Sustainable implementation of e-Learning innovations into large German universities - An organisational approach

This paper addresses the issue of how to implement e-Learning innovations in a sustainable manner into large public universities. The implementation of innovations in such organisations leads to particular problems. They arise due to the fact, that there is no centralized structure of command and accountability in German universities. Instead, decision-making is essentially decentralized. Therefore, the faculties' autonomy bars the realisation of a central coordinated e-Learning strategy for the whole university. Since the encouragement of single projects failed to deliver overall success due to several reasons, an increasing focus on sustainability can be observed in the literature. Several dimensions determine the sustainability of innovations like e-Learning. From our point of view the organisational design plays the most important role. Within our analysis which is based on an organisational theory we expose the levers which can help to ensure sustainability regarding the implementation of e-Learning innovations into large universities. Initially, we discuss several key success factors from the current literature for a sustainable e-Learning implementation. To visualize and conceptualize the organisational structure of a German university, we will apply the Viable System Model (VSM). Based on cybernetics, the VSM describes the necessary organisational structure that is needed for a system to survive in a constantly changing environment. By applying the VSM we expose the communication channels and the decentralized structure within this organisation. As a result we argue that the existence of a coordination centre on each level of recursion is indispensable when implementing e-Learning innovations at large decentralized organisations. In this context we show the university's e-Learning strategy as best practice and we demonstrate that the existence of a central e-Learning coordination centre can help to reduce the variety which arises from the decentralization of the organisation. Finally, we propose a so-called Fourth Party e-Learning Provider who manages the required functions. The Fourth Party e-Learning Provider acts as an intermediary between the service provider like content provider, hardware manufacturer or software producer and service consumer like the lecturers and offers additional support and consulting services.