This chapter provides a conceptual model that academic leaders can use to navigate the complex, and often contentious, organizational terrain of academic program development. The model includes concepts related to the institution's external environment, as well as internal organizational structures, cultures, and politics. Drawing from the…

How to plan an open and distance learning (ODL) unit in higher education is not clearly described in the literature. A number of ODL facilities at residential universities have not been successful because of a lack of planning or because of failure to ensure that all the different systems for ODL delivery were in place and functioning. This paper…

Literature indicates that there is limited research on the national and organizational level decision processes to develop and deliver e-learning programs. In this paper, existing e-learning literature is analyzed in terms of national level factors (national culture, readiness for new technology, and infrastructure), organizational level factors…

During a six month contract with the Royal University of Bhutan, the author was required to develop the initial stages of a first library qualification to be offered in Bhutan. Questions raised by this project included: is a first qualification in librarianship needed in Bhutan? What are the potential student numbers in such a programme? What…

Graduate education platforms have received general acclaim as key components in the future structural development of third-level and fourth-level education in Europe. In Ireland the Higher Education Authority (HEA) has endorsed the restructuring of postgraduate education to incorporate the training of research students in key generic and…

This article explores the decision making in developing and starting a partnership between three universities using the decision-making models developed by Graham Allison in 1971 and updated in 1999. University partnerships are complicated and require more than one decision-making model to explain all the significant decisions that are make in…

Background/Context: School districts are responsible for helping schools improve learning for students. However, many district initiatives conflict with each other or with existing instructional practices in schools. Recent research on urban school reform points to the value of program coherence in sustaining school change. Our paper addresses an…

Needs assessment is an integral part of designing instruction for adults. However, more work needs to be done to strengthen the definition and theory. Needs assessment will be served by carefully designed studies that analyze the extent and type of impact needs assessments have had on subsequent program development activities. (CT)

A 5-year longitudinal study of factors affecting the implementation and operation of computer based education (CBE) projects in military settings using the PLATO system identified five major factors: project planning, staff selection and retention, lesson development, implementation and site management, and results and final evaluations. Findings…

The Occupational Education program at Southwest Texas State University was established in 1973 to serve military personnel at four bases in San Antonio, Texas. The program's success has rested on seven principles of sound program development. These principles point toward faculty preparation and establishing obtainable goals related to distance…

The battle for communication skills has already been won; the task ahead is to get teachers in the trenches to teach them, either in separate units or in their subject areas. Nine references are listed, and a list of resources for implementing instruction in speaking and listening is provided. (Author/DCS)

Implementing exportable instructional systems has always been a problem for instructional developers. Even the best instructional systems lose effectiveness when they are poorly implemented. Researchers have focused their efforts on creating mechanisms to help developers and managers improve and control implementation. However, most of these…

A model curriculum, such as that developed by the ACM/SIGITE Curriculum Committee (2005), has two important functions. First, it provides a base structure for newly developing programs that can use it as a platform for articulating a curriculum. Second, it offers an existing curriculum framework that can be used for validation by existing…

Reviews four different approaches to evaluation--decision-oriented, applied research, value-oriented, and systems-oriented--and suggests how each may be applied to the evaluation of instructional programs. Nine references are listed. (Author/CHC)

Research was performed to develop and evaluate Job Aids ("how to do it" guidance, tools, and procedures) used by laypersons when implementing the Instructional Systems Development Model (ISD), which is used for program development and includes analysis, design, development, implementation, and control phases. Baseline data were collected…