Managing information technology in open and distance higher education

Abstract This paper uses the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Management in the 1990s Research Framework as a basis for examining the challenges of managing information technology in higher education, with particular reference to open and distance education. Each of the five factors in the strategic framework (strategy, technology, structure, management processes, staff skills and roles) is individually examined with relationships between aspects of each factor highlighted. The importance of aligning factors with the pivotal factor in the framework, strategy, is then explored. The framework serves as an aid to help both construct an overall picture of the key factors which need to be managed holistically in order to ensure that information technology (IT) contributes to the betterment of an organisation and to deconstruct those factors (and their relationships) so that constituent components are also well managed. The authors draw some conclusions on the need for universities to be truly learning organisations in relation to their response to the IT imperative. Cautious optimism is advanced about universities' current apparent capabilities to respond fully, creatively and adaptively to the potential benefits that IT might bring to teaching, learning and research in higher education.