JISC

This paper explains the cultural changes that will be required to make the best use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) within a greater college environment or Managed Learning Environment (MLE). It looks at the essential areas within the organisation that are affected by the implementation of MLEs.  

The challenge

 
Adapted from a presentation by DEMOS

The implementation of an MLE will have a huge effect on college systems and will lead to significant changes at all levels in the organisation: managerially, culturally and pedagogically. Increasing competition with commercial operations will mean that colleges will have to change in order to survive. Such changes include:

Curriculum delivery changes
Colleges will need to move to a more facilitated style of teaching and support where the tutor is often referred to as a guide on the side. The 'process' here is more important than the 'content'.

Managerial changes
Colleges will need to work towards a 'project' or 'network-based' structure, that is, one that can react quickly to the demands of the marketplace ensuring business is not lost to private sector suppliers.

Information system changes
Access to accurate and up to date data and information is essential to enable the management of any institution. VLEs can act as both inputs and outputs of data within an MLE allowing data to be quickly and easily corrected and maintained via the desktop.

Knowledge culture
As a result of the need to move to a more project or network-based approach, knowledge should not be concentrated within specific parts of the hierarchy, but instead should be distributed across the organisation.

From standardisation to a diverse curriculum
In response to the increasingly fast changing educational world there needs to be a move from standardised courses towards more diverse ones. This can be achieved within VLEs by selecting content that has a small enough granularity to be mixed and matched with locally produced content to respond to any situation. This means that tutors and lecturers need to be trained to edit and repurpose such content. Funding structures are already changing to ensure that a more diverse curriculum is attainable.

Students as customers
Students now have access to a range of providers offering online learning and courses to suit them. To continue to attract students, institutions must see the students as customers and provide a dedication to quality so that customers are not lost to other providers that can deliver a seamless, consistent, quality product.  

Resistance to change?

Lecturers are often accused of being resistant to change. Recent evidence shows that teaching staff in colleges are increasingly embracing the changes needed to use Information Learning Technology (ILT) or Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and are, in many cases, leading the ILT/ICT revolution.

For tutors and lecturers to be more effective in a new learning age, they need to become more flexible. Individuals need to change as well as the organisations they work in.  

Collaboration

To achieve goals, colleges will need to work in collaboration. This requires a much more open and honest dialogue, but the effort can be worth it in that the combination of expertise can result in outcomes that could not have been attainable any other way.

For example, some colleges have set up content foundries. In these instances, colleges have recognised that the many different skills and levels of expertise required can only be found across colleges. Teams will need to be brought together and may assemble and disassemble depending on the course content.  

Out of control or creative chaos?

Organisational and cultural change can often lead to senior management starting to feel out of control. Creative chaos results and this should be seen as a strength not a weakness. For colleges to survive they will need to be capable of rapid change offering a diverse curriculum in response to the constantly changing market. 

A whole college approach

Clearly for all of these changes to be achieved a whole college approach is necessary. A college ILT/ICT strategy, as part of the overall college strategy, will lie at the centre of this. This process will need 'buy in' from all sections and departments of the college; involvement of staff at all levels will be crucial for effective implementation of such a plan.

About the Author

Richard Everett was the MLE Co-ordinator for the JISC. He works to the MLE Steering Group, a strategic body that advises and guides the FE and HE community in the implementation of MLEs.

Richard was the Project Manager for the Western Colleges' Consortium for Online Learning. This collaborative project installed the infrastructure for an extranet and also sourced and configured a VLE. It also started the process of collaboration between colleges in the sourcing and production of materials for use on the VLE.

Previously Richard worked as a Programme Leader for BTEC National Computing at Trowbridge College and before that he was a Key Skills Co-ordinator at Soundwell College. He also has considerable experience as a Project Manager implementing computer systems for organisations in the public sector.

Further information

Managing Change in Higher Education. Peter Ford et al. (eds), OUP. 1996
Can't Stand Still. Richard Everett, FE Now, Issue 56, pp39-40, Autumn 200
Thriving on Chaos. Tom Peters, Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0330305913