S4.4.4

=Performance of personal and learning support facilities is regularly monitored. =

Evidence
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). The results of monitoring should be used to inform ongoing and new development, and to support resources and strategy. Information on performance can be used as a tool for improving quality, but only if the information is disseminated. Such validation of e-learning practices 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).

Resources
The primary focus for institutions, according (SIEL draft March 2010) is to anticipate the needs of the students. Improving post-secondary student e-learning and retention involves putting mechanisms in place to assist with communicating student and institutional expectations prior to the student’s first e-learning experience. Understanding best practice for student induction, undertaking self-assessment to evaluate institutional e-learning induction practices, and preparing first-year students for e-learning all during the early weeks of their first course. The SIEL report details in a matrix how all this can be done.