The brave new world of e-learning: a department's response to mandated change

This paper offers a case history of one university academic department's experience with the pressure to create online scholarship opportunities for professional educators. As tertiary education transforms its course delivery to Web-based learning management platforms, instructors are challenged to transform career-long practice suddenly and without warning. The department in question focuses on school leadership and primarily serves mid-career professionals studying at the post-baccalaureate level. Practical and political challenges encountered by faculty members and the measures taken to tackle them are addressed. Institutional support initiatives are described, along with perspectives on the consequences of sudden technology migration to the quality of teaching, learning, and lifestyle. Using various data sources, faculty and student responses to institutional change are assessed, with implications for further policy and practice.