Interview with Ellen Wagner

By Holly Bielak, Kim Cavallo, Yaa Donyina, Vicki Greene and Vernon Simpson

DEPM 604

Rationale for Choice of Distance Education Leader

• Ellen Wagner is Chief Research & Strategy Officer for the Predictive Analytics Reporting (PAR) Framework

• Executive Director of the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) from 2009 to 2013

• Formerly Senior Director of Worldwide eLearning Solutions, Adobe Systems, Inc.

• prior career as university professor at University of Northern Colorado

• Project Director at the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunication, Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education

• PhD in Educational Psychology from University of Colorado Boulder

What do you think are the most important qualities in a leader?

• Being approachable, trustworthy, transparent, engaging people in ideas

• Its situational, step up and not be afraid of what is going on

• Willingness to step up and get stuff done

• Leaders need a willingness to get things going

Women lead differently (Hardy Video)

• Women are non-hierarchical leaders

• There is not a lot of female role models

• The quality of the experience has to be worthwhile

• Guide yourself to make it work

In your opinion, how is being a leader in a distance education institution different from

other organizations?

• She does not know and asked the group

• She has been working in software industry for 8 years

• She needed to prove there is a market for e-learning

• Vernon said D.E. institutions use a different skill set

How would you describe your leadership style?

• Paint a picture of the future and get people to see themselves in it

• Socializing the new idea

• You have to get people to imagine how to do things differently

• Evangelism-what is in it for you

• When distance education is everywhere we have to think differently

In your opinion, can someone be an effective leader without being an effective

manager? Why or Why not?• Yes, some people are great leaders without management

skills

• Her business partner developed Dreamweaver

• She is the leader & her business partner is the manager

• People need to trust and believe in you

• Leaders need to inspire confidence

• Taking care of the business of what you are doing

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using virtual teams

in an organization?• She has been using virtual teams since 1992

• Her company is based in United States with teams in India, Pakistan & Australia

• Virtual teams are very helpful because work is shared digitally

• Challenges include the need to be flexible due to various time zones

• You have to be comfortable with technology and self-directed working

What advice would you give to a student or young professional who wants to enter the

distance education field?

• Think about what you would like to accomplish to leverage distance education

• Think about the impact which you would like to have

• Think about your strengths & how you could bring it to the table

• Be open to learning new things