O2.5.1

=Information on the outcomes of e-learning initiatives guides learning and teaching strategy and policy (re)development. =

Evidence
Describing her thesis as Rethinking University Teaching, Laurillard (2002) reconceptualises teaching as mediating learning, or ‘[m]aking student learning possible’ (p. 11). Such a view requires an institution to recognise itself as a learning organisation, that is, ‘to be capable of adaptive learning….[which involves] an internal learning conversation that allows it to learn from experience, and adapt to its environment’ (p. 215). Laurillard proposes an iterative strategy that draws on internal dialogues of practice involving academic, operational, and administrative groups, which contribute to a recursive Conversational Framework that is discursive, adaptive, interactive, and reflective (p. 86). The Conversational Framework enables a negotiation of understandings that brings all stakeholder interests into policy and strategy considerations.

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.

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. 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.