Ask key questions for embedding new practices and achieving results.
Do I have the right teacher? The teacher has to have a proven track record in a face-to-face environment, with particularly good communication skills and a strong belief in proactively supporting students.
Are the resources available? We are not developers, we are deliverers. Utilise what is already out there. Only develop if a commercial client pays you to and then only if there is a call for training afterwards. Sustainable income comes from reoccurring business.
How am I going to market this? Is there a market that is ready? Is it a viable market?
Is the learner group or the market ready? How can we help them to be ready? Utilise the team of educational designers. Readiness includes having the right infrastructure and the right attitude.
Personalise your stories for different stakeholder groups to increase your strike rate and your reach. CEO – it’s a numbers story; politicians – heart stories; managers – achieving business goals stories; and teachers – stories about better work/life benefits for them as teachers. The offshoot is that there may be benefits for their students.
Focus on utilising, rather than developing, products. Come up with a model of how to make the products work. The key is to get teachers using resources, because it is the delivery that matters.
Think about the bigger picture and long-term sustainability. Don't apply for a new practice because it is a short-term diversion or a money-generating opportunity. Do it because it fits into the bigger picture of your organisation's business goals. Apply because it contributes to your commercial activities, improves services to your clients, or increases your students’ contact hours.
Have a specialisation – in GippsTAFE's case our specialty is online facilitation. That is where we started and we build on that.
Use multiple strategies – demonstrate success; market internally; give success to work teams; highlight good news stories; focus on a specialisation; seek funding to grow the opportunities; involve teachers, managers and informed decision makers; customise stories to different stakeholders; and target and invest in champions.
Integrate development and utilisation as a parallel process. It is not a linear process of development and delivery. A range of staff are involved from the outset and, through continual trialling, have shaped the process.
Have a distributed and embedding model. Situate mentors in the local context and design a personalised mentoring program that supports the targeted teacher throughout an entire delivery cycle. This is critical to the entire delivery cycle. This support may then achieve results and go on to become local champions.
Use an investment model. Gradually and persistently build up expertise by targeting winners and working with them at the coalface to improve teaching practice.