What is strategic planning in distance education?

In strategic planning, institutions ask themselves three basic questions:

• Where are we now?
• Where do we want to be in a given number of years?
• How do we get there from here?

In answering these questions managers need to consider the social, economic, geographic, educational, and political environment of their institution or program.

They also need to review the institution's internal situation, for organizations cannot respond to their environment without a clear knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses.

Strategic planning is only one tool in the effective management of an institution or program. Moreover, the need to plan strategically often conflicts with the need to remain flexible enough to respond to changing or unforeseen circumstances.

This conflict may particularly affect distance teaching institutions, since governments often expect them to respond to circumstances that conventional institutions might be too slow to deal with.

More on strategic planning

• G. Dhanarajan, The Experience of the Open Learning Institute of Hong Kong

• Luis M. Peñalver, Distance Education: A Strategy for Development

Resources on strategic planning (external links)

• The Pennsylvania State University Task Force on Distance Education. Available at: http://www.outreach.psu.edu/de/de_tf.html. Link established with permission.

• Distance Education Task Force at the University of North Texas. Available at http://www-lan.unt.edu/DistLearn/index.htm.