tencompetence open workshop gmex jan 2007 control freaks in a sharing world - a bit of a dilemma?...
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TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Control freaks in a sharing world - a bit of a dilemma?
Prof Mark StilesHead of Learning Development & InnovationStaffordshire University
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Outline
Institutional strategy & policy are challenged by technological change
•Innovation and Strategy - a quick look•Some Personal Experiences - from Revolution to Stalinism to Perestroika•More about Innovation•More about Universities•The new factors•About control•A framework for considering policy and strategy
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
“Embedding”
• all policies, procedures, roles and responsibilities pertaining to the use of eLearning are fully integrated – not just with each other, but with those applying to “normal” practice.
• eLearning is part of the culture of the institution, and is seen by all as part of normal working practice, and as part of the normal portfolio available to facilitate learning by teachers and learners.
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
The point of strategies“Everyone” starts out with a eLearning strategy - either stand-alone or embedded in another strategy
BUT:
Strategies tend to be about introducing or extending eLearning & e-Environment not their “normal operation” - i.e. they are “Objectives” driven
Once objectives are attained, the focus tends to move elsewhere…
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
The Strategy game…
“Build it and they will come…” (“Field of Dreams”)
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
The Strategy game…
“Build it and they will come…” (“Field of Dreams”)
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
The Strategy game…
“Let a thousand flowers bloom”
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
The Strategy game…
“Let a thousand flowers bloom”
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
The Strategy game…
“The philosophers have interpreted the world – the point is to change it”(Karl Marx)
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
The Strategy game…
“The philosophers have interpreted the world – the point is to change it” (Karl Marx)
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
The Strategy game…
“Seed change by funding innovative projects”
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
The Strategy game…
“Seed change by funding innovative projects”
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
In Reality…
• All these approaches both succeed and fail(In part)
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Staffordshire 1996 - 2002
• “Transformational” Strategy with:
– first, “seeding change” projects by bid
– then, “seeding change” projects by departmental plan
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
And, by 2002…
– Significant Cultural Change– Many modules using e-learning for “real”– Successful distance e-learning awards– Good “width” of penetration across institution– Strategies “quite” well joined-up– Recognition and QAA success– Staff getting rewards
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
But...
Problems with development approach:
– Lateness, creep, false expectations– Late delivery, academic workloads– Support staff not always effectively or fully involved– Localised impact– Not a “learning organisation”
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
and...• Rate of change slowing
• “Projects” rather than “Production”
• Big holes in the “admin net”
• Support uneven
• SURF partners showed weaknesses in P2R2
• Planning insufficiently sharp
• Core support involved too late
• P2R2 not “joined up”
eLearning not embedded – University not Agile
P2R2 - Policies, Procedures, Roles and Responsibilities
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Staffordshire 2002 -2006
“eL-P3R2” - Focus on Policy, Procedure, Process, Role and Responsibility:
Included:
– The integrative approach to course development
– Holistic quality assurance and course development planning
– Addressing “vertical” and “horizontal” organisational coherence
– SURF partnership working
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Reinforcing the Message
The “rules of engagement”
‘Vertical coherence’– Policy
‘Horizontal coherence’– Operational Policies, Procedures, Roles and
Responsibilities
Changing behaviour influences culture
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
eLearning Policy
Designed to address/achieve:
• flexible and independent learning; informal and individual learning.
• equity of opportunity and alignment of student support• provision of a learning environment encompassing all of the
learning experience • supporting the independent and lifelong learner and continuing
professional development• access to eResources from point of need; repurposing and reuse • robust quality assurance/enhancement with scope for
innovation and employment of professional skills
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
eLearning Policy
Designed to address/achieve:
• encouragement of research, scholarship and development in eLearning
• appropriate staff development, to ensure understanding of others’ roles
• practice, policy and strategy are responsive to lessons learned and new opportunities; removing barriers that impede or restrict effective eLearning.
• resources and support are appropriate to requirements and understood
• pricing of eLearning is both competitive and appropriate to the target populations.
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
So now…
• eLearning embedded in Strategies e.g. Information, Learning Teaching and Assessment
• eLearning Policy acts as change enabler
• Operational Policies, Processes and procedures being aligned e.g. Quality Assurance, WBL
• Goal - eLearning just part of normal practice “e” disappears
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
But…
• Rate of increase of use is high but mainly eSupported or “mundane”
• Mainstream probably now less innovative than before
• P2R2 focus seen by some as “Stalinist”
• Enthusiasts and Innovators subverting policy
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Freedom vs. Control
How to “loosen the chains” to encourage innovation without losing control?
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Innovation
“the intentional introduction and application within a role, group or organization of ideas, processes, products or procedures, new to the relevant unit of adoption, designed to significantly benefit the individual, the group, organization or wider society”. (West and Farr, 1990)
• What makes innovation happen and work is still not well understood
• Organisations struggle to sustain innovation long term
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Innovation - Factors
Characteristics of innovative corporations:
• Clear vision of an “innovative company” and the support needed to sustain it.
• Visions tied to the realities of the marketplace. • Total organization flat and project teams small. • Managers encourage the parallel development of several
projects. • Learning and investigation cut across traditional functional
lines• Uses groups functioning outside traditional lines of
authority.
(from James Brian Quinn)
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Innovation Management and Culture
• What does the organisation WANT from innovation? - e.g. effectiveness, quality, satisfaction
• Reward behaviours that contribute to innovation - remove barriers that impede it.
• Specialisation, standardisation and centralisation inhibit innovation.
• Values such as rigidity, control, predictability, stability and order inhibit innovation
• In must be OK to fail and make errors
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Technical Innovation – a problem approach
Centralised adoption of new technologies which are then “spread” through the organisation:
Tends to assume:the innovation is inherently a good ideapeople will make use of itfailure of take-up is “their” fault or an organisational failing
Doesn’t help learn what new technologies help and don’t
Technological innovation:involves competition and conflictno “right answer”one size doesn’t fit all has periods of stability and change
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
“The Learning Organisation”
• Anticipates and adapts to new pressures and drivers
• Can readily develop new products, processes, and services
• Learns from competitors and collaborators
• Effectively transfers knowledge around the organisation
• Learns from mistakes
• Uses employees at all levels at an organisational level
• Can implement strategic changes quickly
• Actively encourages continuous improvement in all areas
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Communities & Networks of Practice
• A natural CoP is largely informal and of people with similar activities and interests
• Organisations can have multiple CoPs and CoPs can cross organisations
• Innovation normally happens where different CoPs meet (or usually don’t)
• So CoPs can actually act as a barrier to innovation
• NoPs are normally cross-organisational but still have distinct (professional) cultures
• NoPs work well with a “field” but not outside of it, even within an organisation
• Hence Professions - and their cultures - can be a barrier to innovation.
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Communities & Networks of Practice
• Management set up CoPs to structure and control innovation
• This “appears” to work but NOT for radical innovation
• Radical innovations depend on cross-field synthesis
• Managers need to draw CoPs together
• “Created” CoPs tend to focus on what the manager is looking for instead of practice
• Innovation tends to redefine professional tasks, and result in “partisan” conflicts
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Universities: Control & Barriers
Much is outside the control of the individual tutor and learner
• Much institutional structure and policy controls tutor and learner behaviour
• Academic culture and discourse are, in their own way, conservative
• Many students do not actually appreciate “learner-centredness”(This is reinforced by the “business model” of the student)
• Moves away from the orthodox which reduce control are often opposed by those who currently control the process in question
• Multiple external drivers for “controlling approaches”
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Universities: Management
• No single Institutional culture - consists of multi-subcultures
• Subcultures are typically in conflict and need to understand each other for Institutional culture to be addressed
A University can be typified as a “Professional bureaucracy”:
A decentralised mechanistic form which accords a high degree of autonomy to individual professionals. Characterized by individual and functional specialization, with a concentration of power and status in the ’authorized experts’. The individual experts may be highly innovative within a specialist domain, but the difficulties of coordination across functions and disciplines impose severe limits on the innovative capability of the organization as a whole.
(Mintzberg)
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
The “new factors”
• SOAs and the e-Framework
• Systems such as ePortfolios
• “Web 2.0”
All of these pose challenges for institutions around ownership and control of processes, systems and information
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Process ownership
In education many processes are inter-organisational and:
• Loose in structure • Based on informal cooperation • Have no explicit or implicit agreement on process ownership
Process ownership has become very complex and can involve:
• Process designer• Process manager• Process users• Software designer• Software procurer• Software users
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
What is ownership?Ownership includes:
• possession - “right to determine the uses of assets“• authority - a variable aspect of ownership• control - roles and responsibilities - refine ownership
of systems and their interoperation
Ownership of “a computer system” involves hardware, software, and processes, and is probably divided among a number of parties.
Who owns the relationship between interoperating systems?
Someone must have the right to alter or sever a relationship.
Orchestration and Choreography are important here(based on Carney et al)
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
What is ownership?
Data Ownership
- an individual is empowered to make decisions, and can act to address “his” needs
- designs and controls own processes
Data Stewardship
- a facilitation role. - uses a consistent process to achieve alignment
across organization - needs of “all” considered
Data Custodian
- responsible for physical security of data - creates and enforces data standards
(Schlenker)
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Web 2.0
Tutors and learners will build their own toolsets from: • what is provided by the institution • what they have on their own (personal) computer• what is available on the Web.
Learners will• “opt out” of systems institutions and tutors might prefer
them to use for formal learning activities• initiate “sharing” and “community” activities outside of
the formal learning experience using tools they themselves have chosen.
• engage with and draw on much wider and more diverse communities.
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Web 2.0
A varying spectrum of control and ownership require thought about:
• how learning strategies will be articulated• how they will be communicated to learners • how learning will be managed and facilitated• how learners can translate outputs from self-generated
activity
There is in effect a blurring between informal and formal learning and the key to understanding the future may be in understanding the nature of this intermediate zone and how, why and what activities and artefacts exist within (and pass through) it.
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Web 2.0
Practitioners will need to:• cope with a very diverse range of approaches taken by learners• guard against making stereotypical assumptions• consider how their chosen learning strategies may be
interpreted by learners
Institutions will have to consider what (and at what level) they need to control and/or influence and what might be “let go” or exploited.
This impacts on quality assurance, academic planning, course design and development, and the core process.
Institutions need to be sure that that an appropriate approach to ownership is being taken in any given context.
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
A Decision-making Framework
The world will consist of:
• Institutional systems• External systems – both web and organisational• “Private” toolkits• And interoperating mixtures of these!
It will require a cultural shift in how IT management view risk and control the use of systems by tutors and learners.
Some form of decision making tool is need to inform strategy and policy and hence influence and guide practice.
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
A Decision-making Framework
A possible “spectrum of control”:
Control - to exercise restraint or direction over; dominate; command. to hold in check; curb
Manage - to take charge or care of. to dominate or influence. to handle, direct, govern, or control in action or use
Facilitate - to make easier or less difficult; help forward (an action, a process, etc.). to assist the progress of
Enable - to make able; give power, means, competence, or ability to; authorise: to make possible or easy
Recognise - to identify from knowledge of appearance or characteristics. to perceive as existing or true; realise
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
A Decision-making Framework
Possible loci of activity
Institution Initiated – at a corporate, departmental, or course management level
Tutor Initiated – as part of the learning process and conduct of course delivery
Learner Initiated – either completely independently, or as part of the learners own learning strategy
Using these in a decision-making “grid”, it should be possible to position processes and systems and to reflect on the validity of the positioning. Once positioning is decided, strategy and policy can be examined to see if they reflect the organisational needs arising
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
A possible framework?
Control level
Institution Initiated
Tutor Initiated Learner Initiated
Control Enrolment
Progression
Summative assessment
Course structure
Submission of work for assessment
Manage Tutor led discussion
Lecture
Course Resources
Facilitate Group Project Course/Group Discussion
Enable Formal Peer discussion
Blog of learning experience
Recognise Informal peer discussion
Personal Blog
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Thank you for
your time
- and patience
www.staffs.ac.uk/COSE/cosenew/reportsandpapers.html
TENCompetence Open Workshop GMEX Jan 2007
Sources used
Stiles M. J., Embedding E-learning in a Higher Education Institution, in "Virtuality and Education. A Reader.", eds Hoang Nguyen, T. and Preston, D.S., Rodopi, 2006Read B., Archer L. and Leathwood C, Challenging Cultures? Student Conceptions of ‘Belonging’ and ‘Isolation’ at a Post-1992 University, Studies in Higher Education Vol 28 (3), 2003, pp 261 - 277 Ahmed P.K., Benchmarking innovation best practice, Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol 5 (1), Number 1, 1998, pp. 45-58Martins E.C. and Terblanche F., Building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation, European Journal of Innovation Management Vol 6 (1) 2003 pp. 64-74Luck J., Jones D., McConachie J., & Danaher P. A. Challenging enterprises and subcultures: Interrogating ‘best practice’ in Central Queensland University’s course management systems. Paper presented at the Teaching and Learning Showcase, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Qld. (2004, February 18)Allen J. P., Information systems as technological innovation, Information Technology & People, Vol 13(3) pp 210 – 221, 2000Hornsby J. S., Kuratko D. F., Montagno R. V., Naffziger D. W., Implement Entrepreneurial Thinking in Established Organizations, SAM Advanced Management Journal, Vol 58, 1993Larsen, M.H. and Klischewski, R., Process ownership challenges in IT-enabled transformation of interorganizational business processes, Proceedings of the 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2004, pp 11-.Marquardt M. J., Building the Learning Organization: A Systems Approach to Quantum Improvement, McGraw-Hill, 1996Lam, A. "Organizational Innovation" In The Oxford Handbook of Innovation, ed. Fagerberg J., Mowery D. C., and Nelson R. R., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.Carney, D., Anderson W., and Place P., Topics in Interoperability: Concepts of Ownership and Their Significance in Systems of Systems, Integration of Software-Intensive Systems Initiative Carnegie Mellon University, 2005West, M.A., Farr, J.L., "Innovation at work", in West, M.A., Farr, J.L. (Eds),Innovation and Creativity at Work: Psychological and Organizational Strategies, Wiley, Chichester, pp.3-13, 1990Quinn J. B., "Managing Innovation: Controlled Chaos" Harvard Business Review, May-June 1985, pp. 73-84Mintzberg, H.: The Structuring of Organization, Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall 1979Schlenker, S. “IDMA Focuses on Data Ownership.” The Data Administration Newsletter. http://www.tdan.com/i025ht04.htm (2003).Swan J, Scarborough, H and Robertson M, The Construction of “Communities of Practice” in the Management of Innovation, Management Learning, Vol 33(4): 477-496, 2002Stiles M. J., Death of the VLE? – A challenge to a new orthodoxy, Serials (In Press)