Establishing an Institutional Framework for an E-learning Implementation - Experiences from the University of Rijeka, Croatia

Faced with the need of transforming the university structure, processes, and programs according to the Bologna reform, and in order to become more flexible and more responsive to the environment, the University of Rijeka management decided to enable e-learning implementation as an institutional, strategically planned operation. The manuscript describes the three years long process of building an implementation framework for the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching and learning in the form of blended e-learning - combined classroom and online learning via e-learning platform (or learning management system, LMS). The implementation started practically from ground zero, with the goal of preparing the infrastructure and the environment for the implementation, while also building a community of educated practitioners. A few points for getting support and networking have been established within the university infrastructure: faculty e-learning teams and/or representatives taking care of the institutional promotion and deployment of e-learning and connected to the university Committee for e-learning as a policy making body, the e-learning centre, which provides e-learning platform (LMS) maintenance, development, and technical user's support, and the IT Academy which assures delivery and development of education from general ICT to specialized e-learning programs. All the processes and activities within the network are assured for quality control. Two years after the deployment, the platform hosts more than 400 e-courses with 15,000 e-students. The survey among teachers using e-learning to perform blended courses revealed satisfaction and general acceptance, indicating the increase in effectiveness of teaching and learning processes. Although much of the effort and investing into resources is still needed, we believe that the report presented here could serve as a case of good practice in institutionally supported e-learning implementation. With the institutionally planned approach, we succeeded in building a solid institutional framework, awareness and understanding, visibility, promotion, and common language within the community, which will all hopefully serve for future progress.