Balancing responsiveness and vision in e–learning projects

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Again an entry intended to investigate a specific aspect of blog use has escelated into a full scale discussion of methodology. Something useful came from this, in that i have had to reflect upon the balance between responsiveness and leadership that is required in projects that attempt to introduce both new technology and new behavioural processes. Here's the comment in which i realize that getting this balance right is a big part of what i do as an e-learning advisor:

That defines the problem with this kind of project exactly. Rapid feedback is what is required. To get to the point at which rapid feedback occurs, the users already need to have accepted that they want to commit time to using the system and being part of a development process. Our users will not make that commitment until they see a product that is right for them.

So we try to jump out of the loop by giving them something more concrete, a bit more complete than is desirable. You could say that they need a bit of vision or a bit of leadership. But not too much. The balance has to be exactly right. I have seen e-learning projects fail to get off the ground because of lack of that vision. I have also seen them go wildly off target when they go too far.

Personally, i'm happy to do a bit of risk taking, but not too much. And so long as it is done in the context of a consultative process, which I think is a big part of what the ELA's are doing.

Thanks Chris for leading the discussion to this point!

Robert O'Toole : 19 Jun 2004 06:25 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem