Session 5

Title: Great expectations for e-learning: failures and successes

Session Description:

This presentation will look at how we should measure the success or otherwise of using technology for teaching and learning in our organizations. This will not take a traditional evaluation
approach, but will look at the alignment between applications of technology and the need for change within our institutions. It will be argued that our institutions have been too cautious in their
embrace of technology, and that technology enables us to achieve much more than we have been able to achieve so far.

Presenter: Dr. Tony Bates

Tony Bates is President and CEO of Tony Bates Associates Ltd, a private company specializing in consultancy and training in the planning and management of e-learning and distance education. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Advisory Council on technology and education. He is currently working on a contract for Alberta on strategic directions for IT in their post-secondary education system.

He was part-time Research Chair in e-Learning at the Open University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain until from 2003 to 2006. During 2004-2005 he was part-time Cisco Chair in e-Learning at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, for whom he developed a strategic plan for e-learning. He was also on the Academic Advisory Board of the Volkswagen Auto Uni, Germany, from 2003-2007.

He was Director of Distance Education and Technology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada from 1995 to 2003. From 1990 to 1995, he was Executive Director, Research, Strategic Planning, and Information Technology at the Open Learning Agency of British Columbia. Prior to that, he was Professor of Educational Media Research at the British Open University, where he worked for 20 years as one of the founding members of staff.

He is the author of nine books, including 'Managing Technological Change: Strategies for College and Universities Leaders', and (with Gary Poole) 'Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education'. His latest book is ‘Technology, e-Learning and Distance Education’, published in April 2005.

He has worked as a consultant in over 40 countries. Clients include the World Bank, OECD, UNESCO, national ministries of education, and several U.S. state higher education commissions.