Switching to E-learning: How to Manage the Change

In the wake of the COVD-19 problem Lusaka Business and Technical, under the oversight of a robust team, successfully carried out all training activities for distance learners via a Learning Management System. Our team has now been given another mandate to manage the change to Blended Learning for full-time students. I wish to share insights on what may characterise this transition.

Switching to Blended Learning (or e-learning) is not a simple matter of merely telling lecturers to start using an e-learning platform. It is important to be aware that a college or university may even have the best learning management system and a great team of lecturers but yet fail to transition successfully. An important thing that seldomly gets considered when transitioning is the cultural context of a college. In this article I first want to discuss how culture can work for, or against , Change. Secondly I wish to share Lippitt’s Model of managing Change; the model consists of simple steps that can be followed to manage Change.

Culture

Organisational culture comprises the norms and values that characterise the behaviour of an organisation. Now, if culture is a “norm”, it is by definition the first stumbling block to Change, and it goes without saying that any Change programme that takes off without considering the cultural context of an environment will not be successful. However, it is interesting to note that one way to get around the culture stumbling block is to use it as an agent of Change! Aguirre and Post (2013) explains how this is achievable: “When companies tap into the energy and emotional commitment that are bound up in their cultures, change initiatives are far more sustainable”. Sadly, however, although it is critical to business success, and although many managers are aware of this, culture seems to occupy a background position in many organisations.

A survey done by Strategy plus Business indicated that culture is widely seen to be more important than companies’ strategies but yet only 35% of executives said their companies did an effective job of managing culture (Aguirre & Post, 2013). It is when culture is ignored, and all efforts focus only on change, that culture will be seen to be diametrically opposed to the desired change. 

So, how exactly can culture be a tool of change? Well, culture resides in, and is sustained by, human beings  - lecturers, IT support staff, administration staff etc -  who work at a college. Thus, instead of only thinking about change in terms of transformations that will occur to methods of teaching, preparing schemes and lesson plans, focus should be on the human beings that are the real agents of change!

During change in business, the management team of a college, or the Human Resource role to be specific, should listen to concerns of lecturers  and foster a two-way dialogue to move big changes forward (Khatri, 2016). The HR function can create a work-environment where employees become pro-change. Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter notes that  “The most successful organizations develop a culture that just keeps moving all of the time” (cited in Khatri, 2016). Iljins et al (2015) suggests a method of motivating employees into adapting to change by implementing a reward system. Training and rewarding of employees during performance of tasks during the change programme can encourage them to do their best to target achievements of the organization and in the process that may influence them to enjoy the change. An important feature to add to the reward system is  penalties for non-performance or wrong-performance of tasks. At LBTC, we devised a system which enforces a penalty of 5% off a person's remuneration for each omisssion of an item that was supposed to be uploaded onto the Learning Management System. People now work hard to ensure no penalties affect their earned reward points.

Change Programme

To effectively manage change, a suitable model should be selected. Some common models include Lewin’s Three-Step model and Lippitt’s model. Lewin’s model consists of unfreezing the status quo, effecting the change and freezing the new change. 

Lippitt’s model builds on Lewin’s model through a detailed seven-step process (cited in Higgins & Bourne, 2018). The steps include:

Step 1: Diagnose the problem.

Step 2: Assess the motivation and capacity for change.

Step 3: Assess the resources and motivation of the change agent.

Step 4: Develop action plans and establish required strategies. 

Step 5: The role of the change agents should be selected and clearly understood by all parties so that expectations are clear.

Step 6: Maintain the change. Communication, feedback and group coordination are essential elements in this step of the change process.

Step 7: Terminate from the helping relationship (gradually). The change agent should gradually withdraw from their role over time. This will occur when the change becomes part of the organizational culture. 

Once a suitable change model is selected, there will be need to also choose the correct e-learning or blended model that your college wishes to implement. More on that in my next blog post.

Importance of Values in a Work Place

In managing an organisation leaders should be aware that the different individuals that make up the workforce have different values, behaviours, perceptions, and attitudes. However, an organisation has one mission and it can only succeed if the various attributes of the workers get aligned to that mission. Research (Berkhout & Rowlands, 2007) has shown that companies whose employee-hiring criteria is focussed on matching personal values with organizational values tend to be significantly more successful because of the fact that employees have a higher level of job satisfaction. It is important for leaders of an organisation to understand the underlying causes of certain behaviours and work towards creating an environment that would enable and motivate people to contribute positively towards an organisation’s mission. The beginning point should be a good understanding of what constitutes values and knowing how values influence workers’ attitudes towards work.

Grieser (n.d.) in explaining why workplace values are important in his blog post likened an organisational system to an engine and steering wheel of a vehicle: A vehicle requires both an engine and a steering wheel to be able to work correctly – “An organization is no different: its purpose is the engine that propels it forward, and its values are the steering system by which it is guided”. To put it another way, an organisation has a mission, which is the purpose why an organisation exists, and values are needed to guide people on how they should conduct themselves, or to be guided on what things can be done and cannot be done in their work of serving the purpose of the organisation. For example loyalty, honesty, reliability, and efficiency may be the values of a company. But how exactly are values of a company formed?

It is important to note that values of a company never arise haphazardly; there has to be a deliberate plan in place. Heathfield (2019) explains that every work place has values and the question should be whether the existing values are creating the desired workplace. Thus, the first step towards defining the values of organisation should be the coming together of executives of an organisation to identify what currently characterises the organisation. The executives should move on to discuss the importance of having shared values as an organisation. Next a list of desired values should be discussed and agreed on. Workers should all be involved through well organised workshops during which individuals can freely share their personal values. Professional trainers should facilitate meetings during which individuals’ values are aligned to the organisation’s mission.

Now, aligning people’s attributes is not a mechanical process. Human beings are products of different experiences of life and the experiences may influence how they perceive life or situations around them. Perception is “a process wherein the individuals receive various stimuli, organize their impressions, interpret in their own way, thereby giving some meaning to the environment” (EDUCBA, n.d); because of this our behaviour is a consequence of our perception. It goes without saying that wrong interpretations about situations may lead to wrong behaviour and wrong behaviour may ultimately affect a company’s performance. In my teaching career for example, some teachers believe work is about earning money and so anytime there is a chashflow problem their eagerness and zeal to work gets affected; they slow down. Such happenings by individuals working for a school or college may over a period of time injure the reputation of an institution.

To foster a positive work environment people’s personal values, attitudes, and behaviours should be aligned with a companie’s values. However, before workers can be motivated into alignment executives should agree on the importance of having shared values in a work-place. Managers would have to take a leading role in inspiring a culture that is conscious of company values. More important in all this is the human-resource function of an organisation; the recruitment process should select candidates with values that resonate with a company’s values. That would make the process of aligning individual person’s values with company values much easier. 

REFERENCES

Grieser (n.d.). Why Workplace Values Are Important. Randy’s Blog. https://theordinaryleader.com/blog/why-workplace-values-are-important/ 

Berkhout, T., and Rowlands, I. H. (2007). The Voluntary Adoption of Green Electricity by Ontario-Based Companies - The Importance of Organizational Values and Organizational Context. Organization and Environment, 20(3), 281–303.

Critical Success Factor No.4 E-Learning Policy

In this post I would like to (1) explain in very simple terms the meaning of e-learning policy (2) describe contents of an  e-learning policy, and finally (3) provide a real-world exmple of an e-learning policy.

What is an e-learning Policy?

An e-learning policy is a set of guidelines and requirements which are formulated to achieve effective lesson delivery and learning experience through an online platform such as a  Learning Management System.

Without guidelines and requirements lecturers will have no standard procedures to follow when going about their work, and there will be no form of accountability or penalties to enforce. This ultimately affects the quality of the teaching-service delivery.

Contents of an E-Learning Policy

Different organisations may have different contents for their policies. Below I provide a template that I believe consists of essential elements for effective e-learning service delivery. You are free to adapt and use it for your organisation.

Purpose: Here state what the policy intends to achieve in your organisation. Inlude statements on any piece of legislation if any that the policy is designed to adhere to.

Scope: Here state what aspect of your information system the policy addresses (for example, a campus manangement system may have various components inclduing payroll, timetabling, and e-learning components but the policy may be referring to the e-learning component), and for which stakeholders the policy was developed (e.g lecturers).

Service Delivery: Here state what learning resources should be made available to students (for example lesson notes, videos (embbeded or via links), and book references.

Learner Support: Learner Support refers to what teachers or lecturers should do to help learners beyond the normal delivery of content (Bates, 2014). Under this heading the policy should state in what ways, and when, learner support is available. Schedules or timetables of videoconferences or webinars, during which students can ask questions on items of a topic they need clarifications on, should be made available.

Assessments: Here state what assessments students should be given, criteria of allocating marks, and when feedback (assessment results) will be made available to the learners. Students should have the confidence that for all assessments given they will have timely feedback. 

Behavioral Conduct: Here state the professional and ethical conduct that is expected of lecturers when engaging with students on a complaint, giving assessment feedback, or publishing a notice.

Revisions and Updating Schedule: State who is responsible for making revisions and the intervals or schedules for considering such revisions.

Sanctions for Violations: Note that a policy which doesn't stipulate sanctions to be imposed on its violaters is more likely to be a useless document. The 'Sanctions for Violations' section of  the e-learning policy is very crucial for a successfull implementation and management of e-learning. The section helps to ensure that everyone complies with the policy requirements. Under this section explain how violations should be handled, where they need to be reported to, and state what penalties or sanctions should be applied on a violator.

Contact Information: Details of who should be contacted about any matter regarding the policy. 

Glossary: Define any words that are likely to be unclear to the reader of the policy.

Acronyms: This section is more appropriate for longer and complex documents; it spells out acronyms used in the document. Where a policy document is small - as is expected for an e-learning policy - acronyms can be spelt out within the document.

May I state here that it is important to be realistic when formulating an e-learning policy. It will be quite futile to develop a policy that merely outlines the wishes of an instition but which are actually impractical. A policy should also be simple and easy to understand and something whose every stakeholder will be able to remember by heart. A simple way to find out if an institution has an e-learning policy is to ask any user of it if they can coherently state and explain one or two phrases of the policy. If a considerable number of users are unable to do that then the organisation has no policy in place! A policy should be a printed form of the spirit, guidelines and procedures that characterise an organisation's work environment.

Example of an E-learning Policy

You may find it helpful to take a look at the e-learning policy used by the University of Nottingham here. It does not contain all the details explained in the template above but should suffice to give you an idea of how an e-learning policy looks like.

References

Bates, T. (2014). Why learner support is an important component in the design of teaching and learning. Retrieved from https://www.tonybates.ca/2014/08/26/why-learner-support-is-an-important-component-in-the-design-of-teaching-and-learning/

Any idea when schools will re-open in Zambia? Time to act is Now!

When will schools re-open in Zambia - in a month's time? Two months? Three months? 

Yesterday I received a phone call from a Distance Learning student who desired to make a payment of tution fees and wanted to know "when  the college may re-open". The phone call confirmed my fear that the impact of COVID-19 on Zambia's education system is yet to dawn on many people's minds. If the trouble, which has led to the  closure of schools in our country, goes by the same spelling as the one which has crippled economies of the First World - with complete lockdowns and thousands of deaths - then what our learning institutions have done in preparation for the worst-case scenario is close to nothing, if actually not nothing! 

Today, I read this on Straightimes about Singapore, a first world nation with excellent educational infrastructure and systems:

SINGAPORE - Students in all schools and institutes of higher learning will shift to full home-based learning from next Wednesday (April 8), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Friday. The Ministry of Education (MOE) will work with schools to implement this, Mr Lee said in a speech announcing new measures to curtail the spread of Covid-19. The measures will last at least until May 4.

Two things caught my attention in the above news report: the swiftness to  act before a problem attacks and the availability of senior leaders to quickly provide policy to guide the implementation of the solution. It is important to be aware that a solution that is made to operate in a policy  vacuum will soon become a problem itself. 

Some three decades ago Professor James Moor, a pioneer of Computer Ethics, had noted that a typical problem in Computer Ethics involves a policy vacuum of how computer technology should be used and remarked that often either no policies  for conduct exist or existing policies seem inadequate (Moor, 1985). Although many developed countries have made strides towards implementing comprehensive policies to guide e-learning, institutions in Third World countries, where e-learning is still a relatively new phenomenon, are yet to catch up on this.

It's high time senior managers of colleges and universities in Zambia wake up and begin to quickly draw up plans on how they can implement e-learning systems, and more importantly, establish e-learning policies to guide the paradigm shift.

I should emphasise here that whilst some colleges (especially private ones) have quickly acted to implement learning management systems, there is still a high-risk of implementing e-learning systems which operate in a policy-vacuum. It is important to note that an e-learning system can only be as effective as its policy. By "policy" I don't mean an archaic document that has to go through the red-tape of approvals which may take a year or two before implementation but yet will remain unkown by stakeholders after implementation. An e-learning policy should be simple, and easy to understand and remember. As a matter of fact, one way to know if a college has a policy or not is to randomly ask any lecturer at the institution about any line in the policy they remember. If on average lecturers or teachers can hardly recall a single line from the document then that college actually has no e-learning policy! 

A policy should be the heart or spirit that guides all online training activies. In my next blog-post I will discuss 'e-learning policy' and provide examples. I will also provide a simple template which you can use for your college if you dont yet have one!

In concluding may I remind you that these are desperate times requiring urgent action. The biggest blessing in all this is that e-learning systems have now become so easy to set-up and different free options now exist - you can use Moodle, Google Classroom, etc. If you dont yet have a Learning Management System kindly go through my workshop series on how to set up your LMS in eight-simple steps here.

References

Moor, J.H. (1985). What is Computer Ethics?  Metaphilosophy. 16/4: 266-75

Implementing Moodle LMS

Introduction

Step 1(a): Setting up the Moodle Cloud LMS

Step 1(b): Customising your Moodle Cloud site's interface details

How to Implement an LMS in 8 Simple Steps!

Before we begin our lessons let me make three things clear: 

First, you don't need sophisticated ICT skills to implement an LMS solution; if you are able to hold a mouse and can type on the keyboard, and have time to concentrate on what I am about to show you, then you are the right person to learn this.

Second, most of the people reading this could be doing it out of desperation of the pandemic which has befallen the world and so the solutions I propose will be simple and easy-to-follow instructions. The proposed solutions will only respond to the basic needs of providing electronic lessons, tests and assignments to students. This is something that will at least keep learning going on as our men and women in white coats battle out to find the COVID-19 vaccine.

Third, be warned that there are many entrepreneurs who see COVID-19 as an opportunity to turn the panic of colleges and universities into a business opportunity. They will take free open source software like Moodle, give it a little tweak and then sell it at an exorbitant price to you! However, there are other well known commercial LMS solutions such as Blackboard and Astria on the market. Even so, the solution I suggest to you on this blog is the most used around the world by leading universities and  a good number of renowned global brands. The system has extensive capabilities to help you manage various training and assessment needs. It is used by over 60% of higher learning institutions around the world!

Yesterday I was invited at the Ministry of Higher Education to present my ideas on how learning management systems can help colleges switch to e-campus in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting was triggered by the last blog-post on the e-learning vaccine. I am thankful to a senior officer at the Ministry who called on heads of distance learning departments in the various colleges in Lusaka for a meeting. I was also thankful for the opportunity to share ideas with the Permanent Secretary. It was a fruitful  discourse and I can only hope that out of this crisis, Zambia's higher-learning institutions can act on the need to utilise e-learning systems. Like someone said, COVID-19 is leap-frogging us into the future of how work ought to be done! 

Now, during the meeting at the Ministry three important questions were asked 1) How can a college implement an LMS? 2) What tools will students use to access learning materials, and 3) How will students who lack computing skills be able to use the system. This series of blog posts endeavour to answer these questions.

What I am about to present in the next series of blog posts  require you to have two resources: a computer (laptop or desktop computer) and an Internet connection. Here is an outline of what you will do in this series of learning how to implement a Learning Management System in less than 15 minutes: 

Step 1

Set up your Moodle LMS in less than 15 Minutes.

Step 2

Configure your LMS for lecturers to start using it.

Step 3

Prepare your LMS for students to start using it.

Step 4

Prepare a simple policy to guide the usage of the Learning Management System.

Step 5

Upload notes onto the LMS.

Step 6

Create and schedule a test. Note that the test will be embbeded with a marking key so that immediately a student finishes attempting the test his or her score results will display on the screen.

Step 7

Create an assignment on the LMS.

Step 8

Create a forum where students can engage in discussion assignments.

You must follow the lessons in the provided sequence of steps. All these lessons are made available to you free of charge. In times of calamity we can all help each other in our own humble little ways . See you in my next series of video posts!

Audio file of blog post

e-Learning 'Vaccine' for Institutions of Learning

The Novel Corona Virus is slowing wheels of the economy everywhere around the world. The educational sector will be among the worst affected as schools are getting ordered to close. Private learning institutions are likely to be the most affected: just how will they financially sustain themselves if this pandemic prolongs? But should a college, university or school sit idle and hope for the soon arrival of the vaccine from the medical fraternity? No, I have news for you: there is an e-learning 'vaccine' that can immunise your organisation from halting operations!

There are now a number of colleges and universities in Zambia which are making good use of Learning Management Systems. A number of them are using the free (open source) Moodle platform. Moodle is widely used around the world by many organisations and universities to provide e-learning. It is a robust and extensive system that enables lecturers to effectively and remotely engage with their learners. Apart from uploading notes and assignments, a teacher or lecturer can design online tests which students can attempt from anywhere they are as long as they have an Internet enabled device such as a phone, laptop or tablet. What is interesting is that although the Moodle platform is being used by about 60% of higher learning institutions around the world, it still remains unknown by many colleges in Zambia. What is more, the platform is open source and can be downloaded for free!

It is important to be aware that ICTs are no longer luxury tools; they are business survival tools! But more importantly, they promote a greener and healthier Earth. When doing my work as a lecturer  I don't print notes for students. I use a Learning Management System to manage all my training activities. By doing that I am using less paper. Paper comes from trees and so, by using e-learning facilities, you and I would save trees from getting cut down for paper extraction. The more trees remain standing, the healthier our environments will be.The Ministry of Higher Education in Zambia should  work together with the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA)  to work on policies to compel all training institutions to implement e-learning facilities. 

If you are a college or university in Zambia, I am available to help you  - FOR FREE - to quickly set up an e-learning facility. All you will need is Internet access! To fail to prepare is to prepare to fail. An ancient Hebrew writing put it this way - "The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty" (Proverbs 22:3, NIV ).We can all help fight COVID-19 in our simple humble ways.