Key Planning Issues
In Technology-Based Education
Ball State University
Elements of Effective Strategical Planning
for Technology in Education

Bizhan Nasseh
Special Assistant for Educational Technology
Ball State University
RB - 237
Muncie, Indiana 47306
00b0nasseh@bsu.edu
Ball State University Muncie, Indiana

Abstract:

    Technology-based education is the hallmark of higher education institution's operations in the coming years. Advancement of Internet and web brought to higher education institution the possibility of the lossing geographic monopoly and provided tough competition in attracting new generation of outcome-oriented learners. Higher education institution's vision, and strategical and tactical planning are the key elements in the providing successful distributed education and services for distributed learners. Practical and visionary strategical planning is not only vital for society, citizens, and global learners, but also for survival of higher education institution in the global education. The inter-related areas which are essential in strategical planning for technology-based education are:  

Introduction:

    Can universities be successfully transformed from teaching institutions to learning institutions? Can universities plan and execute a process of teaching/learning, which can satisfy the curiosity of a generation of active learners and prepare them for a challenging, exciting, and tough global economy? Can universities provide opportunities for our citizens to be lifelong learners in an ever-changing, technology-oriented era with an overload of information in a global education?
    After centuries of lecture-based, face-to-face, teacher-centered, task-oriented, passive education, the hope is that universities will be able, through the power of technology, to foster active learning with an outcome-oriented process in student-centered education. In the last two decades, universities have invested in an infrastructure based on hardware, software, network, and human resources. It is time to utilize this investment with visionary and practical strategical planning for providing a technology-based learning environment for our faculty and students without reservation of time, place, and resources. After centuries of procedural and process-oriented education, universities must change their skills and mind sets, and provide educational opportunities that will empower students through an outcome-oriented education.

Changes in Foundation:

    The university's foundation is built on its established mission and objectives. The mission is the chief function of a university, a vision of what the university is about, and a statement of the university's future goals. For centuries the mission of most universities was to become premier teaching or teaching and research institutions. But the invasion of technology, a tough global economy, frequent changes in society's needs, and the student body made major changes in the university's definition of mission. The new mission for the university is to be a learning, teaching, and research institution.
    A mission creates many objectives and goals for the university. The primary objective is a desired future, which should be achievable with the available resources. The achievement of objectives is directly related to the accomplishment of the mission. In the past most of the main objectives were geared toward providing an environment in which students could acquire a body of knowledge necessary for the establishment of lifelong careers. In the computer age, university objectives are changing to focus on the preparation of lifelong learners and critical thinkers who can survive a challenging life, while preserving their careers in an information society and tough global economy. In order to accomplish the objectives, the university should plan strategically such inter-related areas as faculty development, web utilization, and network infrastructure.
    Practical and visionary strategical planning is essential and vital for the accomplishment of today's objectives. Successful strategical planning is the art of employing all the available elements of strength and recognizing all the elements of threat in the process of planning. Some of these elements of strength might include experience, knowledge, vision, opportunity, dedication, leadership, value and beliefs, technology, skills, human resources, and financial status. Some of the elements of threat might include unanalyzed planning, being reactive (not proactive), and unshared vision. The heart of any strategical plan is the dependability of the situational analysis. With a true and precise situational analysis, a planning team can identify all the problems and opportunities necessary in the design of a realistic and achievable strategical plan.
    In the following sections I suggest strategical planning for some of the areas which are essential for proper transformations from a traditional to a technology-based education. Planning for these areas not only helps faculty, students, and researchers to survive the changes of technology and expectations of society, but also can help higher education institutions to be ready for the challenge of the 21st century.

Strategical Planning:

    These days everybody is talking about the bridge to the 21st century, a world without boundary for education, economy, and communication. For the university the bridge is the realistic and practical strategical direction which can enrich the power of technology in teaching, learning, and research activities. Strategic planning is the art of utilizing available resources to accomplish desired objectives. Advancement in computer and communication technologies has brought us many new possibilities. Mastering these possibilities has direct relation to our capability to envision our future reality and to utilize situational analysis, which can identify both opportunities and threats to our strategical planning.
    One of the main issues in strategical planning is the team arrangement. It is very important to have representative team members from all the different groups, which will be effected by the strategical plan. Team members' experience in identifying current reality can help situational analysis. In addition, their input and visions for the future are very important for the establishment of desired and practical reality. Finally, these diverse members will be the most effective advocates for the eventual acceptance and successful implementation of the strategical plan. Team members should be drawn from the faculty (at least one from computer science or information technology), staff (at least one from the library, telecommunication, and computing services), students, alumni, and administrators. In areas such as distance education, there should be representatives from the community and local companies as well.
    A higher education institution should focus on strategical planning for the following different but inter-related areas.     With the ever-changing computer and communication technologies, and the expectations of impatient learners and society, a three-year's strategical plan is realistic for producing desired outcomes. Without a strong tactical plan, which I will explain in conclusion, even the best strategical planning does not have any chance of accomplishing of the designed objectives.

Network Infrastructure and Instructional Delivery:

    For years strategical planning for network infrastructure has been the driving force behind strategical planning of instructional delivery. In other words, based on the planning of the infrastructure, we developed planning for instructional delivery in teaching, learning, and research.
    For a successful bridge to the year 2000, assessment and vision of our instructional delivery should initiate our network planning process before our infrastructure planning. Already many universities with government and industry partners are trying to prepare the stage for Internet II.
Figure one-Networking
 

Internet II will have the capability for a new generation of applications, which can satisfy new academic needs in teaching, learning, and research. Any future infrastructure and delivery planning should include evaluation of the current position and future direction of the institution with the Internet II.

1. Instructional Delivery:

    The following five factors should be evaluated in the process of situational analysis of instructional delivery for the year 2000.  

2. Network Infrastructure:

    The infrastructure should be designed to satisfy the instructional delivery system by providing needed hardware, software, bandwidth, wiring, desktops, and technical support staff. The changes from data to multimedia traffic have posed a major challenge for the LAN and WAN infrastructure. Simply, we should purposefully design network planning to satisfy distributed education for distributed learners. Digital school, wireless technology to access the Internet, and the merging of TV and PC are a few concepts which can influence our planning.
    The university's successful strategical planning for the network infrastructure should be measured by the ability of faculty and students to access needed information and resources, to interact with colleagues and students, and to execute applications with image, text, audio, and video from their desktop with sufficient and constant bandwidth. In addition, we should remember that very soon we might have an intelligent network operating system, which can make decisions on the needed bandwidth based on request from applications.

Web Planning:

    The main objective in designing the strategical plan for the web is to provide opportunity for services, teaching, learning, and research without limitation of time, place, and resources. Every higher education institution should understand that web-based service and educational planning is a vital strategic business investment. Any strategic web decision should include understanding of our direction and commitment in distance education, campus education, community services, administrative services, faculty/staff development, and the desired roles of the technology in teaching, learning, and research.
Figure two-Web planning

The web's strategical plan at higher education institutions should include the planning process of the web for administrative and academic operations. A separate situational analysis is essential for these two types of web-based operations.

1. Administrative Operation:

    The web's administrative contribution can be measured by the flexibility and accessibility of information and data by students, faculty, advisors, and administrators through the university's Intranets. The main purpose of the web in this capacity is to place services directly in the hands of teachers, students, and clients. The focus is to save university and clients with the cost, to increase the speed of operations, and to provide easy access to needed resources without limitation of time and place.
    Many universities have already designed and developed many web applications for users to access their mainframe data while still retaining legacy applications. Systems such as class schedules, registration information, major or minor selection, electronic gradebook, and financial evaluations must be developed and delivered into the hands of users. One of the main issues in strategical planning should be development of ways to protect personal and private data while implementing information distribution and services on the web. In addition to security and economic benefits, the planning foundation should be based on achieving activities we have so far only dreamed about.

2. Academic Operation:

    The web's contribution to teaching and learning is divided into two sections. Knowledge of these two sections and their roles in academic strategical planning is essential for successful utilization of the web in the academic operation of the university.

a. Web As Information System:

    In the information system, the web is utilized to introduce the teacher as well as any course procedures, process of teaching and learning, syllabus, and resources, which are necessary. We can compare this function with the lecture and handouts of a teacher in the first few days of the traditional class. Unfortunately, there is too much emphasis on the web's contributions to the information system section and, in some cases, there is confusion about the role of the web as information system in compare with the potential of the web as a learning system.

b. Web As Learning System:

    The focus of strategical planning for academic utilization of the web should be on changes from procedural, face-to-face, process-oriented (teacher-centered) education to nonprocedural, empowerment (student-centered), outcome-oriented education. Simply, it should provide opportunity for the processes of teaching and learning without limitation of time, place, and resources. The mere conversion of textbooks to online text and graphics cannot replace the social and interactive elements of teaching and learning.
    An academic strategical planning should be measured by its ability to convert examples to applications, models to simulations, events to case studies, and knowledge bases to intelligent systems. The learning system has ability to interact with learner, reflect to the inputs, and feedback and advice for improvement. Strategical planning should include directions for both on-campus and off-campus (distance education) web-based educational delivery. In planning we should remember that passive learning tools on the web would not satisfy the new generation of active learners (on-campus students). In the case of web-based distance education, computer and communication technologies should make the process of teaching and learning flexible enough to satisfy the individual objectives of participants in formal education. Web-based education has potential for the development of adaptive applications, which can provide learning opportunities for learners with different needed skills in the same class. In addition, the planning design should focus on the changes in pedagogy, which are enabled by the advancement of computer and communication technologies.

Instructional Support System:

    The main purpose of strategical planning for instructional support is to provide educational and support programs for teachers and students in their challenging journey toward utilization of technology in teaching and learning activities. The plan should facilitate technical and educational support systems, which can satisfy the intellectual curiosity and technological needs of both teachers and students. Some of the services available through the instructional support system are application development, training, instructional design, and consultation/support.
    Designing, coding, and implementing dynamic and interactive educational software takes major effort and requires knowledge and experience of computer programming languages and methodologies. A computer program can simulate a special situation and allow students to work their way through the program.
Figure three-Instructional Support
 

    After years of involvement in computer-based education, working with hundreds of faculty members, and being faculty for a few years I believe that strategical planning for establishment or support of an application development support group is essential for consultation and the development of major computer applications for teaching and learning. These applications could be developed by the development group or by teachers with support and consultation from the development group. In the development of educational applications, in addition to the application developer, the development team includes an instructional designer, the teacher, and in some cases a multimedia programmer. In the most cases, the real strength of computers in teaching and learning activities should be measured by their ability to provide learning-while-doing with simulation, case study, scenario, quiz, and intelligent programs.
    Strategical planning for university-wide training is the key element to the successful utilization of technology in teaching and learning. The teacher is the best expert on judging, planning, and designing an effective process of teaching and learning in his or her subject matter. The teacher must have adequate computer and communication skills in order to envision and plan the utilization of computer applications in teaching and learning activities. Training for teacher should be available in the form of minicourses, workshops, seminars, and one-on-one tutoring. Continuous need assessment is very vital for the design of effective and necessary training programs. In addition, the university's planning for training should include allocation of a budget for qualified and knowledgeable training staffs.
    In computer-based education, the teacher needs support from an instructional designer who can merge technology, computer application, and other online tools together in the development of a curriculum. Design and implementation of the traditional system's process of teaching and learning to computer-based education would not satisfy the objectives of institution, teacher, and students. The university should plan for knowledgeable instructional designers who can combine different types of teaching/learning methods and tools in computer-based education and help teachers to design a process of instruction which can enhance teaching and learning activities.
    Hassle-free consultation and off-hours support are the hallmarks of technology-based education. Teacher and student should have immediate access to consultation and support groups in case of questions or problems. Most of our new generation of students has non-scholastic commitments in their life. Successful off-time (evening and weekend) access to computer-based information and resources is very crucial for their learning activities. In computer-based education investment in a support staff is essential for utilization of technology in the curriculum. The university's commitment to and investment in the development of instructional support system is essential for advancement of computer-based education.

Teacher and Student Development:

    Teachers and students should learn basic technologies such as e-mail, Internet applications, and word processing software in order to be effective in their careers and as members of an information society. Technology's invasion of the work place and higher education institutions has brought about the necessity for skills in discipline related technologies for teachers and students. In the university, technology can be an effective tool if the teacher can use it and can envision how and why to utilize it in his or her process of teaching and learning. Higher education institutions must recognize that teachers' development planning is the foundation of successful utilization of technology in education and preparation of students for tough global economy. The teacher is the one who knows which section has potential for a case study, simulation, or scenario, and in which part a quiz can help student to evaluate their learning progress. The teacher's knowledge of the potential of technology can help him or her design a practical and needed technology-based curriculum and participate as designer and content provider in the development of computer-based applications. Fortunate institution is the one, which look at to the faculty development as institutional mission.
Figure four-Teacher Student Deve
 

    Strategical planning should provide training opportunities for teachers and students in the use of computers and networks, which are essential for their basic skills. In addition, the university should provide training opportunities for teachers and students in the use of technology in order to enhance proficiency in their fields of teaching, learning, and working. Teaching is a complex process; a quality technology-based teaching has to be pedagogically sound in order to satisfy this complexity.
    Teaching adequate computer and communication skills to students also is very crucial for the success of today's educational programs in the university. Fortunately, the new generation of students is active learners (PC or Nintendo generation) with some computer and Internet experience from home or high school. Even for this new generation the strategical planning should include some orientation programs in computer and communication technologies. Discipline related technology not only can help students in their educational activities in the university, but also it provides them with a positive experience for better performance in the work place and future informal learning activities.

Computer-based Distance Education:

    In the 21st century, the prosperity of universities has a direct relation to their ability to design and implement a proactive and visionary strategical planning for computer-based distance education. The definition of teaching and learning, the process of teaching and learning, and the purpose of teaching and learning are changing rapidly. The main characteristics of the new teaching and learning method are a student-centered education with an outcome-oriented process without limitation of time, place, and resources. The new and rapidly evolving phenomenon is computer-based distance education and/or Internet-based education. Being a lifelong learner has become a must for every member of an information society and computer-based education has the potential to satisfy the learning needs of lifelong learners. There is more and more rush and competition for offering computer-based distance education classes among institutions and in some cases among institutions and outside service providers. Computer and communication technologies have brought new opportunities for the university to contribute to the educational needs of communities in the form of lifelong learning and K-12 initiatives.
Figure five-Distance Education
 

    The university's experience in utilizing of technology in the classroom can be valuable for communities and K-12 school systems. The university can provide expertise and training opportunities for community members and K-12 teachers and staffs. In addition, courses in basic chemistry, biology, computer, web, or history on the Internet (web) can attract many students from high schools around cities, counties, and states. These course not only benefit students, but also they are showcases for the university and what it can offer for future education. There is a great possibility that the majority of these students will join the same university where they had taken courses during high school. The university's responsibility to the community, society, and the future make strategical planning for K-12 a necessity.
    In addition to K-12, the needs assessment and situational analysis for strategical planning in computer-based distance education should cover three groups of learners who have different purposes for participation. The majority of members of all these groups are adults over 25 years of age, with clear objectives for participation and some other responsibilities such as family and job.
    The first group of participants in formal education is learners who wish to study toward a degree for advancement in their current job or a desired change of career. This group expects the university to provide a teaching and learning infrastructure which can serve and satisfy student-centered, outcome-oriented education which can satisfy their objectives.
    The second group is composed of learners who wish to learn new skills or update existing skills in order to preserve their current status, to improve their job performance, or to satisfy a need. They participate in a semester-long course in order to accomplish their objectives. These two groups are going to be dominant members of our learning society by the year 2000. In addition, computer-based distance education has possibilities for reaching a mass market and universities have the potential to contribute to and share the market in competition with private service providers. A precise and dependable strategical planning can help the university to deliver educational programs, which can attract these groups of learners.
    The third group is composed of learners who wish to learn new skills, which can satisfy an immediate need or help their personal growth. The university, in cooperation with communities and companies, should plan for one day to weeks long learning opportunities for this group of learners. The key is the university's ability to involve communities and companies in the process of need assessment and the design of workshops and training programs. These activities also could be another source of income for higher education institutions.
    One of the major issues in computer-based distance education is to prepare teachers to implement pedagogical models, which can foster computer-based education without duplication of traditional (face-to-face) model of education.

Conclusion:

    The constant changes in technology, society's needs, global economy, and education have required of updating our strategical planning through evaluation of its outcome in each stage. There are two different approaches for strategical planning, linear approach and update approach.
    The linear approach starts with assessment followed by planning and implementation. This method of planning lacks evaluation of results in the different stages of the implementation of the planning.
    The update approach starts with assessment, followed by planning, implementation, and evaluation. The results of the execution in each stage of planning are evaluation criteria for updating existing strategical planning for the next stage.
    The successful execution of strategical planning has a direct relation to the ability of the university to arrange for precise and effective tactical planning. Tactic is a force to accomplish a limited objective or an immediate end. The design of a tactical plan should be based on human expertise, resources, equipment, clients, time, and priority. The main issue in short term tactical planning is not to lose sight of the long term strategical planning.
    Finally, in addition to help students master a body of knowledge and the development of critical thinking, higher education institutions are responsible for students' information literacy. Information literacy helps students to locate, extract, and process information in order to generate needed knowledge. Application of learned materials is the hallmark of today's teaching and learning. Fortunately, computers in education provide opportunity to foster learning-while-doing and students' information literacy in higher education institutions. Higher education institutions have a major responsibility to society, parents, faculty, and students in the development of strategical planning which can establish solid foundation for infrastructure, utilization, and delivery of needed educational opportunities. Higher education institutions should understand that the intelligence and ideology that guide their strategical planning and their ability to execute it are the most important tools for failure or success in their exciting journey to the 21st century.

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Copyright © Bizhan Nasseh 1998

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