Make Them Happy
They say you can’t make everyone happy. I think that’s no excuse not to try! I believe administrators tend to make some decisions with the justification that they can’t make everyone happy. This leads to policies and procedures that alienate people and interfere with faculty and student success. Why not try to make people happy and let them know what you are doing to try?
It is common for institutions to purchase a single distance education delivery solution (LMS/CMS) with the expectation that all faculty teaching distance education courses will use that product. Usually, there is a small group of people who are familiar with better solutions. They rebel and protest and break the rules. They develop their own, unsupported solutions, and the students suffer when there is no support.
Rather than force every instructor, course and student into a single system, try to plan in a way that will support alternatives to your large system. Instead of forcing instructors to use a single platform, set parameters to fit multiple platforms. For example:
- Require all DE instructors use the same minimum technology requirements for all courses, no matter what platform they use.
- Design an introductory file template with an easily recognized icon students know to access before any course content, no matter what system the instructor uses. Require instructors to modify and place this file prominently in every course.
- Require only that instructors use the primary system as a portal, so students have a single location to enter all their courses.
- Provide file storage and server space.
- Hire support technicians who are capable of acting as a one-stop answer center for students and faculty.
- Teach students how to learn technology on their own. Instead of making them sit through lessons on every Microsoft product or Web application, teach them how to navigate through systems to conduct their own learning.
- When an instructor wishes to try a new system, don’t automatically reject it. Spend a few hours on research. If you have to reject it, give the instructor a solid explanation.
September 14th, 2007 at 7:24 am
While you are preaching to the choir here, it is up to people like us to insist that these administrative applications be made to promote effective learning experiences.
It is my belief that “administrators” forget that they are to “administrate”, or coordinate what happens in schools, online or otherwise. This coordination should be based on best practice, including the recommendations of their coworkers, the teachers. Adapt or die, should be their bywords…so they don’t become frozen in the moment of technololgy that will pass “in a blink of an eye”.
I really appreciated your enuciation of this issue and your list of ESSENTIAL needs for technology systems within an educational organization.
September 14th, 2007 at 8:01 am
Sheryl, thank you for emphasizing the, “blink of an eye.” I see this as a critical point that complex hierarchies have difficulty grasping. There isn’t time to convene multiple committees and take years to make decisions. Technology is changing so quickly that systems must be flexible and scalable. Less emphasis must be placed on the learning curve for students and faculty. Rather than reject change due to significant impact on constituents, institutions must accept change and prepare to support that impact. In some situations, this means replacing support staff who are unwilling or unable to learn new products.