D3.5.1

=Information on changes in the student population is used to guide e-learning initiative planning activities. =

Evidence
Technology choice, according to Shearer (2003), concerns how technology affects the behaviour of other elements in a systems environment ‘where all of the elements or variables interact’, and he lists four factors that involve variable elements in the e-learning environment: learner autonomy/control; interaction; access; and costs/economies of scale (p. 275). Learner autonomy/control refers to the importance of establishing and maintaining an environment that enables the learner to work effectively and successfully at a distance and at their own pace. Interaction involves teacher, learner, and content and takes various forms that concern aspects of quality, frequency, and timeliness. Information and communication technology (ICT) brings new dimensions to the notion of access that include virtual as well as physical attributes and encompass aspects such as, gender, culture, financial, geographic, supply and demand, disabilities, preparedness, motivational, and language (p. 279). Analysis of e-learning costs and effects is complex and needs to consider a range of cost factors including implementation, training, development, delivery, support, and maintenance, which may be balanced against savings from reuse of modular content objects and computer downloadable resources (p. 280).

There is an ongoing need to monitor the use of e-learning and ICTs for course delivery because there is as yet no consensus about what constitutes quality e-learning (Usoro & Abid 2008). These authors state that, ‘effective quality strategies, initiatives and tools are very important for convincing lecturers and other stakeholders to adopt e-learning’ (p. 80). Kidney et al. (2007) believe that, ‘a quality online course would be the direct result of a course creation process that included quality assurance strategies’ (p. 18).

To improve e-learning outcomes it is important to learn from past mistakes, according to Ehrmann (2002), who argues that tracking progress is not only necessary to stay on course but also to identify solvable problems that can attract fresh resources (p. 55).

Validation of e-learning processes and resources is a significant stage in the full cycle of organisational learning that describes success in terms of ‘student performance, student satisfaction, staff experience, and cost effectiveness, as judged in relation to the original intentions’ (Salmon, 2000, p. 236). Salmon discusses validating as one of six activities in the iterative process of creating an effective learning organisation infrastructure that enables ‘the system to learn about itself’ (p. 237).

Kidney et al. (2007) believe that, ‘a quality online course would be the direct result of a course creation process that included quality assurance strategies’ (p. 18). This is exactly what is described by Abdous (2009) in a pilot programme.