In response to the April 13th, 2011, UW System LTDC meeting and years of people asking me these questions, I am developing answers to: should we pilot, implement, or diffuse...
This is a brainstorm and a work in progress. Don't forget to see my blog post on evaluating blended learning at
http://professorjoosten.blogspot.com/2009/11/evaluating-blended-learning.html.
Evaluating a Technology Company, Vendor:
How reputable is the company?
How stable is the ownership?
How responsive is the company?
How is their future growth (service -- growth) sustainable?
What are the company values?
What is the companies response to buyouts?
Stock performance if public. Management team. Gartners quadrant. Peer review. Site visits to headquarters & installed sites, etc
You evaluate the company by talking with long-term users (if any), not by talking to the company.
Talk to existing users about experience with the company, contact company directly with questions, look at how long in business
Making sure they have experience from a wide variety of end users, admin., faculty, staff- are they collaborative
Collaborators include:
@Mediaman13 @s_df @alan_wolf @w_mcelroy @barrydahl
Whether to pilot a technology
Pedagogical Value
Ease of Use/Learning Curve
Scalability
Student Support
Faculty Support
Integration with Core technologies
Impact on Infrastructure (wireless, email, power, etc.)
Risk
Investment (time, money)
Do we really need it and if the answer is yes WHY. All about making sure we aren't duplicating technologies.
I generally am not a big fan of piloting tech just for the sake of piloting. It's nice if some incentive is thrown in, too. :-)
At work, it's mostly risk that I consider first and foremost. Depends on type of work that the org performs, and type of tech.
value added, learning curve, & overall investment (time, money, etc.)
considerations for piloting: sustainability, support requirements and creating expectations for future are big ones
#1 can the budget support it, #2 can it save future budgets, #3 does it have end user support #4 how bad is the learning curve
@dcbphd @phette23 It all depends on *how* the tech is used. Measure impact of teaching choices / methods, not tech. #elifocus
Collaborators include:
@JeffreyGawel @kimberlyarnold @agozuna @w_mcelroy @petersonandrew
How do we know if a pilot was successful?
Increase social capacity (e.g., participation, interactivity, engagement, presence, etc.)
Improves student learning, satisfaction, performance
Increased grades, retention
or
Increased efficiency
Decreased workload (increase capacity for work)
Satisfaction with technology
Technology Acquisition (Cost, Purchasing, and Registration), Support, Use, Training, Fun, Validity, Overall)
I guess that depends on the goal of the pilot. Continued use?
Contributers include:
@micala
