EDU 621: Managing e-Learning

Overview

EDU 621 is for those who will manage the design, development, and implementation of e-learning throughout an organization. The course will teach you to put your knowledge of e-learning to work within an organization that can benefit from e-learning. This course is not just about managing e-learning efforts; however, it is a course in managing e-learning. The course is designed as an ongoing simulation with you playing the role of the e-learning manager.

You will have reading and writing assignments as in other courses, but EDU 621 assignments will all relate directly to your efforts to move your organization into the e-learning age.

This course assumes you understand what e-learning is, what it offers, and how to design individual e-learning courses. Unless you understand the scope of e-learning solutions and what e-learning can accomplish, you will not be prepared to match e-learning’s potential against the needs and constraints of a particular organization. Some of the activities you are required to perform include preparing a budget, calculating return on investment (ROI), and basic project management.

This course also assumes that you want to learn to manage e-learning initiatives — not just accumulate facts about the science of management. Through simulation, this course requires you to manage an e-learning effort. You will be dropped into the role of a newly hired chief learning officer at a company. Your immediate goal is to develop a plan for moving the company to e-learning.

The last e-learning manager failed to inadequately analyze and research the complexities of the corporation’s need for e-learning. Don’t let that happen to you. As the new chief learning officer, you will develop a plan and prepare a report while dealing with routine duties and crises as they occur. All of these activities will require learning new skills and knowledge.

The course is challenging. It will require creativity, originality, and hard work on your part. Remember:

• This is a management course. In management, issues are seldom clear-cut. They require leadership and good, sound judgment.
• It is a simulation. You cannot succeed in this course by simply reading papers written by the instructor and by repeating ideas and themes. You must conduct research, analysis, and synthesis.
• This is a graduate level course. Although course material is grounded in the real world, be prepared to deal with abstractions and generalizations. High level, reflective thinking skills will be needed to succeed.

Don’t worry about getting lost. Remember, you will have your predecessor’s efforts to guide you in what not to do and which things to avoid. Also, your boss has agreed to assist you and guide you. To learn effectively and apply course material, you must be willing to suspend disbelief and dive into the role assigned to you. Only minimal acting skills are required.

EDU 621 incorporates the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction (IBSTPI) and addresses competencies for training managers, evaluators, and instructional designers.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Describe the benefits and limitations of e-learning.
• Identify members of an organization as potential designers, instructors, and evaluators of e-learning.
• Compare and contrast e-learning options based on educational, technical, and organizational considerations.
• Estimate cost and time required for e-learning development.
• Assess the organizational issues related to internalization, infrastructure, and change.
• Design a needs assessment plan for e-learning.
• Apply design principles, ethical standards, and leadership skills.
• Develop a strategic design plan or RFP for an e-learning class.

Course Requirements

Managing e-learning efforts is a complex activity that requires a deep reservoir of knowledge, superb people skills, and ability to balance contradictory and competing project requirements. Mere intellectual knowledge is not sufficient. Nor is blind application of guidelines or dogmatic theory. Success requires sensitivity to the unique goals, culture, and history of the organization and its individual units. It requires custom tailoring solutions that fit the targeted organization (and its learners) and that can be accomplished within a limited budget and on a tight schedule.

In this course you will learn to:

• Determine the benefits and limitations of e-learning for a particular organization.
• Articulate long-term and short-term objectives for an e-learning initiative that align e-learning to business goals.
• Assess the technology and skills needed for an e-learning initiative.
• Calculate the costs and efforts for developing, hosting, and delivering e-learning.
• Develop a marketing plan to sell e-learning to the entire organization.
• Specify a train-the-trainer development program for e-learning facilitators.
• Develop an evaluation plan for an e-learning project, including ROI calculation.
• Identify when to use e-learning, conventional classroom training, and blended solutions that integrate e-learning and traditional instructional modalities.
• Locate information sources that you can trust to keep you abreast of rapid changes and future trends.

Required Texts
EDU 621 texts are available from the JIU/MBS bookstore