Main institutional changes resulted from the introduction of ICT and ODL into existing structures

Universities are undergoing fundamental changes, as sources of knowledge; they are tasked with mass education programmes in their undergraduate programmes. In addition to this, they are under considerable pressure to create vocational streams. Knowledge in itself is not enough, education must lead to employment and the mission to ensure vocational education includes the responsibility for maintaining it and for developing it within a framework of continuous learning. In such a context, information and communication technology (ICT) appears today as one of the most appropriate tools. It affords the possibility of allowing everyone to learn, when he or she wishes it, whether as part of initial or subsequent learning.

Networked and computer-based learning cause an increase in costs for the organisation: costs to develop and deliver online courses, the cost for the technical infrastructure (e.g. connectivity, network access, etc.). There are several barriers related to copyright issues which raise questions for organisations. For instance, ample time is needed to apply for permission from government entities to create new programs and market the programs successfully.

A successful reorganising process moves the use of ICT as being primarily up to the individual teacher to being a part of the responsibility of schools. E-learning is used to establish research partnerships as agents of change where professional researchers and researching practitioners co-operate purposefully on formulated development targets. In research partnerships, on regional as well as trans-national level, different actors in the educational system co-operate purposefully on formulated development targets. Teachers and school administrations have immediate access to up-to-date know-how and are engaged in the development process of their specific school.

The institutional context of schools is an important factor affecting the use and implementation of ICT. Major institutional factor is the school curriculum, which needs to be adapted to the new possibilities offered by ICT, and to the labour market. For instance, new interdisciplinary courses might implemented as add-ons to the existing curricula. It is crucial that the courses continued to be part of the school activities after the completion of the projects.

The role of Staff training

Characteristically, teacher training is assumed to be part of the innovations. Any strategic ICT implementation plan needs to consider teacher training. The view that the teachers' role changes considerably with the introduction of e-learning based training courses and this change requires tailor-made teacher training in ICT in general and tailor-made teacher training courses in particular is apparent. Teacher training is recognized of utmost importance:

a)    for developing multimedia materials: New ways of working therefore should be devised which put an emphasis on the exchange of knowledge and skills between different specialists in support of the new pedagogical project. It will almost certainly take a few years before this changed paradigm can be really put in place

b)    for integration of new methodologies: Institutions should re-think their recruitment systems, the on-going training of both academic and administrative staff, but above all their promotion criteria

Teachers and tutors need training on LMS. There is no general strategy for online teaching and the uniformness of e-learning platforms suggests that a given toolset is sufficient for the implementation of any course. There are crucial issues for the successful use of online courses in teacher training which include: a) learning and working in groups; b) rich student activities; c) guidance by tutors and teachers; d) integration of face to face seminars; e) and classroom and field work examples and tasks. Online education cannot avoid the need for integration of real contact and field work from local and regional settings.

Besides, before the introduction of projects in the classrooms, it is wise to train the teachers, either online or face-to-face, in order to serve as a reference guide for the implementation phase.

Universities should re-think their recruitment systems, the on-going training of both academic and administrative staff, and consequently, their promotion criteria. 

Main actors, adopters and resisters to the adoption of the innovation as identified in the project

Managers, teachers, students and researchers are the key actors in innovations.

Active participation by the students is a clear indication that students in principle tend to become adopters of such innovations. Examples of teaching each other and their teachers how to work on the Web and often working on the projects on their spare time, are signals of adoption of ICT innovations. Students show also resistances specially when they lack computer literacy and technical skills on using the online environments.

Teachers range from potential adopters to potential resisters to innovations. Resistance of actors appears for many reasons: many instructors do not like to learn how to use a new electronic learning environment; they are sceptical about the potentials of ICT for teaching. Lack of technical background, lack of basic computer literacy of the instructors, and lack of technical support are obstacles in introducing ICT in education. The new roles of teachers (from transmission of knowledge to teach how to learn) cause also resistances. Changing what they think as appropriate pedagogy for the learners themselves and their subject area may be difficult. This can be even harder when teachers act in isolation from one another and are not exposed to innovative models of learning.

Many experiences mention that resistance arise when these are not part of the regular courses. This is part of any innovative implementation.

Other pressure groups identified as playing a potentially important role in the adoption or rejection of an innovation in schools are parents, school administrators, pedagogues, enterprises and political authorities. In the school sector, parents tend to exert minimal pressure to schools. How their demands are taken into consideration depends on local conditions and how good a relationship parents have with teachers in the school. Pressure from administration and political authorities over schools to integrate ICT into school teaching appears to be universal, systematic, and strong but there is not clear indication if this pressure includes e-learning related innovations.

Non-economic lobbies do not always share positions. Some are against the computerisation of schools and the tendency for commercialising education that they believe goes along with it. Conversely, enterprises can be active promoters of ICT adoption in schools and innovations related to their interests.

It will be necessary therefore to define what some people call a new educational contract between the different partners establishing the rights and responsibilities of each one.

Organisational conditions that are (un)supportive to innovation

A major organisational issue at school level are the arrangements regarding the placement of ICTs in schools: computer labs versus computers in the classroom. Apparently, the latter solution allow for more profitable educational activities than those held in the computer lab, where there are schedule-planning constraints.

An ICT development plan clearly enhances the capacity of schools to integrate ICT and absorb ICT-related innovations. A detailed technology plan considering funding, installation and integration of equipment, ongoing management of the technology etc. should express a clear vision of the goals of the technology integration.

Furthermore, an organisational culture that is characterised by teacher collegiality and formal or informal collaborative work, both supports and facilitates the development of the organisation's members.

Flexible time-tables, flexible allocation of staff tasks and roles, supportive administration and incentives, are also organisational conditions that support ICT-based innovations

In the case of higher education institutions, key aspects to taking into account in order to implement successfully e-learning and/or virtual campuses:

- Access to local facilities. In a distributed environment it is a challenge for the university to making library resources available for distant learners and giving access to e-libraries is an important issue.

-  Timing:  Co-ordination and planning problems may emerge because of learners and teachers working in different time zones.

- Registration:  Institutions offering programmes across countries should take care of some administrative problems.

- Payment: Registering for a course usually implies payment.

- Security:  When all contact and communication between universities, teachers, and students is happening through the web, security becomes an important issue.

-  Infrastructure/access: students can be frustrated by the computer and network facilities available to them or by features in the electronic tools they are being asked to use.

- Accreditation/credit transfer: courses attended at another university or offered by a consortium on line may not be accredited in the student's home university.

-       Copyright – intellectual property: The creative effort of the academic staff should be protected from copying, use and sale elsewhere, keeping the different national legislations in mind.

-       Networking: Gives opportunities to universities to collaborate not only on the design and development of courses but also on the delivery of courses, and on Internet or web based education materials and curricula.

Within the adult education and school sector implementing and servicing electronic learning management systems is extremely difficult and often cannot be sustained within existing organisations. A very important point has emerged that is related to the need for experimentation and testing and which does have organisational implications. Current e-learning systems and platforms show a wide variety of systems based on different paradigms and emerging standards: most systems have a very specific focus and feature set. The ideal situation would be to develop the whole content and the course structure, devise all tasks for individual students and groups with the appropriate evaluation procedure and then survey and select existing systems and choose the appropriate platform.

The outsourcing of the tasks required is often necessary including the development of content. Higher education structures, whilst maintaining rigidities, however do have large joint information infrastructures which often operate nationally and internationally and have done so for considerable periods of time. In view of the difficulties noted particularly within the adult education projects there seems to be good reason for investigating how large scale information infrastructures could be developed at regional, national and international levels.

On the other hand, "quick and dirty products" – tailor-made interactive assignments - are gaining more and more importance as they rather correspond with the teachers' needs and approach rather than highly professional and complex multimedia material, designed for the leisure-time market and not for courses aiming at a qualification level. Copyright issues still seem to be unsolved for teachers and the insecurity in legal terms makes them withhold material they have developed. 

Cost effectiveness

Cost effectiveness in e-learning can be achieved through joint working and sharing of infrastructure and by entering into contractual arrangements with commercial and other entities.  Within the university and higher technical sector analytical frameworks for cost analysis exist and this is particularly so with the further development of the joint information infrastructures that most European universities operate collaboratively.  This area is opaque for other sectors.

For some, online learning can be at least as cost-effective as face-to-face teaching. Moreover, the development of virtual delivery models will most likely result in a higher degree of cost-effectiveness and a cost reduction. Costs can be reduced through standardisation, resource sharing, economies of scale, increased productivity, and by purchasing hardware and software jointly. Additionally, travel costs can be lowered.

Networking of institutions can help in overcoming the problem of professional marketing and sales of their e-learning educational and training services, which is precondition of reaching the “critical number” of learners, sufficient to cover the cost of development and delivery of quality courses. It may enlarge the ‘customer base’ of a university and facilitate international promotion as well as acquisition of relevant competencies and know-how from partner universities. Functions such as the development and distribution of learning materials, tuition, assessment, online registration and record-keeping, award-granting, learner support, and general administration can now be shared through a wide variety of organisational arrangements marked by specialisation and “added-value” partnerships involving both the public and private sectors.

One of the key elements put forward for not investing in new educational approaches concerns the costs. That’s why an accurate analysis of costs is necessary. The proposed direct costs to analyse in online learning would be:

-         Cost of materials (servers, PCs, peripherals etc)

-         Cost of software Costs of network infrastructure

-         Costs of communications Cost of maintenance and updating

-         Staffing costs (technical staff managing infrastructure and cost of those responsible for the development of projects)

-         Cost of tutoring

-         Cost of technical assistance

-         Staff training costs

-         Costs of consumables (cables, diskettes etc)

Other indirect costs to be taken into account are time spent by academics learning the educational technologies.

Flexibility

Flexibility is a key concept in e-learning. Flexibility can be understood in many ways:

-         Flexibility of the tools selected:  Institutions will customize Web portals to suit them and furthermore, it will be very quickly alterable to suit differing sets of circumstances.

-         Students access: to improve quality of service to their existing students and increase flexibility of access in order to build new markets for their course offerings.

-         Curriculum: One major challenge which teaching institutions will face during the coming decade, most especially in higher education, will be the transition from traditional institutions with fixed courses and relatively stable programmes towards organisations where flexibility will be the central element.

-         University structure: In the development of new operational model, it has striven to cater to a much wider range of students, and also to implement a much more flexible access provision for these students.

-         Course management: Online teaching increases the teachers’ flexibility with regard to time and place. Teachers appreciate this, but on the other hand they realize that online workload is higher.

Accessibility

Access, and more specifically online access is understood also in many different ways:

-         Access to online learning services

-         Access to a vast amount of knowledge, instead than access trough the teachers

-         Access of tools as freely available software

-         Access to training products and materials

-         Access to information to everybody

Distributed learning can meet the needs of people at a disadvantage (geographical reasons, un-regular working hours, social reasons, special needs, etc).