What has worked well at other universities?

"We find ourselves in an environment that is changing faster than most people feel comfortable with [and] harbours on chaos management",  Lazenby, p.306.

A top-down approach can work if staff are given a valid educational rationale and adequate support

Unlike the other universities in the Special Issue the University of Twente's Faculty of Educational Science and Technology decided to require all staff to redesign their courses.  This was so that students would benefit from a consistent environment and a new educational approach.  The time scale was tight (a one-year initiation phase) but the strategy was successful and has since been extended throughout the University.  The story can be read in more detail in the book (see also De Boer & Collis, 1999, link to Word document).

What was the valid educational rationale?

It is worth noting that there were considerable complaints and difficulties (see especially Collis, 1998,  Challenges for the Leader . . . Table 3) but the success of the venture seems to have been in large part because academic staff were reassured that the strategy was "not based on doing away with the instructor in any sense" but instead on "extending the good instructor".

What support was given?

• Academic staff were supported by five full time instructional designers who helped staff work through various versions of his or her own course support site as part of the staff development program.  
• The e-learning system was developed in-house and courses were organised by means of a 'roster' web page which not only provides an overview of the course organisation and requirements for both students and staff but is also the means of submitting assignments, links and materials (click on Roster on the Tele-Learning 99-00 course for an example).  Such a facility must represent an enormous benefit in conceptualising the information available and easing the problems which beset students attempting to navigate e-learning environments.  Such a facility does not appear to be available on any of the more popular commercial systems. 

Problems with a bottom-up approach:

How do you get ALL staff on board?

One of the many common themes expressed in the Special Issue is the difference between working with the enthusiastic champion of the pilot course and departments staffed by academics who have little interest in technology-related educational change.    All the authors made the point that for an online course to be successful, academic staff must be willing and able to maintain their course sites themselves.  Recommendations for accomplishing this are:

• Recognise that the lecturer is a stakeholder in the process by creating a peer supportive learning community of academics within each discipline (Brown, p.374).
• Allow academics to add unique elements to a course.  This is vital to self-esteem and teaching commitment and enable students to identify with the lecturer's character, personality and pedagogy (Brown, p.374, Collis & DeBoer, p.345, 352)
• Wait for the students to demand it.  A common experience was that students who became used to online course support on one module or discipline began to ask for it to be available in others (Lazenby, p.305, Fisher, p.314). 

What's the best way to support staff?

". . . strategies for support and stimulation at the faculty (or institutional level) will be critical in winning the gradual (or rapid) support of staff", Collis & De Boer, p.359.

• Just-In-Time support are more effective than general training sessions.  Just-In-Time support involves providing training, help or advice to a course team when they need it (i.e. at the point when they are preparing or updating their courses) (see Collis website, lesson 7 - link to Word document).  
• One-to-one mentorship as part of a staff development program was also recommended - although institutions found this was not economically feasible on a large scale (Collis & De Boer, p.343).  Various solutions such as using graduate students or 'cascading' were suggested.
• A list-serv or discussion forum for staff to showcase their uses of the system and to ask for help and share tips was reported as helpful by all authors.
• Use the e-learning system itself to run courses for staff.  Brown urges that lecturers should be put "into the learners' seat" as this makes them more reflective about learning and more aware of what they are asking of their students (p.374).
• Ellis's article 'Instructor Support for Web-based Courseware, Development and Delivery' suggests a four-stage model for staff development in online learning (pp.387-399).