S5.3.4

=Teaching staff are provided with project tools (including standard contracts and licenses, checklists and quality assurance procedures) for e-learning design and (re)development. =

Evidence
Across the five institutions surveyed by Mansvelt et al. (2009) e-learning support was unevenly experienced and sometimes hampered by unsupportive management, resource conflicts and organisational structures. Alignment between policy and practice was poor. Staff are unclear how policies relate to expectations of their own practice. This must be made clear and transparent.

One of the significant postulated advantages of e-learning is cost reduction through sustainability (see DfES consultation document, DfES 2003). Sustainable e-Learning means creating resources according to a plan and using consistent methods and templates, rather than institution-wide ad hoc development. Consistency lends itself to sharing of e-Learning resources and re-use of learning materials.

Resources
Suzuki & Tada (2009) draw upon relevant instructional design literature and propose a five tiered hierarchical model for ensuring quality in e-learning course design. Their model places easy to use, friendly information design at the heart of the model (tier 3), with exactness of content and a ‘painless’ well functioning technological infrastructure below that. At the higher tiers they advocate ensuring learning effectiveness with learner support and appropriate structure and sequence of the course, and finally at tier 5, ensuring that students are engaged, motivated and willing to learn. These authors explain the major instructional design techniques necessary for achieving these goals of instructional design. They include: Learning environment analysis; Needs, task and content analysis; Rapid prototyping and formative evaluation; Structuring and sequencing; Aesthetic design, androgogy, and serious games among others. The model is then applied to an existing course to see how it measures up, and how it might be improved. They emphasize high performance technology, sharing a set of course design policies among professors, relationships among courses to be kept in mind, alignment of the course with professional requirements. They also note the need for a series of studies [or information collected by an institution], aiming at determining learning outcomes and satisfaction measures for students taking courses designed using this model.

Milne & White (2005) collect together twenty-three sets of e-learning quality guidelines from an array of geographical regions. Such guidelines, or something like them, should be part of the support offered to staff by their organizations. Staff need guidelines, and examples of good practice.

The Australian Flexible Learning Framework provides checklists for e-learning projects: http://community.flexiblelearning.net.au/ManagingFlexibleDelivery/content/article_2959.htm

Pfeiffer has a publication From Analysis to Evaluation: Tools, Tips, and Techniques for Trainers, with CD-ROM: http://au.pfeiffer.com/WileyCDA/PfeifferTitle/productCd-0787982016,navId-311055,descCd-tableOfContents.html?print=true

A book that covers a lot of these types of issues and has sample templates to look at is by William and Kathrine Horton called "E-Learning Tools and Technologies"

ISO 9241 assures the usability of a system by providing specific requirements and guidelines for user interface design (Pawlowski, 2006).