8.4. Administrative Issues
This section highlights some of the thornier administrative issues not discussed earlier. Many of these are overlooked at your peril!
This sub-section builds on some of the more organisational aspects discussed in the sections 'Teaching and learning practice' and 'Supporting course development', looks at a number of other administrative and organisational issues, and addresses such questions as:
What changes to your institutional processes to support novel course calendars and delivery schedules have been or are required?
What impact on costing, charging and fees does the introduction of MLEs have?
What impact do MLEs have on your recruitment processes?
What impact do MLEs have on your registration and enrolment processes?
Getting good solutions to such administrative issues is an important contribution to making the MLE sustainable - this is discussed further in the section 'Sustaining and Evaluating the MLE'
8.4.1. Novel Courses
A course may be 'novel' in terms of mode of attendance, calendar, mode of recruitment and enrolment, and duration. Consider each of the following and ask yourself 'can our MLE handle...:'
A course which runs two semester on-campus and one semester virtually each year?
A course where learners pay-as-learn - they enrol and pay for each component as they take it.
A course which runs to a conventional start-stop pattern, but which then remains open as a resource and learning community?
A course where learners can complete at any time up to five years?
A course where learners can join whenever they like and present for assessment as soon as they feel ready?
8.4.2. Costing, Charging/Fees
The whole of education is notoriously bad at costing. Also most institutions change on a contextual basis: according to the nature of client (commercial etc), mode of attendance (full/part time) etc.
Does your MLE enable you to cost your offerings?
Does your MLE allow you to charge differentially by learner and/or course?
Does your MLE allow you to have free or open courses?
How are charges/fees decided - do you have a model for this?
Could your MLE support price per credit charging?
Most institutions have some loose model for costing, but decision-making varies from highly centralised - which can militate against loss leaders etc - to highly devolved - which can result in inconsistent charging (to the same client!) or unintended loss making.
Can your MLE accept e-payments?
If so, does this result in direct enrolment?
How is this process linked to entry requirements?
Can learners pay by instalments?
There is little evidence of this as yet.
The problem of free courses can pose problems where access to courses is linked to an enrolment system which is triggered by payments. Suppose you want to have a course where one module (for example a key skills module) is free but the rest of course is charged?
8.4.3. Recruitment
Apart from the issues of charging etc discussed earlier, there other issues relating to recruitment which need consideration in the context of embedding an MLE.
For example, whilst a number of institutions offer on-line applications for their courses, a totally 'e' approach would require the resolution of how to handle the critical issues of verification/veracity of eReferences and eReferees, verification of (potential) off campus eLearner credentials, bona fides and qualifications prior to enrolment.
8.4.4. Registration and Enrolment
Many institutions now have effective links between their MIS systems and their VLE as part of their overall MLE. However, many problems are still likely to arise, either through human factors or lack of flexibility in one or more component of the MLE. Some examples you may find it useful to consider are:
Do you have courses which are informal in some way and do not use the institutional enrolment system?
Whilst this may seem perfectly reasonable, it may also indicate that that your institution is failing to gain full income from its offerings (for example, why should every course be credit bearing?), and more importantly, how can/will your institution successfully operate personal development planning/recording achievement without registering all learners and learning activity in its MLE systems?
- What degree of granularity and combination of course grouping can your MLE provide automatically?
Whilst some VLEs can provide several or many levels of sub-grouping, it is less likely that the MIS components of an MLE will. An example: A Foundation Degree course at a University consists of a number of modules, each module is delivered at a number of partners colleges using the University MLE - can the MIS system (and registration procedure) provide the VLE with course and module cohorts which are broken down into College cohorts within each module? (See the consortium case study in the key resources for the section 'Supporting course development and delivery')
Another problem is where a component module serves more than one course. For example, a study skills module may be delivered as a single cohort to students who are registered on more than one course, and for who the component may have different learning outcomes. How can your MLE facilitate this type of course?
A last, and particularly thorny example: students are taking a course where the learning is negotiated - i.e. except for a couple of core modules, the rest of the course is chosen by negotiation, and can include any module offered by the institution, and also modules which are independent or work based learning and are agreed uniquely in each case. (The course can be started at any time and completed at any time within five years). To add complexity, this means the learner will have tutor relationships at course, module (in the case of a standard chosen module, the module leader for the normal group taking the module) and also account managers for independent and work-based learning. Consider how you could reflect this in your MLE, both in terms of MIS functions and VLE support activities.
Follow this link for key resources for this section (these open in a new window)
