MDDE 605: Planning and Management in Distance Education and Training

Delivery mode: Grouped study with Internet component

Credits: 3 - Core course

Prerequisites: Any other MDE course, and instructor's consent

Instructor Winter 2010: Roger Powley

Overview

The career path of distance education professionals; whether in academia, government, or the private sector; eventually leads to some form of management position. In these positions they are often asked to either create a new distance education unit/organization or re-engineer an education or training organization into one that embraces distance education methods. The creation and management of distance education organizations and/or units requires special skills and knowledge.

Piskurich & Sanders (1998) as part of an ASTD study identified a list of competencies for professionals involved in the design, development, implementation and management of distance learning technologies. Some of the proposed implementation and management competencies covered skills and knowledge related to: change management; leadership; industry awareness; business knowledge; project management; communications; and, implementation and support. Specific competencies required to manage a distance education enterprise included:

  1. Understand the current and future climate of the distance education and distance learning industry, and formulate strategies to respond to that climate.

  2. Demonstrate awareness of distance education organization business functions and how business decisions affect financial and non-financial work results.

  3. Supervise the selection of learning technologies and assure that these selections meet organizational needs.

  4. Understand the relative costs of each distribution method, or combination of methods, and assure that the organization is receiving a good value for the dollars spent on these technologies.

MDDE 605 will endeavour to provide the Athabasca University MDE community with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively plan and implement a distance education organization. The course and your instructor will guide you through the planning and implementation process. The assignments will be founded on a problem of your choosing that requires you to progressively create an implementation plan for a new or re-engineered distance education enterprise.

Course Goals

Upon completion of MDDE 605, you will be able to produce an implementation plan for the creation of a new distance education enterprise or distance training unit within an existing academic institution, corporate organization, or government department. The distance education implementation plan will:

  1. Be founded in a specific business or educational opportunity that reflects the reality of the business expertise of the target organization.

  2. Reflect the strategic direction of the target organization, and be founded in sound strategic planning.

  3. Reflect an appropriate distance learning business structure.

  4. Be financially viable and embrace the principles of effective financial planning.

  5. Identify ways to measure business success.

  6. Reflect sound leadership and management in the planning and implementation of the proposed distance learning enterprise.

Course Outline

MDDE 605 consists of six units. Each unit builds upon the last. Each unit consists of required readings, detailed overview, examples, and self-directed questions/exercises to be completed based on the unit content. After the completion of two units there is an assignment that requires that you synthesize and demonstrate what you have learned to date.

  1. Unit 1 provides the foundation for planning the creation of, or re-engineering of a distance education enterprise . It discusses the current and future state of national and global distance education organizations, both public and private. It describes potential business opportunities and it includes an overview of the planning and implementation process.

  2. Unit 2 guides learners in the production of a strategic plan for the new or re-engineered distance education enterprise. The unit describes the content of a strategic plan, discusses the process of how to create a strategic plan and provides examples of effective vision, mission, and value statements for different types of organizations.

  3. Unit 3 examines the structure of a typical distance education enterprise. The unit explores the infrastructure and business components required to implement and operate a distance education enterprise. It discusses different business models and the relationship of a business model to an organization’s strategic planning process.

  4. Unit 4 describes how to calculate the cost of planning, implementation and operation of a distance education enterprise. The unit explains and gives examples of liabilities, revenues, direct costs, indirect costs, capital expenses, and annual operating expenses. It guides learners through the creation and interpretation of simple financial statements and discusses the concepts of financial management of distance education enterprises.

  5. Unit 5 discusses the change management process as it applies to the planning and implementation of a distance education enterprise. It addresses issues of change and the requirement for effective leadership on the success of the distance education organization. It describes how to integrate the change process and change strategies into the strategic planning and implementation process.

  6. Unit 6 guides learners in the creation of performance evaluation criteria to measure the success of the new or revised distance education enterprise. It discusses a number of different evaluation methods and describes the content of an enterprise evaluation plan.

Student Evaluation

There are three assignments, each structured around the completion of two units of instruction. The assignments build upon one another. As learners complete one assignment they are expected to make modifications based on the feedback from the instructor, and continue to build on their next assignment based on the previous one.

  • Assignment 1 — Define the Strategic Direction of a Distance Learning Enterprise
    Course Weight: 25%

  • Assignment 2 — Identify the Structure and Cost of Operating a Distance Learning Enterprise
     Course Weight: 25%

  • Assignment 3 — Produce an Implementation Plan for a Distance Learning Enterprise
     Course Weighting: 25%

  • Active participation and reflections in Me2U
    Course Weighting: 25%

Course Materials

  • Online study guide

  • Readings

  • Texts:

    Bates, A.W. (2000). Managing technological change: Strategies for college and university leaders. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

    Rosenberg, J. M. (2001). e-Learning: Strategies for delivering knowledge in the digital age. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Get Started Early

MDDE 605 Checklist (MS Word)

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