Distance Education and Technology Infrastructure: Strategies and Opportunities

Distance education provides a wealth of opportunities and areas for innovation, but it also presents unique challenges for implementation and eventual success. To mitigate these challenges, this chapter will present four critical components—systems, objectives, evaluation, and personnel—that combine into one to create a technology infrastructure that can support distance delivery. Through this chapter, e-learning leaders will gain the knowledge to not only identify key features of tools used for distance delivery, but also understand and appreciate the correlation between a holistic infrastructure approach and quality distance delivery. The absence of one of these critical components will likely result in an unsuccessful technology integration. To aid in the explanation of these critical components, the chapter will focus on three main distance education delivery forms—webinars, classroom captures, and e-learning modules. The chapter will provide an overview of the types of questions and elements that should go into consideration of any distance education tool, and will aid in the effective assessment and evaluation of these tools, as well as personnel considerations that should be taken into account