What happens next?

If you want one type of happy ending, try A.

A. Peter is the Executive Vice President at Major Community College. He finds his job stimulating and challenging. As a result of a recent accreditation visit, his current challenge is to introduce Major CC to innovative teaching/learning methods that will ensure better student success. In particular, he is charged with the responsibility to promote the use of web-based technologies that support learner-centered practices. He gets introduced to NextGen CMS, an open source system touted for its promise to transform teaching and learning. At the onset, this solution sounded perfect as there are no licensing costs involved, and Major CC is going through some very tough budgetary time. But, adopting the free NextGen CMS means that Peter would have to purchase and set up the technological needs (servers, bandwidth, etc.) and the organizational infrastructure (coordinator, support staff, trainers, etc.) to manage this new operation. He couldn’t imagine selling this expensive operation to the President’s Cabinet. Being the rational guy that he is, Peter purchased a license and support services from WebBox. Surely, it is the right decision, he assured himself and his President. Thousands of institutions rely on this tried and true CMS. Peter schedules a presentation and demonstrates WebBox to his faculty. There are enough progressive faculty at Major CC that many supported it and were interested in exploring its possibilities. Sure enough, many faculty members came to the first workshop hosted by WebBox, and in a short period of time and more training sessions, a couple dozen faculty began using the CMS to deliver or supplement their instruction. The feedback and reactions on the software were NOT as charming as Peter would have liked. In fact, most seemed to find WebBox limiting and frustrating to work with, but Peter wasn’t concerned. He couldn’t please everyone.

Inevitably, WebBox prices go way up. Peter gets run down. He worries that Major CC will not be able to afford the CMS in the long run. He stresses about the reactions of the WebBox faculty users to whom he is devoted. He decides to control expansion. It wouldn’t be hard. He offers fewer workshops. Growth slows down and there is no need to upgrade their license. Peter is happy. His WebBox faculty users report challenging and rewarding experiences with the CMS. His President finds Peter’s efforts worthwhile. Eventually Peter retires. This is the end of the scenario.

B. Mary is the Executive Vice President at Minor Community College. She finds her job stimulating and challenging. As a result of a recent accreditation visit, her newest challenge is to introduce Minor CC to innovative teaching/learning methods that will ensure higher success rates. In particular, she is charged with the responsibility to promote the use of web-based technologies that support learner-centered practices.

Mary gets introduced to Peter at the EDUCAUSE Conference. Mary is skeptical about her ability to bring about change at Minor CC. Minor CC professors are very traditional in their teaching approaches. She knows fully well that organizations don’t change; people in organizations change. Peter tells her to go with WebBox, not because he believes in it exactly; he doesn’t. It was a decision based purely on funding resources. Mary wants to know how he brought about change, and why he chose a private vendor solution as opposed to the NextGen CMS that was slowly gaining popularity. Peter is hardly in any position to explain his strategy for change. He explained that getting a “turn-key” solution was a more cost-effective approach than establishing an entire infrastructure to support an open source CMS, despite the fact that it may be a more instructionally sound tool. He admits that “change” is a mix of external forces and individual action, and that he made the tool available, and beyond that, he felt that the “culture” of the faculty should take care of the rest. Mary is not convinced. She knows fully well that people won’t change unless they see a personal benefit in changing. She reflects on her faculty and sighs.

Mary begins reviewing and comparing CMS solutions and talks with colleagues about costs, processes, and policies. This is new territory. She gets run down. Finally, she reviews NextGen CMS, a system touted for its promise to transform teaching and learning. Mary decides to adopt it and shares the news with her faculty to whom she is devoted. A few vocal faculty members complain to the Academic Senate about the process followed for the NextGen CMS selection. They wonder why WebBox, the system used at the college next door, Major CC, was not considered. Only a handful of faculty show up for the workshops. Complaints reach the President who gives her a letter of reprimand. Mary is not happy. It’s not even the faculty or the President or the faculty that get to Mary. It’s Major CC. Mary drinks half a bottle of sherry. You can see what kind of woman she is by the fact that it’s not even whiskey. Mary gets run down. She gives a letter of resignation to the President. Eventually, Mary takes the open Executive Vice President position at Major CC and everything continues as in A, but with different names.

C. Fred has no problems. He has a stimulating career as the Executive Vice President at Edge Community College. He was charged with the responsibility to promote the use of web-based learning. His President is convinced that a shift to more reliance on innovative uses of technology, especially web-based technologies and learner-centered principles will bring about positive, highly visible results as they work toward getting ready for the next accreditation visit.

Fred is skeptical about the use of technology to enhance instruction. He is also quite uncertain about his ability to bring about change at Edge CC. He accepts that not all change is voluntary, and that change does not just happen; it must be led. He knows that organizations don’t change; people in organizations change. Yet, he knows that in education, the most crucial leaders of changes are teachers, because they are the final arbiters of whether or not a great-sounding change idea is actually put into practice in a way that works for students. He reflects on his faculty and has an ‘ah ha’ moment. He decides to enlist the assistance of Madge and Mark who are in the forefront of teaching innovation and are credible and respected by their peers to review NextGen CMS, an open source system touted for its promise to transform teaching.

Fred knows fully well that people won’t change unless they see a personal benefit in changing. He asks Madge and Mark about their motivation for getting involved with innovative uses of technology. They respond that for them the rewards are intrinsic and that they are devoted to teaching and their students. Now, Fred knows that incorporating web-based, learner-centered teaching practices into one’s curriculum will require a great deal of investment of time. Faculty is already overworked. Fred thinks that he may have to reward faculty or they won’t get involved in the NextGen CMS and the learner-centered principles on which it is based. He throws this idea away. How does he decide who gets compensated? How much? There is no money for stipends. He decides to lead those willing to be led, hoping that Madge and Mark will take the lead. Surely, if he can include them in the pilot-testing and decision-making of the NextGen CMS, it will be easier to get buy-in from the rest of the faculty. Madge and Mark ARE interested, and along with five other faculty, they agree to pilot test the NextGen CMS with their classes for a term. The pilot phase can start immediately as there are no licensing costs for the open source NextGen CMS. Mark downloads and installs it using the built-in self-installer on a college server.

Fred believes that the best way to make the desired change is by working under controlled conditions, monitoring outcomes, enhancing the change, and then using what has been learned to coach others on how the change might be adapted for use in additional locations. If his control group experiences and reports success, he will have won half the battle. He would use the results to request funding to set up comprehensive support services for a complete campus adoption of NextGen CMS. The experiment proves to be rewarding and worthwhile. Madge, Mark, and the others are impressed with the impact of the system on their student’s engagement with learning, the learning outcomes, the retention, the interaction, the time on task, and the flexibility. They had always worked till the wee hours of the morning, managing their web-based classes, tinkering with media files, updating web pages, responding to students, grading, and the like with their own varied systems and approaches, from publisher-based CMS, to e-groups, and their own web-page publishing. Not more. Wow! This system was not only effective; it was making their teaching efficient. All of them used the built-in portfolio to record the teaching transformation they went through by using the system. The system provided so many options for coming up with collaborative student activities, case studies, critiques, and creative assessments. They never thought of some of the possibilities. Madge and Mark were sold on the NextGen CMS and so were the rest of their colleagues who tested it with them. They are hardly in a position to sell the system to the President’s Cabinet, but they assured Fred that if he finds a way to support faculty, they will embrace it once they see what it can do for them and their students.

Now that the vision was created, he needed to communicate clearly how the decision came about, he thought. His goal was to create a critical mass of individuals who, at one level or another, bought into the vision and NextGen CMS. Fred arranged for Madge, Mark and the others to give a presentation to the college community on the NextGen CMS--how they used it, how they grew from it, and its impact on their teaching and student learning--both in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Students were invited to share their experiences with NextGen CMS. The turnout was impressive. Amongst the participants was the President who was amazed.

After a suitable period of time, just about everybody relied on the NextGen CMS. Nothing breeds success like success. A critical shift had occurred. Teachers were less fearful of change and more fearful of what would happen if they didn’t change. As Fred became involved, he saw that his “involved” relationship with his faculty contributed to his success. This is the end of the scenario.

D. Executive Vice President Naysayer has a stimulating, challenging career at Not-Here Community College. He was recently asked to look into the costs and feasibility of implementing learner-centered uses of web-based technology in time for the next accreditation visit. There were questions about student success. Naysayer is skeptical about the use of technology to enhance instruction. Yet he understands what will happen to the organization if it does not change. The competition for alternative instructional delivery methods, like online programs, is increasing rapidly; he certainly does not want to see Not-Here CC fall behind. Everyone, even individuals who are not interested in change, understands the implications of not embracing a movement.

As he reflects on what to do next, Naysayer is not sure if he is more fearful of change or more fearful of what will happen if his campus doesn’t change. He feels a sense of urgency to act; he plans to make the case that changing what ain’t broken is not necessary. Surely, it will be quite expensive to obtain a CMS, integrate it with their enterprise system, and set up the technological infrastructure to adopt, implement, and support it. With their decrease in government funding, Naysayer can’t see the return on investment in this endeavor. “Any time you inject technology into any process, the process becomes more expensive,” he is reminded of Carol Twigg’s words. How does his President expect him to do this, during the budgets woes they are going through? Wise woman, he whispers, as he reflects on Twigg’s words: “[O]nline courses and programs are more costly to develop and deliver than their face-to-face counterparts, especially when they meet the best-practice criteria compiled by several national and regional organizations.”

As far as he knows, hardly anyone is doing anything innovative with web-based technology at Not-Here CC. From what he has heard and read about other colleges who offer web-based programs, the quality is pathetic and the success and retention rates even worse. At Not-Here CC, they would have to start from ground zero. In addition to the lack of technical infrastructure, someone will have to take the lead to develop a strategic plan to establish a comprehensive program that addresses staffing resources, technology needs, and support services. He certainly doesn’t have any brilliant ideas on how to begin; he is not even a believer. He reminds himself of Michael Fullan’s quote. “Good ideas with no ideas on how to implement them are wasted ideas,” and becomes even more irritated. He shared his thoughts with Madge, a professor from a neighboring college with whom he plays golf on Saturdays. Madge is quick to remind him that he looked like a deer caught in the headlights. “All people avoid things they fear,” Madge tells him. “If you are afraid of change, you will find arguments to not change.” Naysayer argues that it had nothing to do with fear, but that he doesn’t see a major or visible crisis in the organization to drive such a change. Madge urges him to visit Edge CC and learn about their NextGen CMS experience. She argues that he ought to act with sufficient feedback on benefits or lack thereof.

Executive Vice President Naysayer decides to visit Edge CC. The initiative has helped advance the institution and its people, he is told. He is also reminded that a leader is not the most important agent of change. Teachers are, working alongside decision-makers. That’s not the way WE do things at Not-Here CC, he thought. He is not connected with faculty to drive change this way. He decides to put the issue on the back burner. He certainly has more urgent things to do.

At the same time, in other state CC’s a critical shift is occurring and it is getting stronger. Not-Here CC students begin complaining about lack of equivalent programs and services. They are paying more than ever for their education, they claim, and expect more quality teaching and opportunities for deeper learning where ownership is required and engagement and active learning is encouraged; they want to get more out of their educational experience, they say. Where did this consumers’ rights movement grow out of, he wonders? Community college students don’t pay enough to demand so much. Puzzled, he replies briefly to the dozen student emails and decides to put the issue on the back burner. Surely, some rebel faculty must have directed the students to send him the notes, he thinks. Another issue handled. Phew.

It wasn’t long before all kinds of information flooded his organization. In addition to Edge CC, Minor CC had established a program using WebBox. Naysayer’s faculty had now begun to talk about the need for change. They complained about the lack of action, support, and resources at Not-Here CC. How had this happened? He had gotten too distracted. He was disillusioned. He lost power and prestige. He decided to retire early. This NextGen CMS stuff was too much for him.

Madge was hired as the Executive Vice President and everything continues as in C, but with different names.