INNOVATION and E-LEARNING 00Prelimselearning14 9 04.Qxp 16/09/2004 12:51 Page Ii
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00PrelimsElearning14_9_04.qxp 16/09/2004 12:51 Page i INNOVATION AND E-LEARNING 00PrelimsElearning14_9_04.qxp 16/09/2004 12:51 Page ii This page intentionally left blank 00PrelimsElearning14_9_04.qxp 16/09/2004 12:51 Page iii Innovation and E-Learning E-BUSINESS FOR AN EDUCATIONAL ENTERPRISE By IAN ROFFE UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS CARDIFF 2004 00PrelimsElearning14_9_04.qxp 16/09/2004 12:51 Page iv © Ian Roffe, 2004 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0–7083–1757–X All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without clearance from the University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff, CF10 4UP. Website: www.wales.ac.uk/press The right of Ian Roffe to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Printed in Great Britain by Cambridge Printing, Cambridge 00PrelimsElearning14_9_04.qxp 16/09/2004 12:51 Page v I Siân, Huw ac Elin 00PrelimsElearning14_9_04.qxp 16/09/2004 12:51 Page vi This page intentionally left blank 00PrelimsElearning14_9_04.qxp 16/09/2004 12:51 Page vii Contents Preface ix Acknowledgements xiii 1 The educational enterprise 1 2 E-learning in small and medium-sized enterprises 22 3 The extension of learning 46 4 Learning and teaching with technology 67 5 E-learning and computer technologies 94 6 Implementation 120 7 Competitive strategy 141 8 Innovation 168 9 Markets and marketing 194 10 Quality, value assurance and value enhancement 221 11 Professional development 244 12 Evaluation 266 Endnote 286 Glossary 292 References 298 Index 318 00PrelimsElearning14_9_04.qxp 16/09/2004 12:51 Page viii This page intentionally left blank 00PrelimsElearning14_9_04.qxp 16/09/2004 12:51 Page ix Preface Educational enterprise conveys all the actions to develop education in a creative and businesslike way. The reasons for doing so are now very familiar: a changing context for higher and further education; increased competition for students and resources; a shift of emphasis from faculty and teaching to students and learning; and raised expectations in applying technology to support learning. These trends are not new, but have emerged in recent times as relatively more important than others, since they are driven by both the demands of increasingly competitive markets and the supply of ideas and information at much faster speeds and lower costs. Decision-makers in every institutional context have concluded that, in order to continue to be successful, it is necessary to function in an entrepre- neurial manner and compete for business and students. Consequently, learning methods and management approaches that offer promise and seem practicable are applied eagerly to improve the performance of a group, department or institution. In this context, electronic learning has emerged as a novel means for firms and learning providers to gain competitive advantage in the Information Age. It appears as an opportunity to reconfigure delivery and support without, seemingly, sacrificing the quality of learning. Internet-supported learning, especially distance education, has had a major impact on the flexibility of teaching and learning processes. A whole set of services has opened up, such as networking between students and the facility to partici- pate in online discussions. For these reasons and others, e-learning looks set to be at the forefront of educational development in the future, bringing with it far-reaching changes for the educational enterprise and learner alike. It offers the global educa- tional marketer a key method of reaching new clients; for the curriculum and training designer it presents a new platform for the delivery and support of students; while for the learner it offers personalization, convenience, infor- mation, savings and choice. For a company it can mean a key source of competitive advantage in human resource development, as well as in the support of customers. 00PrelimsElearning14_9_04.qxp 16/09/2004 12:51 Page x x Preface As educational enterprises around the world seek to integrate technology into education and training to transform the way we learn and to understand how e-learning can best be used, a number of common issues and puzzling questions arise for decision-makers and practitioners faced with similar problems. What are the practical implications of e-learning for business? How do the roles of teachers and trainers change in the new learning para- digms? What are the implications for teaching and learning? How can we assure quality in e-learning? How should human resource policies change to support e-learning? What are the strategic choices open to us? How can we innovate with e-learning? How is it possible to maintain a dynamic in an e-learning innovation? What are the markets for e-learning? How do we attract clients, especially small firms? With e-learning available from every- one, why should a customer register with one educational enterprise, rather than with any one of a host of others? When clients are faced with many offers of e-learning from different providers, where does a particular supplier gain an advantage? These are crucial considerations in trying to establish a sustainable competitive position. The issues are many and varied, but often recurring. The aim of this book is to help formulate answers. As all educational enterprises embrace Internet technology, the application of the technique as a means to distribute and support learning as a comparative source of advantage is quickly nullified. Consequently, there are decision-makers in every institutional context interested in solutions, as competition in educational markets intensifies. These include heads of institutions, departments, units, deans, administrators and educational managers. The book is written, then, for those who want an insight into the key business dynamics in implementing an e-learning programme. People are also joining groups to develop e-learning all the time, often with little direct prior experience of the processes. E-learning provides new oppor- tunities for them and their organizations. It brings together teams of profes- sionals for design and delivery – business managers, administrators, IT specialists, designers, teachers and tutors – who might enter this arena for the first time. There is then a need for people to capture the essence of the processes quickly, and this book is also aimed at them. The book builds on the many valuable contributions already published on the development of e-learning. Selecting from just a few of them will illustrate this: the challenges and experiences of transformative change that affect a whole university institution engaged in flexible learning are reported by Betty Collis and Jef Moonen (Collis and Moonen, 2001); the prac- tical factors involved in creating a technology-based learning organization, for a department of open and distance learning, are described by Tony Bates (Bates, 2000); Svava Bjarnason and a team studied the business of borderless global education, which laid the foundations of the E-university project in 00PrelimsElearning14_9_04.qxp 16/09/2004 12:51 Page xi Preface xi the UK (Bjarnason et al., 2000a). Each brings a different perspective on new academic developments, organizational transformation, structures for tech- nology-supported learning and the characteristics of a borderless education market. Implicitly or explicitly, however, they address the case of students who are essentially a captured market, in the sense that once recruited on to a mainstream, long course, such as a degree programme, they will stay to graduate, or drop out, rather than choose to leave for another provider. Many questions are resolved, but still many that interest me, and that arise from the education and business environment in which I work, have not been. In Lampeter, as elsewhere, new education curricula, educational processes and technologies have been designed for electronic learning (e-learning). It serves a range of different audiences: professionals, lifelong learners and technology-supported distance students, in local, regional, and international markets. The emphasis in this book, however, is on e-learning for small firms. Everywhere, this is a difficult market to service: the clients are not captive, customers can be very selective and the competition is high. To develop and deliver provision in this area means that we must confront not only conventional issues of overcoming resistance to change, motivating faculty and encouraging collaboration, but also a range of business and educational management issues, including competitive strategy and per- formance analysis. Learning is a potent force, but to gain most benefit it needs to be com- bined with active management and technology. The potential of e-learning involves sustained enhancement in technology, learning and e-business processes. This is true for the captive markets of corporate employees of large firms or campus-based students, as well as for the open markets of distance lifelong learners or employees of small firms. A sustainable position does not come solely from competing on price, but rather from enhancing the perceived value of a range of intangibles in the educational service. Value assurance, enhancement and innovation are practical and systematic ways of enhancing a service. The theoretical foundations are present in teaching and learning theories, distance education and corporate strategy principles. The technical basis lies in a variety of techniques, but with support by the Internet as a common thread. This train of thinking will help explain the choice of content and the order in which the chapters appear. The first chapter begins by exploring the forces that are driving the need for educational enterprises to become more competitive and addressing vital issues for an educational enterprise in developing e-learning, together with the relevance of learning, technology and business dimensions.