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Institutional Open Distance Learning Policy Template
Working Paper · January 2013
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INSTITUTIONAL
OPEN DISTANCE
LEARNING POLICY
TEMPLATE
How to create a ODL Policy and Business Case for
the uptake of ODL in your Institution
The Institutional ODL Policy and Business Case template have been developed
under the aegis of the ACP Connect Project, financed by the European
Commission, for the Caribbean Knowledge Learning Network – CKLN.
Project financed by
European Union
Astec Global ICT Consortium
www.astecglobal.com
-------------------------------------------
Page |1
The “Institutional ODL Policy and Business Case Template” document aims to suggest and
provide some of the tools for those Higher Education Institutions currently considering to
launch their Open Distance Learning, either as totally online or in blended learning
format.
We wish to thank the support from Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network CKLN, in particular Candia Alleyne, Jackie Cousins and David Edwards.
We would also like to acknowledge Professor David Garvin, from Harvard Business
School, for providing permission to use the Learning Organization Survey, developed by
him and colleagues, in this document.
Paula Morais
Senior Expert
October, 2013
Page |2
Institutional Open Distance Learning Policy
Template
HOW TO CREATE AN ODL POLICY AND
BUSINESS CASE
FOR THE UPTAKE OF ODL IN YOUR ORGANIZATION
Disclaimer
The contents of this report are the sole responsibility of the consultants and ASTEC
Global ICT Consortium and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European
Union.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non CommercialShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain
permission from the copyright holders concerned.
Page |3
Forward
This document aims to provide some methodologies and tools that may be applied by
the Caribbean Higher Education institutions who wish to implement a Open Distance
Learning Policy and/or create a business case to move strategically with ODL.
These tools were used and have been used by other higher education institutions,
governments and corporations around the world, however they may require some
adaptation to the specificities and needs of the organization.
Furthermore, it is advised that these tools may represent just a part of the whole
transformational process to be undertaken by the institution, thus requiring, besides their
adaptation to the institution reality, other tools, methodologies and processes, to name a
few.
This document has been written for the heads of the Caribbean Higher Education
Institutions, the senior staff responsible for the planning and uptake of ODL in their
institution and other senior staff.
It may also be used as a guide for senior staff in the public services who wish to initiate
this type of initiatives in their Ministries.
This ODL Policy template also contemplates Open Educational Resources as part of a
broader and integrated Open Education strategy, whether it is a private or a public
organization, following one of the recommendations of “OER in the Caribbean Higher
Education Institutions” Study.
.
Page |4
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 – OPEN DISTANCE LEARNING AND OPEN EDUCATION ..............................................................8
OPEN EDUCATION .......................................................................................................................................................................... 9
OPEN DISTANCE LEARNING ......................................................................................................................................................... 10
OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES ................................................................................................................................................ 11
OPEN ACCESS.............................................................................................................................................................................. 12
CHAPTER 2 – A POSSIBLE APPROACH ..........................................................................................................13
CHAPTER 3 - ODL AS PART OF THE INSTITUTION VISION AND STRATEGY ..................................................14
LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS ......................................................................................................................................................... 16
COMMON ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK ........................................................................................................................................ 18
STRATEGIC ODL FRAMEWORK MEETING – AGENDA TEMPLATE ................................................................................................. 19
SWOT ANALYSIS........................................................................................................................................................................ 21
INTEGRATION ODL STRATEGY FRAMEWORK ............................................................................................................................... 22
CHAPTER 4 – ODL POLICY TEMPLATE ...........................................................................................................23
CHAPTER 5 – OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES POLICY TEMPLATE ............................................................27
CHAPTER 6. BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE FOR ODL ......................................................................................31
CONTEXT ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................................................................... 31
IDENTIFY INTERNATIONAL ODL INITIATIVES .................................................................................................................................. 31
ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................................................................... 32
MARKET ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................................................................................... 32
SWOT ANALYSIS........................................................................................................................................................................ 32
NEEDS ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................................................................................... 32
VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS ............................................................................................................................................ 33
COMMUNICATION PLAN .............................................................................................................................................................. 35
ODL FEASIBILITY STUDY ................................................................................................................................................................ 36
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS.................................................................................................................................................. 36
RISK ANALYSIS AND MITIGATION MEASURES................................................................................................................................. 37
VLE VENDOR SELECTION EVALUATION ......................................................................................................................................... 39
CHAPTER 7. FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS .....................................................................................................47
ANNEX 1 – CONTENT ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................48
ANNEX 2 – TECHNOLOGY NEEDS ANALYSIS ................................................................................................50
RESOURCES ...................................................................................................................................................52
Page |5
ACRONYMS
CARICOM
Caribbean Community
CC
Creative Commons
CKLN
Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network
GDP
Gross Domestic Product
ICT
Information and Communications Technology
IT
Information Technology
KPIs
Key Performance Indicators
LCMS
Learning Content Management System
LMS
Learning Management System
MOOC
Massive Online Open Courses
ODL
Open Distance Learning
OER
Open Educational Resources
SWOT
Strengths,
Weaknesses,
Opportunities,
Threats
TEI
Tertiary Educational Institution
UNDP
United Nations Development Programme
VLE
Virtual Learning Environment
VLP
Virtual Learning Platform
Page |6
Page |7
CHAPTER 1 – OPEN DISTANCE LEARNING AND OPEN
EDUCATION
“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”
William Faulkner “On Fear: The South in Labor”
The current movement towards Openness, as a Public Good, is a powerful and
compelling agenda for Governments and Institutions.
Since most of the Caribbean Higher Education institutions are public entities, the drive
towards Openness will be in their agendas sooner or later. This Movement may require
a change to their Vision, Mission and Strategy.
The term “Open”, as part of Open Education, Open Educational Resources, Open Access
only makes sense if it is considered from the freedom movement and derivatives.
The Open Source Movement appeared in the 1983 as an opposition to proprietary
applications, where individual programmers, individually or in group, began to develop
software programs that were made available for others to use, reuse, share and
Page |8
develop further under open source licensing. This allowed freedom to innovate and
share. Due to its savings potential, it has quickly grown and savings to users is estimated
at 60 billion dollars(US?) per year.
When the term Free Software was coined in the 80´s by Stallman, during the founding
of the GNU software (http://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html ), it was meant to
indicate freedom to use, to run the program, to modify, redistribute and distribute
modified versions of the program.
Later on, the term “Free” was extended to mean “absence of cost”, changing the basic
underlying philosophy and creating a separated approach/movement.
The term “Open Software” was defined in the 90´s by Perens as “ a broad general
type of software license that makes source code available to the general public with
relaxed or non-existent copyright restrictions. Open source licenses grant users the right
to copy, modify and redistribute source code (or content). These licenses may also
impose obligations (e.g., modifications to the code that are distributed must be made
available in source code form, and an author attribution must be placed in a program/
documentation using that open source)”.
The European Commission, World Bank and UNDP have started to use Free Open
Source Software (FOSS) in their internal applications, namely in the development of their
websites, Knowledge Management Systems and other applications. There has been a
big push from these institutions for the adoption of open source, when relevant and
applicable by the recipient entities.
This Open Movement started to be extended to other areas, including Education leading
to
“Open Education”. The difference between Open Distance Learning, Open
Educational Resources and Open Access will be further analyzed.
Open Education
“Open Education is the simple and powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is a
public good and that technology in general and the Worldwide Web in particular
provide an extraordinary opportunity for everyone to share, use, and reuse
knowledge.”
The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
Page |9
The European Commission announced a new Initiative “Opening-up Education”, launched
on September 2013, “it acknowledges that openness has the potential to widen access
to education and to improve, amongst others, access, cost-efficiency and quality of
teaching and learning”. It also addresses the potential of OER and its policy objectives
“Increased use of Open Educational Resources (OER), ensuring that educational materials
produced with public funding are available to all”.1
Open Distance Learning
Open Distance Learning has evolved over time, from its origins as correspondence to
mobile learning, nevertheless there are commonalties in their approaches. Below, are
several definitions of, and reflections on Open Distance Learning.
“There is no one definition of open and distance learning. Rather, there are many
approaches to defining the term…Among the more commonly used terms related to
open and distance learning are the following: correspondence education, home
study, independent study, external studies, continuing education, distance teaching,
self-instruction, adult education, technology-based or mediated education, learnercentred education, open learning, open access, flexible learning and distributed
learning”
The Commonwealth of Learning
“Beyond ODL management, there is a need for knowledge-enabling and
knowledge-creation involving shared understanding, shared values and shared
belief systems and a few things that diasporas are very good at. There is also a
need to share ideas and projects across different organisational units, to honor
different national and organisational cultures and to build support allowing local
variations, while linking to a larger structure.” 2
1
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-859_en.htm
2
http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Open_and_distance_learning
Page |10
Alain Senteni
“The Open University’s unique, style of distance learning is called supported ‘Open
Learning’. This means that you study on your own, either at home or wherever suits
you – reading, watching or listening to material supplied, doing activities and
assignments with regular support from your tutor.
Open learning means that you will be learning in your own time by reading s tudy
material, working on activities, writing assignments.
Supported means support from a tutor and from other OU staff based at national
or regional centres.
You’ll also get the opportunity to interact with other students through the OU’s
online conferencing system, tutorials and informal study groups, and through events
and clubs organised by the OU’s Student Union.”
The Open University
e-Learning can be defined as “learning facilitated and supported through the use
of information and communications technology'. It can cover a spectrum of activities
from the use of technology to support learning as part of a ‘blended’ approach (a
combination of traditional and e-Learning approaches), to learning that is
delivered entirely online. Whatever the technology, however, learning is the vital
element.”
JISC e-Learning definition from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/elearning
Open Educational Resources
In 2007, Creative Commons launched the Education Projects, where the Open Education
and Open Educational Resources became part of the educational policies, with the
possibility to license different types of contents, formats under the CC licensing and
currently under other types of licenses. The type of licensing is the only thing that
distinguishes (or should distinguish) between OER and other types of contents.
Page |11
"Teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or
have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free
use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses,
course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any
other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.”
Hewlett Foundation
Open Access
The Open Access to scholarly articles by everyone, free of cost has become also a
reality, changing the current business models of major publishers and pushing further to
create innovative approaches to this paradigm.
“Open Access—the online availability of scholarly information to everyone, free of
most licensing and copyright barriers—for the benefit of global knowledge flow,
innovation and socio-economic development.”
Page |12
CHAPTER 2 – A POSSIBLE APPROACH
“In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.”
Dalai Lama
The decision to launch a new project always poses questions and doubts for any type of
Institution, especially if that project in not strongly anchored in a coherent Vision. It is
from a clear vision and with full buy in by the leadership team that an Open Distance
Learning initiative can succeed.
Moreover, it is critical to identify the main stakeholders, champions, that will transform
the vision into reality.
Project management methodologies that guarantee alignment between the vision and
implementation are fundamental, with the rigorous control of deadlines and outcomes.
In this chapter, a possible methodology/approach is presented to guide the uptake of
these types of initiatives, which are summarized below:

ODL Strategic Framework meeting(s)

ODL Policy definition

ODL Business case rational elaboration

VLE/Vendors selection
In the following chapters this methodology will be further detailed.
Page |13
CHAPTER 3 - ODL AS PART OF THE INSTITUTION VISION AND
STRATEGY
“Leadership and Learning are indispensable to each other.”
John F. Kennedy
The ODL definition and implementation must always be regarded as strategic by the
leadership and be aligned with the vision and mission of the Higher Education Institution.
Quite often, it is launched as a department curiosity/trial, by “the staff from that area”,
without being considered strategic by the TEI leadership team. This is a sure condition for
failure, as the necessary buy-in to allow it to move from a department impulse to a
strategic initiative is not present.
There will always be a lack of staff, financial,
technological resources, to name a few, and most important of all, organizational
motivation to bring it from “a corner” area to mainstream, and considered strategic to
the TEI development and positioning as a knowledge creation entity.
The leadership of the ODL initiative must be strongly affirmed with the decision making
key stakeholders, with a sustainable vision of the organization positioning in the
competitive and difficult market of higher education.
The Caribbean Higher Education funding schemes are being changed from lump sums,
for instance, to per student fees, and Caribbean TEI markets are being challenged by
international, online Higher Education institutions, whether they are credible or not. This
competition is increasing as the job market has moved from regional to global, where a
degree from a university in England has a different level of credibility from a degree in
a Caribbean country.
The introduction of Open Distance Learning from a strategic perspective, also translates
to the need of organizational change, supported on values, culture and leadership that
induce a sustainable change, moving from teacher oriented cultures to learner oriented
Page |14
cultures, from rigid teaching environments to flexible learning environments. These
changes constitute a move from top down approaches (Rector/Executive Director or
other leadership role to the student) to bottom up (from the student to the leadership
top).
More often than not, Higher Education Institutions are not themselves examples of best
practices as learning and knowledge organizations (Watkins, 2005), as they frequently
have a fragmented culture that undermines efforts of change and transformation, critical
for their survival in the 21st Century.
The ODL Policy must be defined, not from a narrow perspective of its mere ODL
functionality, but from a broader integrated institutional perspective. This policy must be
seamless for the student, and independent of the format he/she enrolls in, whether it is
face-to-face, fully online or blended learning.
“An integrated approach advocates modifying existing structures, regulations, rules
and policies to integrate an open and distance learning, instead of developing new
structures and policies specifically for open and distance learning.”
International Council of Open and Distance Educators (ICDE)
Already visible among top universities is the creation of international alliances and
partnerships, which have campus/educational plans located in different countries, that
offer courses in a seamless manner for students. Carnegie Mellon University, INSEAD,
MIT are good examples of this globalization trend. Due to less available resources,
smaller local universities and colleges are unable to compete in this area, and therefore
also in terms of knowledge creation, research and employability.
Next, methodologies and tools that may support the implementation of a ODL strategy
will be discussed. These methodologies are merely suggestions and must be considered
from the perspective of what is the most appropriate for the organization, at its current
stage of development.
Page |15
Learning organizations
There has been some debate as to whether a Higher Education Institution can be
considered as a Learning Organization. The term “Learning Organization” was first
coined by Peter Senge in his book “The Fifth Discipline”.
A Learning Organization addresses 5 different principles, roughly identified as:

Personal mastery is a discipline of clarity and deepening of our personal vision,
focusing our energies, through mindfulness;

Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, beliefs, that dictate the way
we look and perceive the world, therefore guiding our actions;

Building a shared vision of what the leader wants to achieve, building
engagement, commitment and a sense of ownership, rather than compliance;

Team learning is a genuine dialogue, where individuals leave their assumptions
and think together, to move from individual perspectives to larger pictures;

Systems thinking regards the organization as a whole and encompasses the other
4 disciplines.
The author considers that the 5 principles defined by Senge permeate all types of
organizations, and can be used as indicators against which to evaluate the current
positioning of the organization, while providing different frameworks to work from,
adapting them to the external and internal context requirements.
Garvin (2008), defined three building blocks of a Learning Organization, that are the
foundations for a knowledge organization:

Building Block 1: A supportive learning environment;

Building Block 2: Concrete Learning processes and practices

Building Block 3: Leadership that reinforces learning
Based on this definition, Garvin and Edmondson created a survey to identify and
measure the learning organization level of the organizations3.
This
survey
can
be
taken
in
following
https://hbs.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_b7rYZGRxuMEyHRz
3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUP4WcfNyAA
Page |16
link:
Page |17
Common Assessment Framework
The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is an easy-to-use, free tool to assist public
sector organizations to implement quality management techniques in their services. It is a
tool based on the Excellence Model of European Foundation Quality Management
(EFQM), and aims to bring excellence to public administrations. It has been adapted for
the education sector, in general and the higher education, in particular.
It was introduced, as pilot version in 2000, as a result of co-operation between the EU
Ministers responsible for the Public Administration. A CAF Resource Centre was
established at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) in Maastricht,
Netherlands.
The EFQM Excellence Model looks at the organization from two different perspectives:
the Enablers and Results, thus creating a holistic approach to the organization alignment
with the different Criteria. It considers as Enabler Criteria: Leadership, People, Strategy
and Planning, Partnerships and Resources, Processes, and as Result Criteria: People
Results, Citizen, Customer Oriented Results, Social Responsibility Results and Key
Performance Results. All are supported by Innovation and Learning.
This model is supported on a Plan-do-Check-Act methodology cycle with periodical selfassessments, during which are identified, based on benchmarks, the organizations
strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement.
Page |18
As of February 2013, CAF is being used in 46 countries. It is worth noting that the
Caribbean Region is already represented by the Dominican Republic, with 86 users
registered.
You
can
register
your
organization
at
the
following
link:
http://caf.eipa.eu/3/108/&for=search
This is a very powerful tool as it provides a holistic and systemic evaluation of the
organization in comparison with other higher education institutions, around the world.
Strategic ODL Framework Meeting – Agenda Template
This is an agenda template for the Strategic ODL Framework meeting to be attended
by the key stakeholders with decision-making power. It is fundamental to use this
moment for reflection on the alignment between Vision, Mission and Strategy.
This template is indicative of the topics to be discussed during this meeting. It must be
considered as a strategic reflection retreat moment, where the stakeholders are fully
involved and immersed, as a fundamental turning point for the Higher Education
Institution. This meeting may take place in different moments or may be repeated more
than once to align and make strategic decisions.
Page |19
Agenda Template
Dates: Participants: Key stakeholders
Program:

E-Learning, Blended Learning, Learning - Concepts

Who is doing what? (the entities suggested are merely examples of possible
entities to analyze in further detail, to serve as benchmarks for the TEI)
o Commonwealth of Learning
o MIT
o Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University
o Etc.

Strategy definition to support the TEI Vision
o SWOT analysis
o Participants/Students/Market
o Competition
o Geographical locations
o Partnerships / Exchange models
o Sharing model

Pedagogical / Didactical model
o e-Learning
o B-Learning
o Videoconferencing / webconferencing
o Others

Functionalities required

Teachers/Trainers/eTutors/Content developers
o In house/hired/Sub-contracting/External providers

Technological Infrastructure
o Telecommunications
o Datacenters
o Hardware
o Software

Organizational model

Who leads?
Page |20

Practices

Processes

Help desk / Support services

Integration ODL Strategy Framework
SWOT Analysis
The SWOT Analysis is a tool oriented to identify/evaluate the Institution main Strengths
and Weaknesses (Internal Factors), and the Opportunities and Threats that are posed
by the external context (External Factors).
It is important to be as thorough and strategic as possible in order to create a real
snapshot of the institution and its context in the planning stage, to be used afterwards
as a guiding tool during the implementation of the ODL strategy and policy.
A few examples are presented below, just for guidance.
Name of
Institution
Page |21
Integration ODL Strategy Framework
Vision, Mission, Strategy
Target Groups/Students/Market
Partnerships / Twining / Exchange / Sharing models
Infrastructure, Applications, Tools and Technology
Operations and processes
Learning
Formal
Non-formal
Proactive
Social
Learning Programs:
Page |22
Embedded
CHAPTER 4 – ODL POLICY TEMPLATE
This change in paradigm from a fragmented to a student centered approach creates a
pervasive and seamless learner centered organization and culture, fostering knowledge
creation, innovation, interdependence and avoiding the overlap of areas, initiatives and
skills.
Based on this paradigm, the present template highlights the main points to be
considered when embedding ODL in the institution policy framework, or may be used by
itself, following the developmental path of the organization.
This ODL Policy template also takes into consideration Open Educational Resources as
part of the ODL strategy, whether it is a private or a public organization.
Background context at Caribbean, national and institutional level for
Preamble
the Policy definition.
Purpose of the ODL Briefly identify the purpose of the ODL Policy and integrate it with
Policy
the TEI Vision, Mission and Strategy.
Scope and context
Presents the objectives/aims of the ODL Policy.
A few relevant definitions are presented in the beginning of this
Definitions
document, that may be used to conceptually align the institution’s
Policy. Nevertheless, the institution may consider that it needs to
refine the concepts to better address its culture and focus.
Some examples of guiding principles that may be addressed in ODL
Guiding Principles
Policy:
 General principles, usually supported on the TEI mission
statement:
Page |23
o Affordable and high quality education
o Inclusive
environment
–
equal
opportunities,
addressing gender, special needs
o Student centeredness
o Research and Development
 Relevance and flexibility of Curriculum
o Independent Lifelong learning oriented to the societal
and employment needs
o Adaptability of the curriculum and creation of
relevant pathways
o Relevance of knowledge to enhance the career
development of the students
o Promote interaction between learning, research and
the employment market
o Alignment with student profiles and their learning
styles
o Provide clear exit level outcomes, designing teaching,
learning and assessment strategies to support the
outcomes
 Intellectual and Research engagement
o Engages the learner to be active in its learning
process
o Provides a based research industry and scientific
background
 Flexible learning environments
o Provides choice in modes of educational delivery to
the students
o Different entry and exit pathways, with possibility to
adjust to students needs
o Diversity of educational experiences
 Supporting student development
o Different modes of guidance and counseling to
support the students prior, during and after their exit
o Student support, aiming all the students, especially
Page |24
consideration for instance with inactive students
o Preparation for the job market at national,
Caribbean and international level.
o Creating
alumni
support/structures
to
prevent/diminish the national, Caribbean brain drain
 Excellence driven
o Quality assurance
o Standards
o Research driven
o International best practices
Refers to the management of all ODL/Learning Process:
 Management
o Areas involved/to be created (from an integrated
approach, all areas must be considered and
involved)
o Open Admission
o Program design
o Learning Materials/Resources (a Policy template for
OER will be provided on the next chapter)
o Delivery Channels
Management
o Student Support
o Teachers/Tutors
o Assessment
o Quality
o ICT systems and applications
o Human Resources
o Financial
o Decentralized services
o Research
o International Partnerships and collaborations
Procedures
and
Identifies the connection with other critical Policies and Procedures.
Below are presented some specific policies, that may vary within
Page |25
Policies4
each institution
 General Policies
 Specific policies and procedures
o Teaching and Learning
o Intellectual Property Rights
o Open Access
o Open Educational Resources
o Human Resources
o ICT Policy
Responsibilities
Identifies the key stakeholders and areas for the Policy definition
and implementation and their responsibilities.
4http://policy.usq.edu.au/;
http://policy.usq.edu.au/data/render/1348PL_files/1348PL.pdf
http://cm.unisa.ac.za/contents/departments/tuition_policies/docs/OpenDistanceLearning_Council3Oct0
8.pdf
Page |26
CHAPTER 5 – OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES POLICY
TEMPLATE
As previously noted, OER should be considered from a content development perspective,
where the major difference is the type of copyright license attributed. For further
information on licensing types, visit Creative Commons website or refer to the
presentation made during the “Capacity Building Workshop on Development and Use of
Open Educational Resources in the Caribbean”, which took place in Jamaica, July 2013,
available in CKLN website5.
"Teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or
have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free
use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses,
course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any
other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.”
Hewlett Foundation
Background context at Caribbean, national and institutional level for
the OER Policy definition. The Commonwealth of Learning has been
Preamble
working with the Caribbean governments in the creation of national
OER Policies and frameworks, as Public Good.
Purpose of the OER
Policy
Briefly identify the purpose of the OER Policy and integrate it with
the TEI Vision, Mission and Strategy, whether the Institution is private
or public.
Definitions
Glossary of terms. Some of them have been already defined in the
beginning of this document. For further definitions, the following
5
www.ckln.org
Page |27
resources may be consulted:
http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/Glossary
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-andinformation/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/
Scope
Presents the objectives/aims of the OER Policy
Some of the guiding principles may differ from one institution to
another. The TEI must articulate the principles in alignment with their
vision and strategy.
 Public Good
 Social Responsibility
 Diminish costs for the institution and students, in particular and
Guiding Principles
government, in general (the last in case it is a public entity)
 Flexible Intellectual property right framework (respecting
national and international legislation)
 Creation of high quality learning resources
 Promote a culture of knowledge creation and sharing
 Participation/Development in Resources Repositories
 Adaptation of OER to local context and reality
Identifies the type of copyright licenses to be adopted and in which
context, format to be used:
 Copyright
Type of Licenses to
 Fair use
be adopted
 Public Domain
 Creative Commons
 Others
Creative Commons defines the spectrum of possibilities between full
copyright - all rights reserved - and the public domain - no rights
Page |28
reserved.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
http://wikieducator.org/Wikieducator_tutorial/Learning_about_Co
pyrights/Types_of_Copyright_Licenses (under revision)
http://sites.tufts.edu/scholarlycommunication/?page_id=10
Refers to the management of all materials and programs:
 Management
o Program design
o Learning Materials/Resources

Identify the different types of contents, those
that require copyright permissions, use as is,
adaptations translations (Template in Annex
1).

File formats and metadata
o Delivery Channels

University/National/International
OER
Repository
Management
o Teachers/Tutors/Developers
o Assessment
o Quality Assurance

Integrate the different types of licensing in
the quality assurance process

Articulate with the Quality Certification
bodies

Present best practices to support your options
o ICT systems and applications:

Repositories
o Human Resources

Career Advancement

Training in OER, plagiarism

Job descriptions
Page |29

Teamwork and leadership
o Costs/financing

Take
into
consideration
government
funded,
a
if
content
Public
is
Good
approach6 may be applied. For instance
California
Community
Colleges
require
Creative Commons Attribution for Chancellor’s
Office Grants & Contracts
o Research
o International Partnerships and collaborations
Is it a standalone policy or is it integrated with/in other policies
namely:
 Curriculum design and materials development
Procedures
Policies
and
 Teaching and Learning
 ODL
 Intellectual Property Rights
 Open Access
 ICT and connectivity
 Quality Assurance
 Human Resources
Responsibilities
6
Identifies the key stakeholders and areas for the OER Policy
definition and implementation and their responsibilities.
http://creativecommons.org/tag/california-community-colleges
Page |30
CHAPTER 6. BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE FOR ODL
The present chapter presents the main aspects to consider when building a business case
for ODL.
This document is usually created in alignment with the ODL strategic framework meetings
allowing for a retro feedback, strategic definition and development of the initiative.
The business case aims to present the reasoning behind the launch of ODL in a TEI, and
the necessary organizational change/transformation to support its uptake, as previously
analyzed.
This document is not meant to be a thorough approach, but a high level analysis
template.
Context Analysis
It is critical to have a context analysis of the institution, from the regional, national legal
framework to the market analysis.
Education, ICT Policies, Human Development Index, GDP and other country and regional
indicators must be considered in order to create an informed case as to the current and
future reality.
Identify International ODL Initiatives
The ODL business case requires an understanding of the current status of ODL worldwide
and trends.
Page |31
MOOC – Massive Open Online Courses have also been creating disruption, or at least,
impact in the Higher Education government and institutional planning, namely as a Public
Good or as an effective marketing tool7.
Organizational Analysis
The organization’s Vision, Mission, Strategy, must be analyzed to see how the
organization positions itself in the present and in the future. Is there a Vision for 2020,
for instance?
Market Analysis
This analysis aims to identify the target groups, eg whether this comprises individuals
starting their bachelor’s degree, or professionals looking for lifelong learning training. It
also serves as the basis for the definition of the geographical scope and delivery
modes: Is it going to be just oriented for the country population? What kind of
infrastructure is then required? Will it comprise online only or will it allow a mix?
Who is the competition? Where are they located (national, international players)? What
kind of certification do they offer? Are there already institutions operating in this
program area?
SWOT Analysis
This identifies the institution’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats as
previously presented.
Needs analysis
TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND CAPABILITIES
7
http://www.ocwconsortium.org/en/community/casestudies/ocwatirvine
Page |32
Analysis of current Technical infrastructure and capabilities, considering among others
the following key aspects:

Disaster recovery

Security and Privacy

Internet access

Current applications in place

Computing capabilities

ICT Service Desk

e-Readiness

ODL Technical Helpdesk
A template is presented in Annex 2. This template may require adaptation to the
institutional requirements.
CAPACITY NEEDS ANALYSIS
Capacity development is one of the parts of a systemic approach to change, that
requires a deep commitment from the leadership, the implementation of supportive
measures, such as staff development, career evolution and succession, job descriptions,
organizational culture and processes.
Virtual Learning Environments
It is worth understanding the underlying differences between Open Source and
Proprietary Movements when considering the different technologies to adopt.
OPEN SOURCE MOVEMENT
Some of the policy based reasons for the adoption of Open Source Software, in
particular the heightened value proposition from open source when compared to most of
the proprietary applications, include the following:

Security

Affordability
Page |33

Transparency

Perpetuity

Interoperability

Flexibility

Localization
Examples of Open Source Software used every day include Open Office, Drupal,
Mozilla Firefox and Android, for mobiles.
There are also several Virtual Learning Environments developed using FOSS, as pointed
out before. The National University of Rwanda is using Moodle, one the best well-known
Open Source Learning Management Systems (LMS). There are, however, other Open
Source LMS and Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS), with distinctive
functionalities and also well known in the market, such as a Tutor developed by Toronto
University, one of the first LMS to address e-Accessibility functionalities, Dokeos, and
Sakai.
PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE
The Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of
the copyright holder with the intent that the license allows the use of the software only
under certain conditions and restricted to other uses. The Proprietary software is owned
by an individual or a company. Well known examples of proprietary software are
Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, and Oracle.
It is foreseen that Proprietary Software will decrease in the near future and Open
Source Software will come to dominate the operating systems and major applications.
Proprietary software will still have its place in niche markets, especially for business and
technical applications for which the demand is relatively low or specialized and where
the user are willing to pay high prices for them.
Among proprietary LMS and LCMS, used by businesses, governments, education are
Saba, SumTotal and Blackboard.
Page |34
Communication Plan
The communication plan assumes a fundamental role to explain what is ODL, its
objectives and advantages by raising awareness in the first instance, and later on
engaging the staff/students to use it, experiment with it and make it part of their work
and learning development. This is presented in the graphic below8.
Figure 1 – Communication and change management
Brand:
It is critical to define a brand, a tag line that is appealing and simultaneously
emboldens the Vision and Mission of the TEI
Graphical design: The graphical design must take into consideration the look & feel of
the TEI image.
8
TechProse, 2012
Page |35
ODL feasibility study
The Feasibility Study for the implementation of the ODL may take into consideration the
following costs, among others:

Infrastructure costs (technical and buildings)

Communications

Applications/ vendors selection process

Application development and/or customization

Content development applications

Integration with other applications, already in place

Training (technical, administrative, academic, etc)

Installation costs

Change management costs ( consider that it will take between 3 to 5 years)

Internal and External Communication

Hiring dedicated staff

Computers acquisition and/or upgrading

Content development
Among the necessary considerations are: How and by whom will the initial investment be
covered? Where to obtain funding to launch this initiative? Is it going to be defined a
pilot? Is it going to be sustainable by itself?
The costs and revenues must consider time for organizational change, pilot definition and
implementation, evaluation and corrections, as well as the extension of the educational
programs and their uptake to engage students.
Key Performance Indicators
The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to be defined must follow the SMART criteria,
Specific to the TEI, Measurable, Achievable and Time measured.
Page |36
Risk analysis and mitigation measures
There are several types of risks that may be identified and are dependent on several
factors. Three main risks were identified, but may vary from one institution to another.
Project Risks - associated with the project implementation itself which may affect the
project planning (delays in tasks, inadequate resources, others)
Technical Risks - related with the LMS deployment, internet connections, quality of the eLearning courses (SCORM compliant)
Generic Risks – common to all projects such as engagement of the key stakeholders
leading capacity, funding, communication
Evaluation Scale proposed:
Probability
Impact
1 – Low
1 – Reduced
2 – Medium
2 – Medium
3 – High
3 – High
Page |37
Category
Probability
Impact
Contingency Measures
Project Risks
Internal
Team
expertise
Teams Coordination
Non
compliance
with timely delivery
of
the
different
activities
Technical Risks
Virtual
Learning
Platform
Technology
integration
Telecommunications
Generic Risks
Leading Capacity
Involvement of Key
stakeholders
Process Definition
Funding
Page |38
VLE Vendor selection evaluation
The Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) vendor selection process is always a delicate and
time consuming one.
Some features are presented below that are usually required by TEI in the VLE selection.
These features can be easily transferred to a spreadsheet and an evaluation protocol
created. It must be
noted that hese features are merely indicative. The strategy,
objectives and needs of the TEI must be taken into consideration when defining the
features to be supported by VLE and the vendors themselves.
ACCESS LEVELS
Allows the creation and management of different profiles, without IT support:
Learner/student
Teacher
Assistant Teacher
Tutor
Trainer
Coach / Mentor
Department Director
Unit Director
Administrator
Other
COURSE MANAGEMENT
Provides searchable course catalogue
Page |39
Administrators are able to add, update, reschedule, and remove courses quickly without
requiring support from the IT organization
Assigns courses, curricula or certifications to individuals or groups or enroll them in
courses
Teachers / Secretaries can add students to a course in bulk
Students can register for courses
Requires approval from manager or course administrator approval for course
registration
Able to enroll and un-enroll individuals and groups manually
Provides a single course template tor creating offerings of the same course, with
different version or different languages
Assigns due dates and send alerts to participants
BLENDED LEARNING, ON THE JOB LEARNING, COACHING
Supports different types of learning modes/formats (Web-based, instructor-led, virtual
classroom)
Supports individual learning plans, in approval chain
Assigns physical location
Creates of blended courses and curricula
Registers learners for blended learning,
Tracks learners' performance
Acknowledges external learning activities within the LMS
Supports management of mentoring, tutoring, coaching, and others
Provides bookmarking for self learning pace
Mixes learning components in different delivery formats (e.g., pre-test, instructor-led
course, on-the-job assignment, internship, industry based research ) as a single course
Page |40
Creates Communities of practice
Provides Virtual Classroom
Delivers learning in real time
Online and recorded virtual classroom session offered through one-click launch from the
LMS catalogue or calendar
Tracks virtual attendance and track results from LMS
Supports multiple teachers / tutors in the session
Blends virtual classrooms with other types of learning in a single course, with different
teachers
Provides collaboration features scalable to support web conferencing and other eactivities without requiring IT support
Provides Web based browser
Provides Mobile application to access and record virtual classroom sessions from mobile
devices
Provides Interaction functionalities available online surveys, chat (one-to-one; one-tomany)
CONTENT
Custom authoring tool course content
Interoperability/integration with 3rd party courseware
Supports a wide variety of media file formats
Access to Learning objects
Link several learning objects to create a module
Capability to store scanned forms, MS Word documents, PowerPoint files, PDFs, videos
within the LMS at the course level
Page |41
Actions such as import, export, move, delete, relate, contain, status update, and
metadata element value updates can be performed on selected single or multiple
learning objects
User definition of levels of learning objects
Allows different types of licensing
COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION
Includes collaboration functions to enable users to communicate with each other, trainer,
course administrators, system administrators, others:
Interactive features
Feedback tools
Recording
Virtual Classroom
Whiteboard
Sound
Polling and testing
Catalogue of learning objects and templates
Instant messaging
Calendars
Communities of practice by groups
Threaded discussion groups
Mentor and coach matching
Knowledge capture
Learner forums/blogs
Wikis
Page |42
Email
SURVEYS AND TESTS
Part of the course-authoring tool
Integrated third party solution
Provides an internal function to create and deliver a wide variety of assessment types
Interface for writing and deploying test questions
Support multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, drag-and-drop, and matching
Support randomizing, hints, limiting number of attempts, practice (not scored)
Test questions can include graphics, animations, audio, and video
Tracks multiple “tries” at a learning event
Provide both pre-testing and post-testing capabilities (including reports that compare
pre- and post-test performance)
Students can view detailed results of their tests
Set a test score as criteria for course completion
Allows administrator design/upload and learner delivery of course completion
certificates
Output formats
ANALYTICS
Capable of tracking, reporting and storing a wide range of student performance data
Offers a wide variety and number of predefined reports
Easy to configure different types of reports, by a user
Types of analytics, for instance:
Content utilization
Page |43
Number of hours/per participant/per course
Engaged activities per participant / per course
Number of courses/hours/per participant
Number of courses overall/ Monthly/Yearly
Reports by Unit
Other types of reports
Exports in ASCII and Excel
Use of other report generating software
System support graphical reports (bar charts and pie charts) out of the box
LANGUAGE
Multi-language, namely English, French, Spanish, Dutch
USABILITY
TEI branding
Learning Portal Web interface
User “home page”, depending on profile, with dashboard that shows what learning
objects have been assigned, messages, deadlines, list of in-progress learning activities,
notifications
Users customization/ configuration of new sections
Displays content from other sites, for instance YouTube, open educational resources
Allows users to choose from tiers of features according to the knowledge and expertise
of the user
E-LEARNING STANDARDS COMPLIANCE
SCORM certified, which version
Page |44
AICC certified
Support Web Accessibility Initiative Guidelines
Support Americans with Disabilities Act/Section 508
Support EU “Right to Learn”
MOBILE LEARNING
LMS support mobile activity (user taking courses or manager reviewing and approving a
registration) on smartphones and tablets
Offline player – type of content supported
Synchronization capabilities
LICENSING
Locally hosted
Cloud hosted
Maintenance and upgrades
Service Level Agreements
BANDWIDTH
Supports low bandwidth
Supports service instability, with interruptions
GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
Supports a wide variety of delivery architectures
Supports open technology standards, service-oriented architecture (SOA), and provide
tools for integrating with other applications and third-party providers
Ability to integrate with industry-standard email and scheduling applications
Page |45
Allows learners and administrators to print transcripts, course completion certificates,
and student records with appropriate options
Scalable architecture that allows the system to expand as the number of users increases
Possibly to create different customized / branded learning environments
Vendor has a good reputation among acquisition and system owner communities, namely
in Government
Robust support documentation in a wide variety of forms, including tutorials, help,
examples, references, and user manuals
Vendor presents at least 2 examples of implementations in Higher Education Institutions,
Governments
Vendor allows access to a customized environment to show case the functionalities
required in the VLP
Page |46
CHAPTER 7. FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”
Lao Tzu
This is the beginning of a long journey for the Institution and certainly for all those
involved in this process. It is a long process, with challenges and transformation to move
to a Learning, Knowledge creating institution.
It starts with the Vision that the Leadership team defines and that permeates the culture,
the management and in the end, all those involved directly or indirectly with the
Institution.
During this organizational change process, your organization will be better positioned,
offering innovative services and courses to your students, wherever they are, in their own
time and space, simultaneously moving and helping to move your students and country
towards a knowledge economy, where technology is pervasive and seamless.
The existence of a high speed telecommunications infrastructure is critical for achieving
this, and on February 2013, C@ribNET was successfully launched, financed by the
European Commission. It is a gateway for collaboration and communication between the
CARICOM Agencies, higher education institutions, libraries, research centers and
governments, as well with other global agencies and institutions, building and
developing a Caribbean knowledge and collaboration community.
Moreover, the C@ribNET infrastructure connects all CARICOM countries and is
connected to the world's research and education community. “As such, it will enable not
only the CARICOM agencies themselves, but their respective stakeholders throughout the
region, to collaborate, share information, move large documents, or confidential data
and also enable teaching and learning across borders.”
You can learn more about
directly
your
local
C@ribNET
NREN
–
in CKLN website: www.ckln.org or contact
National
Research
Education
Network.
We wish you and your institution all the success in your endeavor!
Page |47
ANNEX 1 – CONTENT ANALYSIS
Learning Unit/Content
Print
Digitized
Existant Internal
Internal
content
develop
content
Copyrighted
(external)
Learning Object
Syllabus Content
Text
Video
Audio
Image
Page |48
OER use/
OER
OER
reuse
remix
develop
Animation/Simulation
Article/Book
Tasks
Assessment
Page |49
ANNEX 2 – TECHNOLOGY NEEDS ANALYSIS
Technology
Vision, mission, strategy
Strategy
ICT Policy and Strategy in
place
Standards
ICT service desk
email protocol and mailing
groups
Disaster
recovery
and
Business Continuity
Backups
Security - ISO-27001
Privacy
Third parties to be involved
Service Level Agreements
Datacenter(s)
Internet data center
Routers
Servers
Operating systems
RAM
CPU Speed
Current
architecture
infrastructure
Internet
Page |50
Internet access – who has
access/how is it attributed
DSL/Cable/VSAT/WiFi
GPRS
Bandwidth
Traffic requirements
Intranet
Software
Current
systems
/
applications
Languages supported
Integration /single sign-on
Software
installation
–
plug-ins permissions
Office software
Browser
Hardware
Computers
Operating systems
Audio
Video
Optical drive (CD/DVD)
RAM
CPU speed
Page |51
RESOURCES
“A Government Policy Development Template to Progress Effective Implementation of
Open Educational Resources (OER): Draft Document”, The Commonwealth of Learning,
2013
“An Introduction to Open and Distance Learning”, The Commonwealth of Learning, 2000
Barber, Michael, Donnelly Katelyn, Rizvi
Saad, “An avalanche is coming – Higher
Education and the Revolution Ahead”, March 2013
“Innovating Pedagogy 2013 Exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment,
to guide educators and policy makers”, The Open University, 2013
“Learning and Teaching Policy and Procedure”, University of Southern Queensland,
2011
Watkins, K. E. (2005). What would be different if higher educational institutions were
learning organizations? Advances in Developing Human Resources, 7(3), 414. - See
more at: http://www.teaglefoundation.org/Resources/Additional-Resources/Institutionsof-Higher-Learning-and-Learning-Organ#sthash.utuwQqra.dpuf
“UNE Strategic Teaching and Learning Plan 2012–2016”, University of New England,
2011
“Open and Distance Learning Trends, Policy and Strategy Considerations”, UNESCO,
2002
“Open Distance Learning Policy”, UNISA, 2008
“Open and Distance Education Policy Briefing” International Council of Open and
Distance Educators, 2013
“Marketing and Branding
of Open and Distance Learning”, The Commonwealth of
Learning, 2012
Page |52
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