* Dawson and Macfadyen group the reasons for lack of uptake under two headings: ‘Perceived attributes of an innovation’ and ‘The realities of university culture’. In a blog post, or in your learning journal, note the reasons they identify for lack of uptake, and choose your own headings to group them under.

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In the Dawson et al. (2012) paper numerous reasons for the lack of uptake of the findings of data studies are given. The reasons for this are listed below. I have chosen to group these reasons as either “cultural” or “operational”.

Cultural reasons relate to the opinions of individuals, their pre-conceptions, lack of sufficient motivation to change when presented with supporting evidence.

Operational reasons relate to any structural changes such as institutional policy changes, those which would require the use of new tools or aimed at streamlining the operation of the institution. These may also suggest changes to the physical layout or use of the buildings in an institution.

CULTURAL

• ..the result of lack of attention to institutional culture within higher education
• …lack of understanding of the degree to which individuals and cultures resist innovation and change
• ..lack of understanding of approaches to motivating social and cultural change
• …an organizational culture that supports change by adding resources rather than by strategically reallocating resources, and a curriculum structure that makes false (though some would argue, necessary) assumptions about learner homogeneity

OPERATIONAL

• …resistance to the changes that may be created by integration of e-learning
• …academic workload (the degree to which any change will burden themselves and their colleagues with the need to learn how to use complex new tools)
• …introduction of policy that is seen to impinge on faculty autonomy in teaching is usually strenuously resisted, especially if it is perceived to derive from the “cost-consciousness-and-efficiency”

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References:

Macfadyen, L.P. and Dawson, S. (2012) ‘Numbers are not enough. Why e-learning analytics failed to inform an institutional strategic plan’, Educational Technology & Society, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 149–63 (Online). Available at https://www.open.ac.uk/ libraryservices/ resource/ article:106516&f=28635 (Last accessed 19 July 2020).