Joint Information Systems Committee Supporting Further and Higher Education Should Organisations for Learning be Learning Organisations? Sandy Britain

Supporting Further and Higher Education

Joint Information Systems Committee

Should Organisations for Learning be Learning Organisations?

Sandy Britain

Centre for Learning TechnologyUniversity of Wales - Bangor

March 2002



Structure and Aims

• Outline a model of the current situation for HE/FE

• Describe our approach to examining the organisational issues with MLE development

• Outline some of the issues



the Comantle project

• Developing an MLE presents both technical and organisational issues and challenges

• A systems approach can help understand the organisation better and thus assist with :

–diagnosing areas for organisational change

–designing an appropriate MLE strategy



The comantle project

• Collecting formal data on the institution

• Collecting perspectives

• Modeling the organisation

• Compare the model with perspectives

• Note: the role of the researcher as a participant in change process



Components of a viable system

Environment

Management

Viable System



The university system External Environment

UniversityInputs

Outputs

Graduates

Potential Students

Funding

New Research

?

Internal Environment

Knowledge



Background• HE and FE institutions have a well

elaborated structure...faculties departments student services

staff development personnel library

computing admin computing committees

governing board management hierarchy



Background• HE and FE institutions have well

elaborated processes

course publicity admissions registration

timetabling accommodationlibrary access

learning materials teaching assessment

certification course design validation

Adapted to manage environmental complexity



Managing Complexity - the key to

viability

Environment

Viable System

Management

Ve Vs Vm

Ve >> Vs >> Vm

But viability demands that variety is matched



New Environments for Learning

• The drivers for E-Learning adoption –The Environment in which HE / FE is situated is

becoming more unstable

–Those involved in education are looking for ways to manage increased variety in the environment

–Technology (V/MLEs) are seen as a way to manage that variety

• But technology is de-stabilising:–Are existing structures and processes capable of

supporting eLearning?



The context at Bangor• Part of the university of Wales

• Arts, Science, Health and Education faculties

• Wants to expand local recruitment

• Welsh language important

• Some successful resource-rich departments

• Some specialised distance learning courses

• Dept. of lifelong learning

• New student records system

• Centre for learning Technology - Colloquia



A Functional Institution Model

Faculties

Departments

Academic Structure:

Senior management

Committees

Support Structure:

Registry

Information servicesEstates

Library

Staff Development



Disclaimer

The material that follows is based on true stories. However the characters and organisations depicted are entirely fictional and any resemblance to real persons or institutions either living or dead is entirely coincidental.



The Social Institution

Informal Communications Network

Myths

Missions

Norms and values

Personalities

FiefdomsRumours

Anxieties

Power-play

Invention



What is an MLE for? There are multiple different perspectives

• Enhancing Teaching and Learning

• Enabling distance learning

• Widening access

• Improving Institutional Image

• Improving quality of data

• Improving communications

• Not getting left behind



• Tools for enhancing the primary activity - teaching and learning (VLEs)

• Tools for improving management of the internal environment (MLEs / Intranets)

• Tools for improving functioning with relation to external environments (Website /MLEs Portals)

What is an MLE for? Systems view


Joint Information Systems CommitteeUnfolding complexity – teaching and

learningUniversity

Course

Department

Student listsGrades

Pedagogicaltools

TrackingAssessment

MLE

MLE

VLE

Avoid confusing levels!



Organisational Learning: Application of Viable Systems theory

• Institutions exist in a changing environment and resources are scarce

• Institutions must constantly adapt to survive

• Departments also exist in a changing environment and must be able to adapt

• Courses exist in a changing environment and must be able to adapt



Issues – pedagogic tools

• Learner, dept, or institution-focussed development?

• Replication of what we do now or new approaches?

• Staff and Student development issues

• Variety,specificity, flexibility

• Vs

• Consistency, simplicity, ease of support



Issues – Self Regulation

• Centralised vs de-centralised data

• Channels for resource negotiation

• Channels for coordination

• Channels for monitoring

• Capacity for self-organisation



Issues – Balancing Outside and Inside

• Strategy - The outside and future

• Control – The here and now

• Need to balance often conflicting demands and inform policy-makers

• Example: Interoperability questions!

• Strategy and control functions should be tightly connected



Issues – design questions

• To what extent do we design technical systems around current structures and processes?

• How do we future-proof our developments?

• How much do we let current technology limitations influence the way we work?



Some Reading• Birnbaum R. How Colleges Work (1988) Jossey-Bass

• Checkland P. & Scholes J. Soft Systems Methodology in Action (1999) Chichester, Wiley

• Enid Mumford – The Ethics Method

• Espejo, R et al., Organisational Transformation and Learning

(1996) Chichester, Wiley

Documents

Joint Information Systems Committee Supporting Further and Higher Education Should Organisations for Learning be Learning Organisations? Sandy Britain