177 Culminating Assessment | Creating the KMb

The culminating task for this course provides you with the opportunity to apply what you have learned about knowledge management, communication, and mobilization to your own research program or project by writing a Knowledge Management and Communication (KMb) plan that addresses Lavis et al.’s (2003) five key questions:

• Audience: To whom should your research knowledge be transferred?
• Message: What knowledge should be transferred to decision-makers?
• Messenger: By whom should the knowledge be transferred?
• Mechanism: How should the knowledge be transferred?
• Impact: With what effect should the knowledge be transferred?

As you worked through each of the modules in this course, you completed assessment worksheets that addressed key learning objectives from the module. Your responses to these worksheets have laid the groundwork for your  plan, which is the culminating assessment. You should review and incorporate your work on these assessments into your plan.

In order to complete this culminating assignment, you will need to choose a past, current, or future research program or project on which to focus. We encourage you to choose a project about which you are excited and that you believe shows particular promise. That way, your efforts to create a KMC Plan will be spent in service of widening the impact of important research.

Outline of Knowledge Management and Communication Plan

Your plan should draw on the work you completed throughout the course and contain all of the sections and sub-sections below. If a particular section is not relevant to your project, please explain why.

Part I: Defining Your Message: This section should explain the context, message, and data sources for your research. Make sure to use plain language , so that diverse audiences can understand your research goals and outcomes. You may also find it helpful to review the guidelines for forming value propositions in Module 2.

A. Overview of your research

• What is the research problem or issue that your research addresses?
• How does your research address this issue? Is there something unique about the way in which you examine or seek solutions to this problem?
• Why is this research significant?
• Are there content and context experts and/or community stakeholders that may be relevant to this research?

B. Data Management Plan: In this section, you should explain any important considerations in terms of data sharing and usage. Make sure to review Module 5 as you complete this section.

1. Data: Describe the categories of data used in your project. Try to use terminology proposed in 5.1
2. Data Map: Using either prose, a diagram or a chart such as the one shown in the Module 5 worksheet, identify the following for each of the major data sources used in your research:

• Method of collection/timing
• Ownership of data
• Flow of data
• Location of data storage
• Data security
• Team members involved

3. Data Sharing Considerations
   • Are there regulations or policies that govern the security and storage of data used in your research? If so, how will you ensure that you fulfil these obligations?
   • Are there regulations or policies that govern the ownership and dissemination of data used in your research? If so, how will you ensure that you fulfil these obligations?

Part II: Identifying and Engaging Your Audiences: In this section, you will define your goals for communicating your research and identify the audiences with whom you should communicate. If your project includes community stakeholders and/or it is a community-based research project, you will want to consider a community engagement plan that will involve these essential groups not only as audiences, but as participants in your research.

A. Defining Communication Goals: List the communication goals for your project or program. You may find helpful Module Two’s guidance on “Defining Your Goals” as well as the work you completed in the Module 2 assessment worksheet.

B. Audiences: List each of the distinct audiences with whom you plan to communicate about your research. As you do, you may wish to consult the work you completed for the Module 2 and Module 3 assessments . For each audience, explain the following information:

• Why is this group an important stakeholder or audience for your research? What is their connection to your research problem, data, or findings?
• For projects with community stakeholders and/or that involve community based research, how you can create two-way communication or use community engagement techniques that will allow these to provide their own expertise and substantially inform your project?
• Are there organizations or institutions that could provide you with access to this audience?
• Are there any accessibility or EDI considerations  that you should keep in mind when engaging with this audience?

Part III: Mechanisms of Communication: In this section, you will explain how you will communicate with different audiences, including communities that your research affects.

A. Communicating within your institution: Are there channels within your institution (such as newsletters, offices, or organizations) that can help further your communication goals?

Communicating with the Media:

• What aspects of your research might be of interest to the media? Are there print or online media that seem particularly promising?
• Are there particular audiences with whom the media would be especially helpful in communicating?
• How do you plan to monitor the media about your research?

C. Social Media Plan: Consider how social media could help communicate your research. You can respond in prose to the following questions, or, if you prefer, create a chart like the one below (you do not need to include both).

• What is your social media use case? Which platforms could you use to connect with particular audiences? Explain why you would choose these platforms.
• What institutions and organizations could you leverage to further your social media networks?
• What tools could you use to help plan and track your social media posts?

D. Other External Communication Tools: Are there other tools, such as websites, newsletters, or surveys that you could use to make information about your research available to different audiences?

E. Which of the above mechanisms would be particularly important in engaging in two-way communication with communities affected by your research? In the case of community-based research, are there platforms that would be particularly useful to involving community members in your research?

F. Summary of Communications and Engagement Plan: Using information from Parts II and III of this report, create a chart or diagram, like the one below (also see the Module 2 worksheet) that outlines your KMC plan.

Part IV: Furthering Your Impact: In this final section, you will explore the possible commercialization and policy applications of your research.

A.  Property Strategy:

• Do you need to seek protections for IP created as a result of your project?
• Are there aspects of your research that should not be shared publically?

B. Commercialization Plan

• Are there target commercial audiences for your research?
• Can you define a commercial value proposition for these audiences?
• How could you carry out a market analysis on commercial applications of your findings?
• How could you provide market, technical, and financial validation for a commercial application of your findings?

C. Plan to Influence Policy: Using the policy brief you developed as part of the module 7 assessment, summarize the following policy implications associated with your research:

• Explain the policy problem your research addresses.
• What audiences or stakeholders influence policies relevant to your research?
• What specific policy recommendations or applications stem from your research?
• Beyond the communications mechanisms that you have outlined, are there other strategies you could use to communicate your research to policy stakeholders?

Part VI: Conclusion

A. Evaluation: How will you evaluate the effectiveness of your KMCb plan? Consider the sections on “Key Performance Indicators” in Module 2 and “Recommendations for tracking and evaluating community engagement” in Module 3 as you write this section.

B. Significance of KMC Plan

• Explain the importance of creating a KMC and Community Engagement plan.
• Why is developing a KMC plan particularly important for your research program/project? Are there sections of the plan that are particularly important to your work?