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Guide

Scaling up online learning

Provides tools, techniques, strategies and activities to support the development and provision of online learning programmes.

About this guide

  • Published: 20 January 2016
  • Updated: 22 June 2016

View full guide as a single page

Contents

Scaling up online learning
  • Approaches to online learning
  • Planning and decision making
  • Understanding the market
  • Administrative and organisational issues
  • Business models
  • Supporting strategies and policies
  • Educational quality and equity
  • Resources and costs
  • Legal issues
  • Managing change
  • Risk management
  • Sustainable online learning models
  • Managing relationships
  • Information and data management
    • Using academic analytics
    • Supporting and integrating IT systems
  • Summary

Most institutions run an online course as a one-off or special project. Few however convert this capability into ongoing capacity. Institutions may need to design and run courses in response to identified market needs, or to scale up provision to meet demand, and help the UK stay ahead in the global higher education marketplace.

About our guides

Our series of guides will help your staff understand the decisions they need to make and the processes involved around scaling up online learning at an organisational level.

They will also help ensure that online students receive an equitable service and student experience to their campus-based peers. Specifically:

  • Scaling up online learning provides a strategic view of different models and the implications of implementing online learning at an institutional level
  • Curriculum design and support for online learning helps you make decisions around curriculum design and determine support needs when scaling up online learning
  • Technology and tools for online learning provides guidance, resources and case studies around the use of technology to support online courses and distance learning programmes.

This series of guides provides insight into the range of factors that contribute to ongoing capacity. They offer tools, techniques, strategies and activities at institutional, strategic and delivery levels to support the development and provision of online/distance learning programmes.

All three guides indicate the barriers and actions you can take as well as illustrated examples from institutions that have developed useful approaches to overcoming the barriers.

Use our checklist (Word docx) which highlights key questions you may be considering for online learning provision. Your institution may be planning to adopt new models of online or distance learning or may be integrating online learning into existing courses. This checklist can be useful for both scenarios. 

The checklist provides groups of related questions that could be considered by teams, committees or individuals. Some of the questions require institution-wide consideration, whilst others may also need to be considered at a departmental or course team level. The checklist includes strategic and operational aspects as well as more specific questions for individual courses, modules or learning activities.

Terminology

Distance learning courses have evolved to incorporate developments in technology and are likely to have been adapted to include online learning. The terms ‘distance learning’ and ‘online learning’ have almost become synonymous, and for the purposes of these guides we refer mainly to ‘online learning’.

  • Approaches to online learning
  • Planning and decision making
  • Understanding the market
  • Administrative and organisational issues
  • Business models
  • Supporting strategies and policies
  • Educational quality and equity
  • Resources and costs
  • Legal issues
  • Managing change
  • Risk management
  • Sustainable online learning models
  • Managing relationships
  • Information and data management
  • Summary

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