[school-discuss] Re: [IIEP] UK abandons e-university

[David Jones <d.jones@CQU.EDU.AU>]

G'day All,

I think that the raising of the UKeU project and its apparent "failure"
provides an opportuntity to reinforce an important point that has
been mentioned in passing in a number of contributions.

No technology, be it open source, commercial, .net, Linux, learning
objects, is a silver bullet that ensures success.

Any project involving change and IT is more likely to "fail".
Especially when there are high levels of novelty and uncertaintity
involved

(The question of how to define "failure" is more open than many
think.  There is a literature on defining system success.)

*Other failures*

The UKeU are not alone.   Take a look at the following article
about the California Virtual University and its failure.

http://www.newstrolls.com/news/dev/downes/column041499.htm

Even the Western Governers University has not really delivered
on its original promise.   I remember a time in the late 90s when some
University adminstrators were worried that the WGU concept
would send them out of business.

http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=865

The information systems literature has a large amount of evidence
about the high likelihood of failure of projects involving IT and
change.    Ross Gardler has already quoted some of this literature.

The following quote from the paper at
http://cq-pan.cqu.edu.au/david-jones/Publications/Papers_and_Books/Emergent_Development/

_start quote_

The OASIG (Organizational Aspects Special Interest Group) (1996) study
in the United Kingdom, found that around 40% of information technology
systems developments failed or were abandoned. Laudon & Laudon (1996)
report that up to 75% of all large systems involving change and
information technology can be considered to be operating failures.

_end quote_

The educational literature is also replete with stories of failure
(from the same paper)

_start quote_

There is a long history of failed technology-based innovations in
education (Reeves, 1999).  While most innovators pursue change for valid
reasons, not simply for the sake of change (Smith, Prunty, Dwyer, &
Kleine, 1987), most reforms fail to achieve their goals (Goodlad, 1984).
The majority of WBE is badly done (Taylor, 1998) and makes less than
effective use of the medium and does not use pedagogical approaches
favoured by educational researchers (Mioduser, Nachmias, Oren, & Lahav,
1999).  Instead there is a tendency to recreate old practices (Jones,
Stewart, & Power, 1999).  Morris (1997) observed that instructional
innovations are likely to be restricted to imitations of others or of
revisions of past technologies, repackaged by academics within or
closely associated with the field of education. Many innovations are not
institutionalized (Gibbs, 1996) within their home institution and, even
less likely, to achieve widespread adoption amongst other institutions
(Collis & Oliver, 1999).

_end quote_

David.

--
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Jones  (d.jones@cqu.edu.au)    | "You can't trust code that you
Informatics and Communication        |  did not totally create
Central Queensland University        |  yourself."
Rockhampton, Australia               |  -- Ken Thompson.
------------ http://cq-pan.cqu.edu.au/david-jones/ ---------------------