning organizations that manage competency development of own staff based on continuous collaborative learning, new forms of e-learning and the creation of a corporate ICT learning environment.
Another e-Portfolio appliance is associated with employee qualification independent assessments. According to the new Federal Law of Russian Federation, this function must be fulfilled by qualification assessment centers. Accordingly, assessment results must be documented and available to the employee.

The proposed approach to knowledge management and competency development is based on the e-Portfolio information model standardization and allows unifying the national e-Portfolio system. It provides interoperability for the interactive subsystems of educational organizations, employers, independent qualification assessment centers, employment agencies and other interested parties.