Tracey L. Leacock

Building a sustainable e‐learning development culture

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide details on Simon Fraser Universitys new School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) approach to creating a culture that supports rapid development of high‐quality e‐learning materials, why it has been successful, and what has been learned.Design/methodology/approach – Describes how, over a period of four years SIAT has had the unique opportunity to build an integrated set of graduate and undergraduate degree programs from the ground up. The organization has recognized the importance of its people – both in terms of the knowledge they bring to the organization, and the added value it gains by providing an environment where all employees can continue to learn – from courses, from their own experience, and from each other.Findings – Because of the organizations structured, yet flexible, approach to course design and development workflow, each set of courses was ready just as the students became ready to take them. The organizational cultures combinati...