A Delphi policy study on the futures use of distance education within the University of Hawaiʻi system

Ph.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2011.Includes bibliographical references.Information and communications technology is reshaping nearly every societal organization and higher education is not exempted. What kind of change will the interaction bring? The serendipitous, opportunistic, and unguided path argues for a float all boats and see which boats sail. The measured, planned, and managed path argues for resources to be allocated toward organization goals that effectively and efficiently expend scare resources. The determination of those goals is not a linear extrapolation of the present because the future configuration of higher education as reshaped by information and communications technology could be radically new in form. Because the future is involved and what is known today must be balanced with what is unknown in ten to fifteen years, expertise should contribute significantly to shaping goals. Exercises might usually attempt to identify what might be in terms of technology, courses, or structure but this research instead asks what is the desirable state--what is wanted--what should be. As such, this research has a future-focused, policy orientation for which the most appropriate approach appears to be the Policy Delphi. The procedure itself is implemented in software developed for this specific use. The results are reported and the policy recommendations are constructed. The intervention proved challenging. Extended sections of the results deal with the shortcomings and issues in a web-based Policy Delphi including mortality, participation, use of feedback, and suggestions concerning the literature driven construction of the software