Presented at EDUCAUSE Annual Conferences, Instructional Technologies, and Technology Selection

The growth and evolution of learning technologies challenges institutions to keep pace with emerging pedagogies and learning environments while making them relevant to their core missions, goals, and challenges. This applied session looks at institutional models of best practice and their approach to diffusion and institutionalization of innovation theory. Planning strategies for successful identification, selection, and implementation of learning technologies will be reviewed. The EDUCAUSE "grand challenges" initiative will serve as the session's backdrop, as we explore some of higher education's access, retention, affordability, and accountability issues. Selected models of best practice will focus on demonstrating success in how information and learning technology can make a difference together with organizational leadership in addressing these issues.

Clickers. Podcasting. Second Life. How does a university choose which emerging technologies to pursue? This session will share Ohio State University's structured process for evaluating e-learning projects, the emerging technologies assessment (ETA), which has been tested in numerous projects. Through collaboration and role-play, participants will conduct a case study assessment of an emerging technology using the ETA toolkit.

The five-stage process is organized around a flowchart that details steps for taking an emerging technology from the idea stage through the information-gathering stage to planning and executing a pilot. It specifies stakeholder involvement and includes multiple checkpoints that permit early termination where appropriate. The end result is a recommendation to administrative leadership about whether to adopt the technology. The materials for this session will include documentation, examples, and forms that outline the goals, inputs, and outputs for each stage of the process. Participants will leave with a model they can adapt to their own institutions.