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    Managing Education in the Digital Age
    Managing Education in the Digital Age
    Managing Education in the Digital Age
    Ebook137 pages1 hour

    Managing Education in the Digital Age

    By Andy Hockley and Fiona Thomas

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    About this ebook

    Introduction

    Increasingly, education is moving into the online world, and a growing body of literature reflects this from the teaching perspective. Online teaching and learning is now being written about and researched at great length, and this existing work provides valuable support for the educational community that is practising teaching and learning online.
    However, very little has been written on the subject of managing this new online educational world.
    This book attempts to address this gap from the perspective of academic (or other) managers in education institutions. It follows the process from the first decision to go online, and pursues that through planning, building, marketing, dealing with teachers, and finally, monitoring the whole.
    In the first part of the book, we focus on the initial decision to go online; we consider what might be involved, note possible pitfalls to watch out for, and look at various other issues that need to be borne in mind.
    We then take you through the process of laying the foundations for your online presence, including:
    • choosing the type of course that is right for your, and your students’, needs
    • defining the role of the online teacher
    • setting up the administrative infrastructure including, but not limited to, technical support
    • looking at the finances of online course delivery
    • marketing your courses
    • setting up quality control mechanisms.

    Next, we look at the practicalities: keeping everything running, and monitoring the courses to ensure that they are progressing as planned. We also look at the best ways of obtaining teacher and student feedback, and, if necessary, how to act on it.
    Each chapter includes a lively mixture of suggestions, advice, lessons from experience and quotes from participants of such courses.
    We hope you find this book useful and engaging, and that it helps you make informed decisions about taking this step in your institution.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAndy Hockley
    Release dateMar 30, 2014
    ISBN9781311661081
    Managing Education in the Digital Age
    Author

    Andy Hockley

    I am a writer, trainer and consultant with considerable experience of implementing, managing, and consulting on large and small-scale educational projects in a number of different contexts, especially in the area of language teaching.My particular interest is in the management of language schools and in the management of educational projects. I am co-author of “From Teacher to Manager: Managing a Language Teaching Organization” (CUP, 2008) and author of “Educational Management” (Polirom, Romania 2007), as well as "Managing Education in the Digital Age" (The Round, 2014).I have lived and worked (as teacher, trainer, and manager) in Europe, Asia, Oceania, and North America. I have a Master’s degree in International and Intercultural Management as well as extensive experience of language teaching and training language teachers. I regularly make presentations and run workshops at international teacher conferences.I am now based in deepest Transylvania, Romania, and among other things am a trainer on Cambridge ESOL’s International Diploma in Language Teaching Management (a blended learning course for managers which I was instrumental in developing). I speak Spanish, and have a working knowledge of Portuguese, French, and Hungarian.

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      Book preview

      Managing Education in the Digital Age - Andy Hockley

      MANAGING EDUCATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE

      CHOOSING, SETTING UP AND RUNNING SUCCESSFUL ONLINE COURSES

      By Andy Hockley and Fiona Thomas

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2014 Andy Hockley and Fiona Thomas

      A round publication

      www.the-round.com

      © 2014 Andy Hockley and Fiona Thomas

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the authors. Please contact us at www.the-round.com for more information.

      Cover design by Mark Bain

      Edited by Penny Hands

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Chapter 1 – New medium, new management

      Chapter 2 – Why offer online courses?

      Chapter 3 – Types of course

      Chapter 4 – The teacher

      Chapter 5 - Financial considerations: costing, pricing and risks

      Chapter 6 – Marketing

      Chapter 7 – The online customer journey (1): Managing expectations

      Chapter 8 – The online customer journey (2): Support systems and feedback

      Chapter 9 – Becoming a high quality online course provider

      Appendixes

      Thanks and acknowledgments

      Glossary

      Bibliography

      Introduction

      Increasingly, education is moving into the online world, and a growing body of literature reflects this from the teaching perspective. Online teaching and learning is now being written about and researched at great length, and this existing work provides valuable support for the educational community that is practising teaching and learning online.

      However, very little has been written on the subject of managing this new online educational world.

      This book attempts to address this gap from the perspective of academic (or other) managers in education institutions. It follows the process from the first decision to go online, and pursues that through planning, building, marketing, dealing with teachers, and finally, monitoring the whole.

      In the first part of the book, we focus on the initial decision to go online; we consider what might be involved, note possible pitfalls to watch out for, and look at various other issues that need to be borne in mind.

      We then take you through the process of laying the foundations for your online presence, including:

      • choosing the type of course that is right for your, and your students’, needs

      • defining the role of the online teacher

      • setting up the administrative infrastructure including, but not limited to, technical support

      • looking at the finances of online course delivery

      • marketing your courses

      • setting up quality control mechanisms.

      Next, we look at the practicalities: keeping everything running, and monitoring the courses to ensure that they are progressing as planned. We also look at the best ways of obtaining teacher and student feedback, and, if necessary, how to act on it.

      Each chapter includes a lively mixture of suggestions, advice, lessons from experience and quotes from participants of such courses.

      We hope you find this book useful and engaging, and that it helps you make informed decisions about taking this step in your institution.

      Chapter 1 - New medium, new management

      The role of the manager in education

      The job of an educational manager is to support the teaching and learning taking place at the organisation while at the same time ensuring the sustainability of the work that the organisation does. This is a constant, regardless of the type of education or the location of the work.

      This opening chapter looks at the differences between management of traditional face-to-face education and that of teaching and learning happening online

      Managers in any educational organisation have a dual role. Firstly, they must act as CEO, making sure the business is running smoothly, setting targets and monitoring the organisation’s effectiveness and success (and making changes where necessary).

      In this first aspect of the role, they are internally performing a number of roles - (1) strategist, setting the organisation’s direction, (2) manager, allocating and coordinating responsibilities and functions, and (3) arbitrator, acting as the final referee on any conflicts and other problems. From an external point of view, they are seen to be carrying out the functions of executive officer and diplomat, dealing with governing bodies, the wider stakeholder community, and so on.

      But frequently, and in most cases, they also have a second role: they need to lead professionally. They need to be someone who knows how education works, and has seen teaching and learning from the perspective of the classroom. Inside the organisation, they act as mentor, as educator and as adviser – coaching and supporting teachers professionally, and counselling and advising students. Externally, they need to be both ambassador and advocate, representing the organisation in professional associations and other bodies, while being a school spokesperson on educational and other professional matters.

      Managing online education

      While most schools are managed by former teachers, who can successfully and fairly easily take on that second, leading professional role, few (at this point in time) will be managed by former online teachers who have a wide breadth of experience in teaching online.

      In the case of the organisation that is deciding to go into online learning, this leadership role, which the manager may have taken on without conscious realisation, is subtly altered. While it may be unreasonable to ask managers to train themselves up and get a vast amount of experience in online teaching, we would strongly recommend that such managers should familiarise themselves with the issues surrounding the management of online teaching.

      Reading this book and some of the literature on teaching and training online (see the bibliography) will not make a manager more experienced than their teachers, but it will at least mean that they can converse with and support them.

      How the role differs

      There are many similarities between managing a traditional educational establishment and managing one that provides online courses. On a broad level, the ‘product’ being sold is the same – a learning experience, with a number of acquired skills and often a certificate at the end. Both involve teaching, and therefore, teachers. Both involve students and the need to look after the interests of those students.

      However, there are a number of differences. These differences, which will be explored at greater length throughout the book, are outlined below. In each case they are followed by a number of questions, which you can ask yourself in thinking through these issues.

      Managing teachers

      In traditional face-to-face educational settings, academic managers get to physically see and interact with the teachers, but rarely do they see them performing their primary job in the classroom. In online education, on the other hand, the academic manager may not physically see the teacher very often, but it can actually be easier to drop in and see what’s going on inside the learning environment. You, the academic manager of online courses, will need to consider how you adapt your management style to the new context.

      And what of salaries? You may have built up a workable system over the years, whereby teachers are compensated by (or contracted for) the teaching hour, with an understanding that this includes time in the classroom, time spent preparing lessons, and time spent marking student work. Online, the classroom hour, for the most part, is radically different, and the time commitments by teachers are not as clear cut as they are on the classroom model. How can you restructure contracts and salary scales to take this into account?

      ‘Managing’ students

      Just as you may no longer see your teachers, you also will not see

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