International
Journal of
Educational
Technology

Process Redesign and Online Learning

John D. Ferguson, University of Strathclyde
John N. Wilson, University of Strathclyde

Abstract

Although information technology is at the core of business process reengineering (BPR), the radical restructuring that can accompany the deployment of IT in industry does not produce consistent improvements in business performance. Failures of BPR projects are often due to insensitive implementation in the context of the interests and aspirations of the workforce. These problems present a challenge and sound a note of caution for the current and ongoing revolution in the delivery of educational content via web-centric learning environments. It is essential that new ways forward for education be chosen with care to enhance open-ended interactions between students and educators and to achieve this in an economically efficient framework. In this paper, the authors compare and contrast the introduction of new technology in industry, commerce and education and conclude by introducing details of current work incorporating an exemplar that highlights the issues faced when developing economically efficient and effective, redesigned educational systems.

The advent of low cost, high performance personal computers with powerful graphical capabilities has transformed the application of computers in education and led to the introduction of on-line or web-centric learning environments. Although early computer-based, learning systems may have been perceived as novelties, governments have now focussed on the technology as a solution to skill shortages and educational underachievement (Gorard et al, 1999). Computer and communications technology has applications in all sectors of education: from kindergarten to higher education. However, despite the pace at which the educational uses of computer systems are expanding, there is no agreement on an underlying model that can be used to guide policies shaping the introduction of this technology (Conrath et al, 1999). One possible approach involves treating the design of educational material as a process that emerges by consensus within a group of designers. At the other end of the spectrum is the view that design can be based on the application of scientific principles to the content to be presented and the needs of the student (Wild, 1996).

The introduction of information technology and a business ethos to the educational process has given rise to pressures similar to those experienced in commerce, with a focus on customer needs and how the organisation can efficiently meet these needs. In the developed world, education is evolving from an opportunity that is provided mainly for an elite, to one that is available to a mass market and is therefore prone to the forces generated by such an environment. Where, in the established pattern of education, commercial interest is limited mainly to the use of skills developed during the process, future models of educational provision will involve extensive commercial activity in the production, delivery and marketing of material. Already there are a number of commercial organisations offering framework products enabling "off the shelf solutions" for the construction and delivery of web-based courses in any subject area. The commercialisation of education is underway (Noble, 1998a). It is likely that entrepreneurs and customers will view educational provision as any other commercial product. Emerging conflicts related to intellectual property, academic freedom and other pedagogical issues between the traditional approach to education and the packaged, commercialised approach typified by some on-line learning and virtual universities will not be easily resolved. The aim of this paper is to draw parallels between the development of business process reengineering (BPR) and the move towards the use of computer-based learning systems in education. We identify the need for sensitivity in implementing both advances and provide an exemplar of optimum practice in education. Issues such as the restructuring of educational administration present many opportunities for the use of IT, however the scope of this work is focussed explicitly on issues surrounding the restructuring of the pedagogical process.

While educational organisations are at a relatively early stage in the use of IT as an integral part of their mainstream activities, many industrial organisations have a track record of utilising technology to improve productivity. Models for IT-induced business change form a spectrum of approaches ranging from radical restructuring to evolutionary improvement. Their common purpose is that they aim to increase competitive edge by aligning business organisation with communications and information technology. Venkatraman (1991) proposes a model of business process restructuring that is based on five stages categorised as either progressive or radical. At the progressive level, the changes are of limited consequence to the organisation of a business whilst at the radical level, changes are incompatible with pre-existing business structures (Figure1). At the progressive levels organisations will experience limited financial benefit however, the radical levels offer the potential for correspondingly significant financial benefits. In general, an organisation will complete the sequential steps at the progressive level before proceeding to the independent changes at the radical level.

The initial stage in the restructuring process is characterised as localised use of IT developments. These changes may impact business activities themselves or the administrative operations that support such activities. The use of IT may be tactical or strategic. The significance of development at this level is that IT is employed in discrete niches that provide business advantage.

The integration of IT activities across an organisation using a communications network represents the second stage of process restructuring. This stage is dependent on the existence of several computerised processes of the kind characterised by the ‘localised use’ stage. Examples of this include the use of an Intranet to provide information on inventory control, accounting systems and publishing applications. These are all examples of applications where a new technology has been used to provide support for pre-existing business processes operating within a workgroup. The benefits of this stage include greater integration of different functions within the business process and ready access by management to data describing the performance of the operation. Intranet development provides an organisation with a capability to operate at this level.

Within the radical stages of restructuring, business process redesign encapsulates the developments required in an organisation to provide major gains in efficiency. The technique involves fundamentally restructuring the way in which a business operates to replace rigid product orientation. The core of an enterprise shifts from traditional business activities to the IT structure that now controls such activities. This level of reorganisation is equivalent to that characterised by Hammer & Champy (1993). The input to the reengineering process is a system focussed on functional decomposition that deals well with limited product demand. The desired output from the reengineering process is an improved level of product or service achieved at an expense that is a fraction of the costs before reengineering. Asynchronous communication supported by IT provides the means for ensuring that activities accomplished by specialists in the functional decomposition paradigm can be accomplished by generalists in the reengineered process or can be avoided altogether.

Hammer and Champy specified the concept of BPR as a radical revolutionary approach to business change. The emphasis was on the obliteration of existing business practices and the construction of an entirely new process. This contrasts with the approach used by Davenport and Short to describe business process redesign, which is characterised as the use of analytical and design techniques to improve workflow (Davenport & Short 1990). Since early attempts to define BPR, a number of alternative approaches have emerged involving less emphasis on the radical aspects of BPR whilst retaining the fundamental idea of the reorganisation of business in a direction that is orthogonal to current practice (Burke & Peppard, 1995). This typically involves a focus on customer requirements and the reconstruction of business processes to optimise this aspect of commercial activity (O’Neill & Sohal, 1999). Despite the clear emphasis of BPR literature on a fresh start for business processes, actual implementations tend to focus on more prosaic aspects such as the need to downsize (Belmiro et al, 2000).

Development of Internet capabilities has done much to simplify the business network redesign stage of process restructuring. The use of such technology provides a basis on which co-operative processes involving discrete organisations can be constructed. Each organisation is no longer operating as an isolated entity but is part of an electronic community of complimentary ventures.

The fifth level identified by Venkatraman consists of developments in the types of business activities that an organisation conducts in response to perceived marketing opportunities. Examples of this could emerge from business-critical applications that are developed by the organisation to solve specific problems and that are in themselves viable products.

Despite the potential of business process restructuring, it is difficult to show improvements in productivity as a consequence of increased investment in information technology infrastructure (Brynjolfsson & Hitt, 1998). Furthermore, the reengineering stage of restructuring has the potential for causing major damage to organisational integrity (Mumford & Hendricks, 1996). Business executives identified BPR in the early 1990’s as a management technique that simultaneously promised major increases in output and improvements in efficiency. The emergence of global markets was identified as an opportunity that could only be taken up by streamlining and reorganisation.

In many instances experiences of practical implementation of BPR did not fulfil expectation. What was conceived as a single step change turned out to be only achievable over a long period. Once established, the changes often resulted in a decline in profit and organisations that had made the costly switch were faced with an even more costly switch back to the original cross-functional structures. Planning and implementation of reengineered processes were often placed in the hands of management consultants who had no long-term stake in the companies they were restructuring. Efficiency gains were realised at the expense of staff reductions and redeployment. Employees who were retained were encouraged to adopt new work practices.

The use of technology to provide cross-functional integration of work effort can provide major benefits for organisations. However in some cases, BPR failed because of its revolutionary nature and the lack of sensitive application (Mumford & Hendricks, 1996). Managers perceived it as a justification for downsizing and the consequent lack of concern for people led to dissatisfaction among remaining employees. Recovery from a failed implementation of BPR proved difficult since by the time failure was detected, key staff had deployed their skills elsewhere.

BPR is perceived as a high-risk process and consequently across-the-board commitment is a necessary precondition for successful implementation. Because assessment of existing practices and support during the reengineering process are also required, project-based implementations that draw skills and representation from a cross-section of the workforce provide the best route to success (O’Neill & Sohal 1999). Whilst the Hammer and Champy model of BPR emphasises the need for a new start, implementations that have taken account of human factors in the work force have tended to be the most successful (Cooper & Markus 1995).

Computer technology has made a significant impact in many areas of teaching and learning. The introduction of desktop computers, word-processing packages and presentation preparation tools have greatly improved the quality of the material presented to students and used in lectures. However, perhaps the most significant impact has come from the use of supportive learning mechanisms such as computer-aided learning (CAL), computer-based training (CBT) and on-line learning. These technologies make use of various forms of interactivity to engage the student in novel learning experiences.

The terms used to refer to the deployment of computers in education are many and in some cases are used in conflicting and inconsistent ways. Terms include: computer aided learning, computer-based training, web-based learning, computer managed instruction, distance learning and on-line learning (Smith, 1999). Many of these terms have considerable underpinnings while others are relatively new and are the subject of current research. The focus of this paper lies with the application of computer and communications technologies to the delivery of learning materials. This represents a core activity of education and we explicitly exclude issues such as the introduction of computers for administrative purposes. Whilst the terms introduced above form part of the activity of education, they are not examined individually.

In the context of the restructuring model proposed by Venkatraman, most of the current efforts to make use of computer and communications technology within education fall within the early or progressive stage of IT implementation. These efforts are characterised by the local use of technology to improve the efficiency of the traditional legacy activities within the organisation.

Intranets and the Internet now form the IT infrastructure in many academic institutions. Most legacy activities offered by an institution can be made available using web-based technology. This pattern of IT adoption is characterised by development that has gone beyond isolated IT applications. The institution continues to carry out its basic activities as before but has made full use of the IT infrastructure. Completion of this stage marks the end of the progressive phase of IT adoption; the organisation has evolved, and through incremental change has adopted the use of the IT platform across its various activities.

Within the business process restructuring model, the next phase of development is characterised by a radical change in the way an organisation operates. Business process redesign for education involves not merely an improvement of existing practices but a reappraisal of the status quo. However, it is essential that new and more efficient methods of achieving the organisation’s goals are identified (Mandviwalla & Hovav, 1998).

The Virtual University (VU) paradigm has emerged from the increasing emphasis on the use of new technology in higher education and has prompted an extensive re-examination of teaching and learning practices (The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2000). Within the VU structure, technology is fully utilised to provide an environment where students can perform all their work remotely. These activities have much to offer in promoting student centred learning. However, they also have the potential to threaten aspects of quality (Ferguson et al, 1999).

While on the surface, the virtual university concept might appear radical and a candidate for stage three in the business process restructuring framework close investigation of its current implementation does not show a fundamental shift from the basic legacy teaching and learning processes that are associated with traditional universities. At present the virtual lecture theatre, virtual coffee shop, assessment engines etc., are all analogues of processes within the traditional system. They do, however, represent potential for efficiency gains by comparison with legacy systems.

Some experiences of current implementations of VU’s provide evidence that they are not fulfilling their full promise. On-line universities in North America are experiencing difficulties attracting and retaining students (Noble, 1998a). Some members of staff are discontented with the professional environment that such an arrangement provides. Far from being a business success, some on-line university ventures are looking at very low returns on investment. The difficulties experienced by inadequately reengineered educational processes find parallels in many of the problems faced by business organisations as a result of reengineering.

The obliterating strategy has many examples of failure in industry (Mumford & Hendricks, 1996) however practitioners who have adopted a more holistic and sensitive approach have reported successful implementations (Belmiro et al, 2000). Education is a people centred activity and as such it is reasonable to expect that success factors are closely dependent on sensitive implementation of fundamental, IT-based change. There is already evidence of incompatibilities between the needs of educational process and the internal integration level of process restructuring. Using the model of business process restructuring, the next evolutionary step is the reengineering of the educational process. This may involve the re-orientation of functional separation. For example, tutors who see themselves as specialists in particular subjects may have a much wider role to play in the delivery and support of education. In contrast, the role currently occupied by specialists is taken over by content-generators who may be physically and temporally remote from those who are participants in the educational process. Call centre technology that is currently used mainly in commerce presents significant possibilities for integration with educational experience. This approach could be used to substitute for the regular interaction between student and tutor that is a feature of current educational practice.

Within traditional universities, the learning experience is fundamentally teacher centred. Within a virtual university the focus shifts from the teacher to the student. With this new paradigm, new approaches are needed to produce materials that invite sustained study and examination. The role of the teacher can be partitioned to deal with the functions of evaluation and monitoring of distant learners separately from the authorship of material suitable for independent study. New approaches will have to be developed to ensure originality of work and to protect against plagiarism and the misuse of copyright (Weir et al, 2000). Opportunities may develop for activities that have proven difficult to implement in traditional curriculum design. For example, many curricula seek to highlight common themes or lateral links between traditional, but separately taught topics or courses. It may be possible to ensure that these important keystones are highlighted to the student across what may appear to be totally disparate topics.

A fundamental cause of difficulties with BPR is the disjunction between the cross-functional structures inherent in reengineered organisations and the conventional, functionally oriented skills and interests of workforces. Restructuring educational processes so that teachers become merely content providers or fulfil an equally limiting role can lead to disaffection with the new paradigm both among students and staff. A key characteristic of course material delivered by traditional face-to-face techniques is the open-ended nature of the interaction between student and teacher. There is a clear contrast between the kind of open-ended exchanges that are characteristic of most human interactions and the scripted exchanges that occur in structured situations such as telemarketing. A marked characteristic of many computer based systems is that their interfaces typically present opportunities only for scripted interaction. Open-ended human exchanges have a distinctive value by comparison with such scripted interactions (Ritzer 1999). The key to the success of new modes of delivery of teaching material will be mechanisms where by a feeling of personal involvement can be reengineered back into the interaction. Opportunities do exist for the support of un-scripted interaction, in the form of chat rooms, bulletin boards and teleconferencing tools. The success of computer-based implementations that represent the internal integration level of Venkatramans taxonomy will be based on their ability to make full use of this kind of milieu.

The Strathclyde Teachers On-line Resource Modules (2000) project provides training for computing teachers working in secondary schools in Scotland to enable them to upgrade their skills in the face of curricula changes. This project follows on from previous work undertaken with schoolteachers in the 1980’s. The approach adopted then was more traditional, making use of lectures and laboratories within the university that were attended by teachers on a voluntary basis. In the current project three sets of materials are presented covering databases, networking and multimedia. Material is accessible exclusively over the Internet in the form of HTML pages embedded in the WebCT environment (WebCT Inc, 2000). Web CT provides chat rooms, bulletin boards, student tracking and a number of other features that are useful to the project.

The learning content of the software structure is supported by asynchronous group interaction. This is implemented as a support group network centred on each set of learning materials. We are currently supporting 250 users in the system with a potential for growth to about 800. Traditional tutorial support for this number of participants could require somewhere in the region of 40 tutors and result in an expense that that lies outside the project’s budget. With large numbers of students, it is not feasible to expect course authors to provide sufficient direct input to questions and problems raised by students. While it would have been tempting to accept a low cost strategy based on a crudely reengineered process using automated responses to participants’ queries, it would have fallen far short of the support expected or indeed required. Students need exposure to real interaction to consolidate their understanding of and interest in the course material. The background and experience of the participants suggests the potential for a very demanding and critical cohort of students but also provides many who are eager to play a part in the support of the project. We have made use of this enthusiasm by recruiting a number of convenors to help manage user support for each topic area. Although essentially volunteers, convenors are paid a limited honorarium for their services. Convenors act in a similar way to moderators in Internet news groups. They monitor discussion on the bulletin boards and make such contributions as seem to be necessary. In addition, convenors are responsible for identifying topics for inclusion in the frequently asked question list and for filtering issues that must be resolved by the course author. This efficient approach to unstructured interaction between student and tutor helps to restore the balance against such interaction that is a consequence of reengineered educational systems.

A further area that will requite attention concerns motivation and participant "buy in" to the material being offered on the web site. In its present form teacher participation does not lead directly to any formal qualification and relies totally on participants seeing its relevance to their immediate and projected needs. For many this rather relaxed method of working is perfectly satisfactory. However, some succeed better in circumstances where they are either performing in competition with colleagues or aiming to achieve some absolute goal. These ingredients were present in the original taught course. We intend to address these shortcomings of the on-line approach by encouraging participants to work together in teams and by introducing relevant group-work projects that will be assessed and lead to a final qualification.

Business process restructuring provides a useful framework for understanding the development of IT in industrial/commercial organisations. Within this framework considerable interest has focussed on business processes reengineering. It has received extensive attention in academic and technical literature as a result of promises of orders of magnitude gains in productivity. Despite this promotion, there is considerable evidence that these benefits are not guaranteed and practical experience is that insensitive implementation can result in falling productivity.

A major threat prompting companies to consider changes such as BPR, is the prospect of globalised markets. The introduction of new high-speed communications infrastructures has enabled many companies to compete in remote international markets as easily as at home. This same paradigm is now appearing in the context of educational organisations. Universities in the developed world have traditionally regarded their own national students as essentially a captive market for their services. Foreign students represented a means of both promoting the university on an international stage and providing a lucrative addition to fee income. In addition, foreign students provide a useful leaven in the mix of national students. This localised pattern of education is now being threatened by the potential for students to take on-line courses from universities in distant countries without the need to relocate. The pressures of globalisation are complemented by the development of a mass market for education. The extent of this market precludes it from being serviced by traditional educational methods. The emergence of IT as a viable means of enhancing the competitive edge of a university in carrying out its mainstream activities has generated the perception among university administrators that the status quo may no longer be tenable. A common response to this situation is to develop an on-line presence in an effort to be part of the global education market. An important characteristic of this response is that it is based on pedagogical concerns and that these concerns are embodied in suitable process redesign.

Some aspects of the potential reorganisation of education are analogous to the use of BPR in industry in the 1990’s. Business managers viewed the technique as a means of improving efficiency without regard to personal issues. Consultants who had no intimate knowledge of the organisation in which they were working, were often responsible for the design and implementation of the revised structures. As a result of this there is evidence that implementation of BPR in a number of organisations did not produce the expected benefits, indeed in some cases it has resulted in serious difficulties for the organisations involved. Parallel evidence of difficulties for redesigned educational processes has already emerged. The ‘new start’ approach promoted by BPR can be applied in the context of education and leads to the development of educational systems that are radically different from the conventional approach. The evidence provided by the experience of Western Governors University and other organisations is that successful implementation needs much more than just the substitution of new presentational methods for old (Noble 1998b). Such ventures stand scant chance of success if major effort is not brought to bear on the issues of fostering a community that involves both tutors and students.

Care must be taken that developments in education involving reengineering of the learning process do not fall into the same pattern.

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