Environmental+Scan

=Environmental Scan =

External
Some factors such as technological literacy, nature of students and student profile; economic and funding can affect the use of e-learning in the program.


 * Technological literacy: Not all students have the same technological understanding;therefore, the application of technology can become overwhelming if it is not offered side by side with the appropriate support. The rapid change of technology can be difficult for some students since they care not able to cope with all the changes.
 * Nature of students and students profile: e-learning integration creates a new and particular environment which suggests the development of a program that is able to fulfil students and faculty expectations.
 * Funding:.

Internal:
some internal factors that can hinder the effective inclusion of e-learning are staff training and support, student services, curriculum design, teaching pedagogy, strategic plan and faculty acceptance.

regarding personal, academic and technological difficulties?
 * Staff training and support: New skills are required not only to teach content but also to cope with the technological difficulties that technology inclusion can create. therefore,support for faculty that want to use technology for teaching should be considered in a wide variety of ways.
 * Student services: Does the school pay enough attention to support students' services
 * Curriculum design and teaching pedagogy:" Technology is only a means of achieving a goal, not o goal in itself" ( Bates, 2000) more support is needed in the pedagogical and didactic aspects of e-learning to modify the teachning model and prevent instructors from simply adding more work to the students and continue with the traditional teacher-center model.
 * Strategic plan for e-learning: It is necessary to create a very strong plan in which the use and integration of technology for teaching is being defined.
 * Faculty aceptance/Defeating faculty fear of the technology