O2.3.1

=Institutional policies require that the implications of e-learning are included when (re)developing new and existing policies. =

Evidence
The emergence of e-learning as a ‘significant…pedagogy [which] raises a host of issues…concerning the complex and idiosyncratic nature of online learning’ (Jamieson, 2004, p. 22) that is ‘forcing universities to rethink their foundations and shift their paradigms’ (Howard et al., 2004, p. vii), highlights the importance of explicitly addressing its requirements. Posing questions about matters like adapting teaching practice, and interpreting online communications, Jamieson observes that e-learning brings pedagogical, technological, and operational challenges to teaching practice (p. 22). E-learning involves a ‘major realignment of the institutions organizational identity’ (p. 26) that calls for intensive, strategic professional development activity.

Turoff et al. (2004) comment on the importance administrators attached to research funding compared with teaching, and remark that e-learning’s more learning-centric focus is likely to require a reassessment of approaches to balancing academic teaching and research duties. Furthermore, they note that the e-learning environment ‘will make the quality of teaching more visible to the public and prospective students’ (p. 18), thus making learning and teaching policy and strategy more imperative.