Abstract:

Knowledge and its successful transfer and acquisition are at the core of any human activity and vital for the economy and society. As the economy has grown more global and more knowledge-based, businesses shifted their competitive strategies, marketing techniques, business activities, processes, competencies, and models to digital transformation to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of digital technologies. The digital technologies have the potential for improving the knowledge transfer (KT) process by transforming it from analog to digital and applying new concepts and approaches.

The paper presents new concepts, principles, and approaches, developed by the author, for creating more efficient knowledge transfer by digitally transforming it. It describes a new digitized knowledge structure combined with an innovative digital knowledge transfer process integrating:
- a new digital knowledge structure created as a multidimensional dynamically linked knowledge hyperspace
- a more efficient digitally transformed KT combining a new concept of “active” digital knowledge objects and Lean transformation of KT process management
- a new metadata system integrating both knowledge and transfer management components.

Knowledge providers, instructional designers, KT professionals and organizations’ managers can use the new knowledge structure and “active” content principle to directly benefit from all the advantages of this digitally transformed knowledge transfer process. In this way not only the potential of digital technology is better utilised but also the next step in KT is made – real personalised knowledge management capabilities are integrated into the information flow in the process of delivering new knowledge. The new digitized KT process helps this task to be better managed and more efficient. It guides the self-directed (active) knowledge consumers throughout well-designed knowledge structures (knowledge maps) following the shortest knowledge transfer path(s). As a result, an individual acquires the required knowledge in less time. The major advantage of the digitized KT, built on the new concepts proposed in the paper, is that the individuals looking for new knowledge or updates will get the exact required results (= quality knowledge) with no waste of time (= improved efficiency of knowledge transfer).

The radically new concepts, principles, approaches, and architectures proposed in the paper paved the way for a further development of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based KT applications such as Personal Assistants for Learning (PALs).

Keywords:

A digital transformation of knowledge transfer, improved knowledge transfer, new knowledge structure, active knowledge objects concept.