implementing e-learningCore Good Practice Models |
Records Management
The final core good practice model for e-learning development is that of Records Management and in particular the Information Audit.
Records management is a wide-ranging management discipline vital to the efficient running of your institution's daily operations. It is also the essential tool which underpins your institution's legal and regulatory compliance. The necessary skills include ensuring that your institution is compliant in a very practical way with all the legislation and regulation that affects its operations, staff and students. Other elements range from the development of 'good housekeeping' of information and records to long-term preservation (10 years+) of electronic data, and the selection of records for eventual inclusion in the historical archive of your institution.
The Records Management infoKit details technical aspects of the role but also emphasises that much of your time will be spent on communication, negotiation and persuasion.
Perhaps the most useful tool here to address the holistic concept of processes, business and learning systems is that of the Information Audit. The techniques here centre around the analysis of business processes and systems which currently create and use information in the institution and as well as being vital to the Records Management function within an organisation this analysis can go hand in hand with other process review tools as you move on into the Analysis phase.
The information audit contains two interlinked elements which are of importance if the benefits of a records management programme are to be realised:
- Analysis of the business processes and systems which currently create and use information in the institution - i.e. process review
- The audit of the information content itself
If at all possible the person conducting the audit will attempt to deal with both elements in a single pass. However in some processes and some large organisations this will not be possible and the two elements will have to be conducted separately. The infoKit contains a number of examples from UK FE and HE to which you can refer and we strongly recommend that you have a look at some of these as part of your preliminary preparation work - all are practical and deal with both the triumphs and difficulties of the records audit and management process.
So far we have covered a number of core good practice models which should be of use whatever the aims of your institution. We're now going to move onto the standard system lifecycle elements - analysis, planning, implementation and review - and highlight how resources can be used in each of the three contexts outlined earlier.
