S5.5.1

=Information on the e-learning technology and pedagogy skills of teaching staff guides the resources allocated for support. =

Evidence
Evidence of capability in this process is seen through the use of formal staff capability assessments during training and as part of the design and development process for courses and projects. Evidence from these assessments should be used to determine additional support and training allocations.

Design and development plans should include formal processes for ongoing support of teaching staff and courses. Policy and guidelines should mandate staff capability assessments and require their use in ongoing staff development. Regular overview reports of capability should inform strategies for ongoing resourcing and development of e-learning.

Khan (2005) notes that many academic and administrative staff may have not experienced e-learning themselves. He recommends that they should undertake a course using the medium in order to better understand the learner’s position (p. 35). Another problematic issue that Khan raises is teaching staff workload, which, particularly in the early stages of e-learning implementation, is very demanding because of the additional preparation and communication requirements.

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.