Sustainability of Open Distance E-Learning Institutions as Knowledge Producers: A Theoretical Perspective

There should be no doubt that in the mind of any academic in knowledge management (KM) that, from all types of business, the one that can always be problematic in applying new KM findings is a university. There is at least one reason for it: They are supposed to be the generators of new knowledge, one of their main function, and to be the first to apply such knowledge by testing-retesting before they export it to the market place. How can they suddenly become users of all types of knowledge? However when higher learning institutions begin to be less distinct from each other the competition for attracting high calibre students in the end will determine their prosperity or demise. For example, in the past we had distinct face to face and distance learning institutions. Nowadays, for numerous reasons (the financial reason being one of them), face to face institutions begin also to offer distant learning by means of online learning and it stands to reason that they will have an impact on the existing open distance learning institutions. The recently published White Paper (DHET, 2013) on education in South Africa makes a wide variety of recommendations that will impact the South African higher education landscape. This paper aims at developing a KM framework which could be used by Open Distance e-Learning (ODeL) institutions that could guarantee their sustainability in a highly competitive environment.