D7.3.6

=Institutional standards and templates provide pre-defined intellectual property licences for use with e-learning resources. =

Evidence
Littlejohn (2003) draws on work carried out in a national forum for support staff and recommends that major challenges to a unified e-learning strategy need to be dealt with in the following way: Institutions must take responsibility for e-learning planning and provision, there must be cooperation between technology support staff and academic staff, good practice research currently being ignored by institutions must be incorporated into practice, e-learning must be seen as mainstream practice. Overall, ‘the development of a unified strategy to promote sustainable approaches to e-learning requires major shifts in support and leadership’ (p. 99). Institutional standards, templates and policies are needed to support this shift.

Standards and guidelines define the quality of teaching, build consensus about the process of developing a course and help staff learn good practice. They can help to ensure that resources are well used. They can also serve as a check list when evaluating online learning. However, it is noted that quality standards and guidelines must not become more important than outcomes. And also, as reiterated by Meyer (2003), some guidelines are not based on research.

Inglis (2005) notes that guidelines should be developed in consultation with all stakeholders. Guidelines alone may not ensure quality (Meyer 2003), but should be used in conjunction with a number of sources that give evidence of quality within and specific to the organization and its expectations.

Resources
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.