The Knowledge Map

This section describes the various concepts, principles, roles and processes related to maintaining and updating the knowledge map.

Concepts

1. KMNodes(knowledge map nodes) :

   A KMnode may be a unique concept, process, idea, definition, algorithm, or any other aspect with a specified learning objective.

2. Relationships:

The KMnode will have defined relationships with other KMnodes which may further detail or explain the concepts or describe a higher-level concept. 

For example, there will be a node defined for the concept of ‘ZN microscopy’ and it will be related to further nodes such as ‘staining’, ‘smear preparation’ and so on, or link ZN microscopy and Fluorescent microscopy through the overall concept of ‘Microscopy’ in general. Thus, the nodes and their relationship will exist as a network / map where there is no defined hierarchy. The hierarchy will dynamically be identified when a trainee or training need is defined.

The KMnodes have the following attributes:

Table 2: List of Attributes of the KMnode

The current version of the Knowledge Map can be viewed from the link. The knowledge map here is represented as a list of nodes linked with other units in the knowledge map. 

Principles of the knowledge map

1. Idea/ concept centric- Non audience dependent: The KMnodes and their learning objectives linked to it represent one defined idea/ concept. 

2. Unique Unit Based:  A learning objective will only be represented in one and only one node. 

3. Complexity in division: In cases where the concept or topic to be discussed has many aspects, a single node may be used to represent the overall concept in brief, while specific details or in depth concepts may be presented in other nodes.  

4. Dynamicity, Organic and iterative evolution: The knowledge map is meant to be a dynamic collection of nodes, where new nodes are constantly added with new program areas/ expansion, older nodes updated with changes in program structure and deleted with outdated concepts/ideas being removed. These changes are to be made  in real time as and when the program update/ change happens.

Roles

1. Maintainer: The maintainer is a person/ expert who is responsible for maintaining the integrity, comprehensiveness and quality of the knowledge map and ensuring adherence to the above described principles. The maintainer may perform additions, modifications, and depreciations(Deletions) of nodes on the knowledge map. There may be many maintainers organized into a committee/ group and may be collectively responsible for the knowledge map. Each maintainer may be assigned a group of nodes to maintain. All nodes will mandatorily need to be assigned to a maintainer. 

2. Content Creator: Content creators are people who develop training content for each KMnode on the knowledge map. A content creator may be assigned a node to develop content against. However, they only have view permissions on the knowledge map; but may be able to respond to comments made by anyone on the nodes assigned to them. 

3. Others: The knowledge map being open content, all users(including the above two) may have access to view the entire knowledge map. They may suggest new nodes on the knowledge map and add comments/ suggestions on existing nodes. New nodes will need to be approved by the assigned maintainer before it is published on the knowledge map. Each newly added node will also be assigned to any one of the maintainers. 

Processes

1. Add new node:
   1. Submit draft node: Any visitor on the knowledge map may suggest addition of a new node. New nodes need to be linked to any one existing “Parent” node and will be first added in a Draft mode. The maintainer of the parent node will be assigned to the new node. The visitor adding the node needs to fill in all the attributes of the nodes mandatorily.
   2. Review by Maintainer: New nodes added in Draft mode will be notified to the Maintainer, who will review the node and will perform the following actions
      1. Approve the new addition after it passes the following checklist. If the node does not pass it; the maintainer may outright reject the draft node or modify the attributes till it passess the checklist.
         1. The name of the node and the learning objective are clear and precise. For example, “Burden” is an unclear title; while “Burden of TB in India” is clear and precise.
         2. There are no other nodes in the knowledge map with overlap/ have duplicate learning objectives with the new node added.
         3. There is a training need that is attributable to the new node. For, example; in NTEP training, “Manufacture of 3FDC” may be considered as out of scope of training.
      2. Assign a different maintainer. The existing maintainer may judge that the node is better dealt with by a different maintainer, he/she may assign it to a different maintainer in the maintainers group.
   3. Publish the node: Approved new nodes get published on the knowledge map.
2. Update existing node:
   1. Maintainers of the node may update any of its attributes except the unique identifier. All changes to a node will be tracked as different versions of the node. The update may be performed for the reasons such as:
      1. Update in Name/ Learning objective: The update may be triggered by various needs/ events, such as change in policy/ guidelines; any error identified on the learning objective or better understanding of the purpose of the node.
      2. Adding/ changing node relationships: The maintainer may identify new connections with existing nodes on the knowledge map. 
      3. Re-assigning maintainers: The existing maintainer may assign a node to any other maintainer on the maintainers group.
3. Depreciate existing node: Any existing node may be depreciated when the node/ learning objective becomes outdated or no longer relevant. Such depreciated nodes effectively get removed from the published knowledge map.
4. Commenting/ Discussions: Any visitor on the knowledge map may comment/ provide suggestions on any of the existing nodes. Comments may be reviewed/ replied to by the node maintainer/ the content creator assigned to that node.