The Article

The Internet is playing an increasing role in education. In this article, Michigan State University professors Joseph Codde and Rhonda Egidio, Western Michigan University Assistant Professor Karyn Boatwright, and Jack Zahn and Raymond Czarnik, both from the UAW-DaimlerChrysler National Training Center, describe the strategic planning process involved in building a distance education program for the UAW-DaimlerChrysler National Training Center (NTC).

Discussion

The collaboration between the NTC and MSU was borne out of the training center’s desire to provide lifelong learning opportunities to workers through the flexibility of the World Wide Web. The NTC and MSU worked together to develop a strategic plan that shaped and guided the development of the online program and enabled the training center to have a higher level of communication and participation among stakeholders, an accommodation of divergent interests and values, and a process for orderly decision making. The result of their work is the

LearnNTC .com Web site that forgoes the “corporate university” model in favor of an “online learning community center from which participants access links to educational institutions offering online courses leading to certificates and degrees, use support materials, and participate in community-based activities.” The site has allowed the NTC to reach represented workers through distance education, and the authors note that the primary tool in achieving the goal was strategic planning. In the article, the authors describe a process that took place on two levels: the organizational and programmatic. At the organizational level, a planning team was created, the mission of the online program was articulated, a financial plan was developed, and other issues were dealt with. At the programmatic level, an online learning environment was designed, technological capacity was analyzed, and a plan for communicating program information was established. This planning process was essential. It was what it enabled the program to go forward successfully. The authors point to a number of successes because of the planning process and strategic plan. For example, the online program was created with broad involvement of related departments within the NTC. That allowed the new program to be integrated smoothly into the system of the organization. In addition, pilot testing that was called for as part of the plan identified problems with internal practices that were resolved before releasing the program to the organization as a whole. “The value of strategic planning,” Codde and his co-authors write, “is that it allows the organization to map out a program that benefits the organization’s members and accomplishes the organization’s mission.”

Citation

Codde, J.R., Egidio, R.K., Boatwright, J.K., Zahn, J.E. & Czamik, R.J. (2000). Strategic planning for an online distance education program: Driving change through education at the UAW-DaimlerChrysler National Training Center. In Berge, Z.L. (Ed.), Sustaining distance training: Integrating learning technologies into the fabric of the enterprise. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 147-163.

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