Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness
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Internet-supported Learning Study
| Section XII: Best Practices and Innovations | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Read the paper: What's Next in Learning Technology in Higher Education? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Click here to participate in the A-HEC Internet Learning Trends and Vendor Satisfaction Survey | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Click here to read a summary and analysis of the Sloan-C 2005 report on online education | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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What are some of the areas of best practice in Internet-supported Learning and key innovations so far and what can be expected for the future? Obviously the common denominators of success presented in section X represent best practices. In this section we review best practices and innovations that the participants named in their responses for the purpose of encouraging readers to think about the role of these in their Internet-supported learning efforts. Section VI also contains best practices and innovations in the participant profiles. Through an open-ended question regarding each institutions top three ingredients of success we were able to derive a categorization framework for best practices and innovations. Figure 14 shows the breakdown of the free-form responses into nine categories.
Subject Matter. A review of best practices would not be complete without looking at the subject matter being delivered through Internet-supported Learning. The subject matter being taught with Internet-support was extremely diverse. Appendix C contains a listing of course and program topics that our participants felt were most successful. Suffice it to say that the topics ranged from math to science to social science to business to practical professions, such as Nursing and Design. The range of innovation with respect to the course content was surprising. Thus, the subject matter was not an area of commonality. Please read the institution profiles in section VI for more anecdotes on innovations in specific subject areas. Categorization of Best Practices and Innovations. Table 9 contains respondent’s short references to achieved best practices and innovations. Obviously there has been no attempt in this study to delve into these areas in any more depth than is contained in the profiles and what is revealed in the common denominators of success. The purpose here is to relay some of the ideas from this group of successful institutions. Table 9. Example Best Practices and Innovations Achieved
From reviewing the table one can see that not all categories had best practices or innovations mentioned. Also, the judgment as to what is a best practice versus an innovation is a subjective one. Either type represents potential new territory to be considered. Our conclusion with respect to best practices and innovations in Internet-supported learning by successful institutions are: • They are numerous • They are unique to the specific needs of an institution • They are primarily focused on content/instructional quality, student service, and training • A majority of the innovations being worked on are in support of creating a better learning experience for students through better courses and better developed faculty |
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