DEVELOPING ACCREDITED ONLINE HIGHER EDUCATION IN A UNIVERSITY SETTING: A CHANGE MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY

The higher education system in Ireland, dominated by full-time education programmes is under pressure to become more accessible. This pressure arises from general policy priorities such as lifelong learning (Higher Education Authority, 2015) and specialised requirements such as continuous professional development for regulated professionals (e.g. CORU, 2013). These local pressures are recognised at European level where there are calls (High Level Group on Modernisation of Higher Education to the European Commission, 2013) for leadership and vision to bring about new modes of learning in education.

Online education is one such mode and online learning technologies facilitate self-paced and self-directed learning. Online learning also facilitates educational access to those geographically distant from a higher education institution. Despite this drivers, the move towards wholly online delivery in accredited educational programmes is slow and not as widespread in Ireland as might be expected. Concerns about educational quality have dominated much of the debate on the introduction of accredited online education programmes. The High Level Group on Modernisation of Higher Education to the European Commission (2013) emphasise the need to quell concerns about new modes of learning and to promote wider acceptance of these new learning modes (High Level Group on Modernisation of Higher Education to the European Commission, 2013). However, in additional to concerns about educational quality, management concerns about financial viability can also stymy the change agenda in this area. Additionally, the main implementers of online education are the academics themselves who are often concerned about the increased workload associated with online development as well as concerns about intellectual property and the possibility of becoming redundant in an online education world.

In 2014, Ireland’s oldest university, the University of Dublin, Trinity College, launched its first wholly online course, the Postgraduate Diploma in Social Policy and Practice. The programme now in its fourth year, is accredited at postgraduate level 9 on the Irish National Framework of Qualifications which is equivalent to level 7 on the European Qualifications Framework and to Second Cycle on the European Higher Education Area, Qualification Framework. Through the lens of change management theory the journey from idea to implementation of this programme is charted. The tool of force field analysis (Lewin, 1943) is used to identify the activities and arguments that reduced the barriers to the change and increased the drivers for change. Some change management hints and tips will be provided for educational innovators starting on the road to accredited online higher education development.

References:
[1] CORU (2013) Framework for Registration Boards Continuing Professional Development Standard and Requirements. Retrieved from http://coru.ie/uploads/documents/Final_CPD_framework_document.pdf.
[2] Higher Education Authority. (2015). National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education, 2015-2019. Dublin: HEA.
[3] High Level Group on Modernisation of Higher Education to the European Commission (2013), Report to the European Commission on improving the quality of teaching and learning in Europe’s higher education institutions. Brussels: European Commission.
[4] Lewin, K. (1943). "Defining the 'Field at a Given Time2, Psychological Review, 50(3), 292–310.