Organisation Before Innovation

Simply catching up with the present would make any university a leader. I’ve not come across one that has fully leveraged the current safe known-good technologies broadly across their courses in the interests of learning outcomes. Most universities are bogged down with what they think is innovation, and seem weak on organisation. The higher education industry has been in a virtual panic. MOOC initiatives are justified with ‘its better to be on the bus than have a ticket’. Many innovators have generally failed to broadly adopted well established technologies like online marking, electronic assignment submission, or video capture. Frankly there are too many busses to be off on jollies all day.

A university might do better therefore to focus on leveraging the value of known-good off-the-self systems first, and then compliment this with a range of experiments, one of which is MOOCs.
There is a new majority of instructors who want to embrace eLearning. Its not just the innovators now. A university could therefore  multiply value by shifting focus from eLearning innovators, towards helping this majority.


This organisational focus requires a one-off programme of projects to catch up with the reliable commodity market, but not overstepping into the bleeding edge. Simply catching up with what the commodity market has already made possible would add tremendous value to a university. Just imagine you were a student and your assignment feedback came before final exams, and it was moderated, rich and useful in your studies. Imagine you could actually interact with your fellow students in flipped classes, or discussion boards, or with the instructor through response systems.


Catching up to the present is a one-off change management project but the importance of eLearning is not one-off. Technology enhanced learning requires a  new governance structure reflective of its importance.  Now that teaching and learning is significantly technology enabled (and in many ways driven), like any technology dependent function, it will continue to evolve at a much faster pace than universities are accustomed to. There will be no single end-state that we have to guess, and then race to. Anywhere you get to you will have to leave very quickly.