These principles and practices will be widely disseminated to higher-education institutions nationwide. Innovation in teaching is key to the process. Changing faculty roles can be positive for both learners and faculty. Developing high-quality distance learning takes time. Support staff is an important element of the process.
Technology is secondary to human resource, policy, and compensation issues.
Goals of the IDE Project Develop a set of guiding principles and practices for distance education Guide evolution of distance education Serve as a catalyst for new learning environments Address institutional policies affecting the use of distance education Change the culture to be more supportive, resolving barriers to the use of distance learning. A steering committee and a management team guide the overall IDE project. Faculty members are preparing educational offerings with the assistance of staff from Continuing and Distance Education and the Center for Academic Computing at Penn State, and support from the American Center for the Study of Distance Education. The primary components of the project are a Faculty Initiative and annual Policy Symposia . This aspect of IDE includes representative faculty from Penn State's academic colleges, each of whom is working on a distance education project.