Strategic Design for Web-Based Teaching and Learning: Making Corporate Technology Systems Work for the Learning Organization

Abstract

Deakin University has established and integrated a major, corporate technology infrastructure to unify and enhance its on-campus and distance education. This environment is called Deakin Online. Efforts to realize its potential for creating enduring teaching and learning benefits are understood in the context of the University’s commitment to “relevance, responsiveness and innovation.” How are these values and benefits realized in an evolving, educational enterprise using the new digital, corporate technologies and new concepts of organizational structure and function? We argue for the transforming influence of a new academic teacher role, new forms of academic development and open collegiality. Moreover, changes in role and process need to be grounded in systemic, organization-wide and program-wide approaches to designing and working within comprehensively conceived, contemporary learning environments. We argue for system-wide education design, situating e-learning within broader curricular and pedagogical concerns to create enduring benefits in the learning environments of higher education.