E-quality in E-learning

1. E-quality in E-learning Analysing, Sustaining, and Piloting Innovation:a « ASPI » model D. Peraya, University of Geneva (CH)B. Jaccaz, University of Geneva (CH)I. Masiello, Karolinska Institutet (SE)S. Armitage, University of Lancaster (UK)H. Yip, University of Lancaster (UK)

2. Aim of the ASPI model To help all the different actors, from university managers to university lecturers, involved in the teaching and learning process to answer the following questions: 1. How do I analyse, guide, and sustain innovation in Higher Education? 2. How to make innovation comfortable for all actors ? 3. What kind of information do I need at each stage of the innovation process to make decisions that help actors involved in the innovation process to identify and acheive their goals ? 4. How do I process the data generated? 5. How do I feed the results back into the process?

3. What is innovation? Innovation can be seen as a change, which applies to a procedure, a tool, or new consumer Innovation is meant to improve a situation, and to reach new aims or objectives which couldn’t have been approached under previous conditions. Innovation is a dynamic and complex process of change.It develops between tensions and stakes related to the different components of the educational system. Ex: each actor (administrator, manager, teacher) has his own objectives, motivations, interests, culture, and constraints. Under these conditions, piloting innovation means controlling a complex environment. The epistemological and methodological choices of the actors in charge of this regulation are essential: To be an external observeror an participating actor (change agent)

4. General economy of the model Piloting innovation requires: • the taking into account of the system in its complexity (“ecology”) • to consider the temporal dimension in which the project is grounded and develops • to be grounded on an approach in the centered around the actors as well as the negotiation and the making explicit of all the aspects of the learning system (visions, aims, practices, etc.)

5. The ecology of the system It is the place where innovation is grounded and develops.This innovative educonal system can be defined by 4 variables : • Structural variablesthe different levels defined in a classical systemic analyze (ministery, governmental agencies, institutions, faculties, department, unit, … individual) • Roles and functions related to actorslearners, teachers, administrators, technicians, developers, researchers, educationalists, project managers, change agents • Individual variablesEx: social characteristics, representations/visions, competencesand resources, attitudes, desires, expectations, motivations, needs, fears, practices, professional experience Variables related to the different fields Ex: pedagogy, disciplines, technologies, mediatization and mediation, the organization, economics, the policy

6. The temporal dimension This relates to the development and to the deployment of innovation from its emergence to its perpetuation. 2 components have to be considered in the temporal dimension : • The strict chronology of the stages of development of a projectEx: analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation, integration in the daily practice, maintaining process, dissemination • The moments that look critical when considered in a dynamics of proper change Ex: many critical events represent invaluable indicators in the dynamics of the project. They influence the progression or delay of a task.

7. The sustaining and piloting dimension There exist 2 main ways to sustain and pilot innovation : • the first approach considers piloting as a regular data collection on the evolving system by researchers/analysts who are neither implied inthe project itself nor in its development • the second is related to approaches like “research-action-training” and make actors and researchers become partners in a shared process

8. The approach of the ASPI model The ASPI model is directly related to the approach « research-action-training », validated both by our case studies and those presented in the literature.There are 3 caracteristics to this approach : • it is centered on the elaboration of “a common object to negociate between and with the actors” (Jacquinot and Choplin) • it aims at making clear with the actors the significance of “better aimed at by innovation” (ibidem) • the modes of action are those recommended, for instance, by Garant on the basis of case studies:a) proactive rather than reactive sustainment and pilotingb) flexible and evolutionary sustainment and piloting integrating an adhocratic dimensionc) a support for action as well as the providing of the related resourcesd) a better articulation between individual and organisational projectse) a reorganization of work in terms of time and places of dialogue

9. Representation of the ASPI model

10. Conclusion The ASPI model ensures cohesion by allowing to: • choose the data necessary to the diagnosis and regulation of the environment, among different variables, at each important moment • make the meaning of innovation explicit for the actors In the ASPI model, the actors are agents of change.They have to adopt a reflexive attitude, to analyse again, and if necessary, modify their position, their role, at given times.