Basics of Intellectual Capital

Being the first part of the course, this was meant to be an introductory session. The students were expected to read and understand the concepts of Intellectual Capital (IC), Knowledge Management (KM), Intellectual Property (IP) and the differences between the tangible and the intangible assets. Apart from this, students are expected to relate these concepts to their own context, basically to show whether they understand these concepts or not.

Reading and understanding the main textbook for the course at the beginning was a nightmare. I was not making any headway because most of the language and the approach was strange to me. After having wasted about a week and a half, I decided to go and read journal articles on the subject and I did this though Google search and OUM library. It was a rewarding exercise as I had series of articles to read and were easier to understand. after this, I went back to the main textbook and I was able to comprehend this time around.

The evaluation for this section was to be done through  online forum discussion and a 2 page summation assignment. The following is the link to both the assignment and the discussion forum:

Pillars of Intellectual Capital and their Roles

HMIC5503-Discussion Forum 1

I must confess that the prompt discussion forum feedback from  my instructor and his encouragement were part of the factors that made me to go through successfully through this course. At the end of this first section, I had a very good grade in the summation assignment and it gave me enough confidence to carry on.

Specifically, I learnt here the definition of intellectual capital and the three pillars of intellectual capital, namely structural, human and social capital. I also came to know that structural capital is the supportive infrastructure that allows the human capital to function and it can be sub-divided into organizational, process and innovational capital. I also got to know the definition of human capital itself and what social capital means. It was my understanding of these concepts that allowed me to apply these to NOUN.

As I had said earlier, the major problem I had here was reading and understanding the main textbook and I overcame by going through smaller works like journal articles that made me to know most of the technical languages I encountered in the main textbook. When I came back to the textbook, it became easier for me to handle it.