Managing Education in the Digital Age

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.