Consolidating eLearning in a Higher Education Institution: An Organisational Issue integrating Didactics, Technology, and People by the Means of an eLearning Strategy

Purpose – Back in the year 2000, the European Council (2000) declared in its Lisbon Agenda that the European Union should become “[…] the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.” This vision encompassed far more than just societal and economic growth in a global world; it also included educational strategies and an e-learning action plan. For example, in 2011, the European Commission mentioned the following as a key policy issue (Communication 2011): to “better exploit the potential of ICTs to enable more effective and personalised learning experiences, teaching and research methods (e.g. [sic] eLearning and blended learning) and increase the use of virtual learning platforms.” In accordance with this roadmap, higher education institutions are called on to reflect and re-engineer their educational systems, adapt them to current and future technological and didactical demands and address new generations of teachers and students. New concepts like connectivism (Siemens 2004) and the recognition of non-formal and informal learning (OECD 2016) enhance traditional formal learning settings and lead far beyond the provision of mere learning content management systems. New e-learning and blended learning arrangements like MOOCs (Cormier & Siemens 2010), collaborative learning in the virtual classroom (Tawileh, Bukvova & Schoop 2013) and flipped classroom approaches (Hussey, Fleck & Richmond 2014) are evolving and must be explored, evaluated and then strategically implemented into everyday teaching and learning processes. A comprehensive e-learning strategy should therefore address four fields: didactics, technology, organisation and economy and culture (Seufert & Euler 2004). Besides orientation on the actual trends, the strategy development should also recognise and integrate practical local experiences of early adopters and actors of e-learning in the field. Therefore, a community of knowledge experts in e-learning application has been involved in the strategy development. Design/methodology/approach – Best practice report of a comprehensive quality initiative for the sustainable improvement of everyday teaching and learning processes at a large university. The challenges of current and future trends in formal and informal learning, collaboration in virtual classrooms and internationalisation of research and teaching processes are analysed and addressed by the strategy implementation plan and a regular evaluation and improvement concept is presented and discussed. Originality/value – The e-learning strategy presented was developed, discussed and adopted in 2015. Its implementation plan is currently at the final discussion stage, having been due for adoption in January 2016. Practical implications – The e-learning strategy’s implementation plan lists targets and sub-targets, underlined by concrete measures, tools and methods, responsible institutions and persons and financial sources. Regular evaluations and improvements will give elearning providers a set of proven instruments to further improve their activities and provide the broad range of students and teachers with a set of best practices to follow, enabling them to discover the benefits of e-learning for their everyday processes