3. Multiple Definitions by Sector
GETTING THE
RIGHT
INFORMATION
TO THE RIGHT
PEOPLE IN THE
RIGHT FORMAT
AT THE RIGHT
TIME SO AS TO
INFLUENCE
DECISION-
MAKING (ONF)
MOVING
KNOWLEDGE
INTO ACTIVE
SERVICE FOR
THE
BROADEST
POSSIBLE
COMMON
GOOD (SSHRC)
THE PROCESS
FROM THE
CREATION OF
EVIDENCE TO
ITS ULTIMATE
IMPACT
(Knowledge
Translation,
CIHR)
COLLABORATIVE
PROBLEM-
SOLVING
BETWEEN
RESEARCHERS
AND DECISION
MAKERS THAT
HAPPENS
THROUGH
LINKAGE AND
EXCHANGE
(Knowledge
Exchange, CHSRF)
4. We prefer the term ‘knowledge mobilization’,
because it best embodies the idea that the use of
knowledge is a social process, not just an intellectual
task, and as such is multidirectional, not just a matter
of moving information from those that know to those
that do not.
At the same time, ‘mobilization’ implies effort and
direction, not just random interaction. There are
multiple, iterative phrases including the generation of
new research knowledge when needed, the
communication and application of established
research knowledge, and the contextualization of
research to suit particular environments
(Cooper et al., 2009, p.166-167)
7. Rising number of intermediary organizations
Significant role: interpret, package, disseminate
Underexplored role, virtually no empirical work
RBOs: THE MISSING LINK?
SIGNIFICANCE
8. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What is the nature and impact of the work of Canadian
RBOs in knowledge mobilization in education?
1. What types of intermediary RBOs exist in education
across Canada?
2. What are the organizational features of RBOs?
3. What knowledge mobilization processes are RBOs
involved in, and what dissemination mechanisms do
they use?
9. Intermediaries (RBOs)
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
TIME
SOCIAL CONTEXT
RESEARCH
USE
RESEARCH
PRODUCTION
1. TYPE OF ORGANIZATION
Gov’t Non-Profit For Profit Membership
3. KMb PROCESSES
Message Strategies Functions
Dissemination Mechanism
2. ORGANIZATIONAL FEATURES
Mission Scope Target Audience
Size Resources Membership Composition
10. Methodology
Challenge of identifying RBOs
Inclusion Criteria
1. Target audience: Connects Producers AND Users
2. Mission Statement: Explicitly KMb Related
Sampling Strategies
Ki-es-Ki Handbook, 4000+ educational contacts, Canadian
Education Association
Systematic Web Search (record search strings)
RSPE program
11. Sampling
541 Potential
Organizations
479 Excluded
18 Meet
Criteria #1
44 RBOs Meet
Both Inclusion
Criteria
-24 excluded because
no website
-67 excluded because
they were French
-388 do not meet
criteria 1 and 2
12. A Matrix To Measure KMb Efforts
STRATEGIES
INDICATORS
Products Events Networks Extra
Strategies
INDICATOR
TOTAL
Different types 3 6 6 5 /20
Ease of use 2 4 2 2 4 /14
Accessibility 3 6 4 3 /16
Audience Focus 4 2 4 /10
Extra Indicators 4 8 /12
STRATEGY TOTAL /12 /20 /20 /20 /72
• Interrater Reliability Testing of Tool: Intraclass Correlation= .799
• 3 raters per organization for 9 orgs (20% of RBOs Sample)
14. 0 5 10 15 20 25
0 to 10
10 to 20
20 to 30
30 to 40
40 to 50
50 to 60
60 to 70
70 to 80
80 to 90
90 to 100
Frequency (Number of Organizations)
ScoreonKMbMatrix(%) Histogram: Total Scores by Type of
Organization (N=105)
RBOs
Faculties of Education
(N=21)
School Districts (N=14)
Ministries (N= 26)
15. Types of Canadian RBOs
1. What types of intermediary
RBOs exist in education in
Canada?
20. Organizational Features
Target Audience & Membership Composition
Heterogeneous, homogeneous, no members
Scope
Local (n=2), Provincial (n=29), National (n=13)
Most RBOs are small (63%)
RBO Size (FTE) n Min Max Mean Mode
Small (1-10 FTE) 26 1 10 5 3
Medium (11-19 FTE) 4 11 14 12 11
Large (20+ FTE) 13 20 77 41 30
21. Rank RBO Size (FTE) Budget Score %
1 1.2.1 RI Small (3) $250 000 81
1.2.4 Fraser Large (60) $12,808,690 81
1.4.2 CEA Small (9) $2,044,892 81
2 1.2.4 AIMS Small (5) $872 234 78
3 1.2.0 CCL Large (77) $20,583,490 76
1.2.3 The Centre Large (25) $5,685,000 76
4 1.2.0 TLP Large (74) $5,293,039 75
1.2.1 HC Med (11) --- 75
5 1.2.0 CCBR Med (12) --- 74
6 1.1.2 E-BEST Small (6.5) --- 72
Top 10 RBOs
Resources do not necessarily imply stronger
KMb efforts
22. 3. What knowledge mobilization processes are
RBOs involved in, and what dissemination
mechanisms do they use?
KMb PROCESSES
23. RESEARCH
PRODUCTS
CAPACITY
BUILDING
NON
RESEARCH
EVENTS NETWORK MEDIA
Reports Glossaries Strategic Plan Panel/ Talk E-Bulletins Press
Release
Summaries Research FAQs Editorials Conference Network
Push
Lit Reviews Toolkits Promotional
Materials
Annual
Meetings
Directories of
Contacts
Newspaper
Systematic Online Tutorials Advocacy Workshop Social Media Radio
Conceptual Research
Support Services
Annual
Report
Awards
Ceremonies
Online Forum TV
Reference Lists Blog
Policy Briefs
Fact Sheets
Success Stories
Multimedia
KMb Strategies
24. Comparing High, Med, Low
RBOs vary widely in levels & kinds of KMb
activities(product strategies vs. events, networks, and
media)
Think tanks use far more media strategies
0
100
200
300
400
500
CEA CCL SAEE SQE LDAO
Media
Networks
Events
Capacity Building
Research Products
HIGH KMb EFFORTS LOW
Think tanks usually use
MORE media strategies
25.
26. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Linked In
Flickr
Delicious
YouTube Channel
Blog
Online Forum
RSS Feed
Share button
Twitter
Facebook
Website
Frequency (Number of RBOs)
OnlineStrategy
Blogging, Microblogging
(One/Two-way
communication)
Social Networking (Two-way
communication)
Social Bookmarking
(Collaborative tool)
Multimedia (Depends on
active user)
Passive (Depends on active
user)
Push (One way
communication)
Use of Online Strategies
27. Twitter: Small networks, Low use
30% of RBOs use social media
RBO
TotalTweets
Following
Followers
TotalTweets
(Sept-Dec2010)
AverageTweets
permonth
SDTweetsper
month
Mean 416 344 905.5 149.29 34 9.719
Max 2250 2326 4913 594 149 26.3
Min 7 1 11 0 0 0
SD 612 589 1309 167.26 41 7.748
28. 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
PREVNet
CEA
LCNB
CCPA
AIMS
HC
SQE
LDAC
P4E
LiteracyBC
TLP
E-Best
SSHRC
Fraser
RI
Total Tweets (Sept 2010 – Dec 2010)
RBOFrequency of Twitter Usage
29. Social Media: Nature of Posts
Opinion:
“Are parents really partners in education? Should they be?”
Promotion:
“Last chance to register for our conference”
Information:
“Premier’s arts awards tonight”
Update:
“Just watched waiting for Superman”.
Research Based:
“StatsCan: Canadian drop out rate declining. Drop out
highest in AB, MB, QC, lowest in NL, BC, ON
http://ning.it/a2auTU”
Opinion
21%
Promotion
14%
Information
27%
Update 4%
Research
Based
24%
30. Discussion: RBOs
Diverse RBOs exist at various levels of
education
RBOs vary widely in size, levels of KMb efforts
and dedicated resources
Dedicated resources do not necessarily imply
stronger KMb efforts
Few organizations have comprehensive KMb
strategies or systematic approaches
Social media emerging but not focused use
31. Future Research
KMb Metric provides a preliminary approach,
but should be coupled with in-depth case
studies
Extend to RBOs in other countries & sectors
More work (& larger samples) needed to
differentiate efforts of diverse types of RBOs
Further exploration of relationships between
organizational features and KMb efforts
Comparing effectiveness of different strategies
is needed to assess impact of intermediary work
