Explores the history and literature on Total Quality Management (TQM) in an educational setting, and examines results of a university study of its own TQM program. The study found both faculty and administrators dissatisfied with their TQM effort; although most felt that TQM could have positive effects, the perception was that little was being…

Universities can benefit from the experiences of corporations that have "reinvented" themselves in the past decade. Corporations did this by identifying their basic missions, disposing of or deemphasizing activities not essential to those missions, paring down institutional bureaucracies, and forming alliances with other corporations to share…

In the Philadelphia Public Schools, a computer system called Data to Success has been created to assess student progress prior to end-of-year testing. The five-stage system allows a school to influence teacher decisions, identify student warning signs, and monitor important trend and analysis information throughout the school year. (MLH)

A data-management system adhering to seven principles (concerned with defining and measuring characteristics and their interrelationships) is feasible and exists in parts, if not as an integrated whole. Present data-collection and reportage systems lack the real-time, analytic longitudinal characteristics that contemporary technology promises and…

Considers technologies needed for higher education institutions who are offering program-based or knowledge unit-based approaches to meet learners' needs. Highlights include integrated information systems; technology requirements and architectures; user tools and functionalities, including Web-based course management systems and knowledge…

The evolution of an award-winning Total Quality Management (TQM) program for administrative and academic staff development at Oregon State University is chronicled. Special attention is given to application of TQM for faculty and corporate interaction, instructional improvement, and curriculum development. Special challenges for implementation of…

Although higher education in Scotland is part of the United Kingdom system, it has operated separately, with a distinctive focus on the assessment of quality in each academic subject. Internal and external quality assessment and assurance processes are described, and the lessons learned are explored briefly. (MSE)

New, highly flexible accounting software packages have abandoned the rigidity of past systems and are designed to be easily customized to the school district's needs without programming. Process-based software integrates processes and work flow, allowing users to work across application and function boundaries, as well as organizational…

Purpose: To develop more sensitivity for different patterns of human resource management in multinational companies. Design/methodology/approach: Systemic approach; the concepts and models are based on the evaluation of consulting projects in the field of human resource management. Findings: A concept of four typical varieties of human resource…

Online courses may not be for everyone. However, when eLearning is the only opportunity to receive education, it will be one of the instructor's responsibilities to ensure the eLearning experience is as compatible and comparable as possible to students' prior experience. Any online program may have to accommodate those who are limited to the…

Modern society is characterized by complexity, uncertainty and fuzziness, and people need to re-examine their strategies as well as their way of thinking as a whole in order to cope with the problems that emerge. This project attempts to reinforce syneducational transactions among people (students, parents, educators, policy makers) who are…

For some districts, the current obsession with data grows out of the need to comply with No Child Left Behind and additional accountability-related mandates. For others, it dates way back before the phrase "data-driven decision making" rolled so frequently off the tongues of educators. In either case, there is no denying that an integral…

The National Center for Educational Statistics reported that during the 1997-1998 academic year, 58% of all postsecondary institutions offered Web-based courses. Moreover, 82% reported plans to increase their Web-based offerings over the following 3 years. In response to the growing interest in providing online instruction, various online course…

MIAD stands for "mobile Internet access device." MIADs are the Swiss Army knives of the 21st century; they help users perform specific tasks in specific situations (including academic tasks in academic situations), thereby making users smarter and more productive. There are, however, significant obstacles to their effective use in higher…

This report of degree curricula in the field of Educational Communications and Technology reflects the influence and significant changes in the field since 1995. The most obvious influence on curricula is that of the computer, which is comparable to the impact of educational television some 50 years ago. Now, the computer is basic to distance…