Successful digital learning moves the institution forward in the marketplace, supports and is supported by those throughout the institution, and provides an amazing learning experience to students and faculty.
Let’s look at each of these components in turn.
Strategy
Successful digital learning supports an institution’s strategy. This means that the strategy is written down and understood by all. In order to make it clear what is meant by “supporting the strategy”, the team must agree beforehand what success looks like and what metrics will be used to show that success (or lack of). Identifying and understanding the competition is vital to setting expectations both of what needs to be done in order to compete and what ultimate success might be achieved. Further, defining the partnerships that will be needed to reach the defined goals clarifies who will be responsible for what steps, what can be achieved, how much money will be needed when, what personnel needs to be available and/or hired, and so on. Finally, other parts of the strategy—including staging, goals, and economic logic—must also be agreed upon beforehand because they put the boundaries in place for future decisions and actions.
Organization
Organizational requirements of successful digital learning programs are broad. The CFO and his staff must understand the timing, size, and certainty (or variability) of cash flows. Given how many decisions have to be made around a digital learning program, the decision process must be understood so that the process can move forward smoothly; this decision process should also be clear about what information needs to be reported out and when so that leadership and other interested parties can be comfortable with the program’s progress. Faculty must understood both how they will be compensated for their participation; the school’s intellectual property policy can form a big component of this. Finally, the institution’s technology infrastructure must have the appropriate capabilities in marketing, pedagogical support, student services, and more.
Learning experience
Successful digital learning provides an amazing learning experience to students and faculty. All must understand that the learning experience encompasses both in-course and out-of-course activities. Certainly, well-defined and communicated learning objectives are an underlying requirement; it’s hard to know what is meant by “success” if this hasn’t happened. The best digital learning has high student engagement (with each other, with the content, and with the faculty), quality learning content, and is relevant to their life and/or career goals. Successful digital learning also creates an environment in which the student feels welcomed and included no matter their background, culture, or identification. Support for students must also be in place at the appropriate stress points in the learning experience to ensure that all have their best chance of success.
Successful digital learning isn’t something that just happens on a whim. Build it and it will succeed? Not quite. But it’s not an impossible goal. Careful planning and a certain level of organizational commitment are needed. If these are in place, then success would be a reasonable expectation.
If you think your institution would benefit from some guidance in achieving success of this kind, please reach out to me so that we can chat.
