Implementing an e-learning mindset and e-learning skills among the teachers of a department

New technologies appear increasingly in engineering education and create a pressure on the didactic design to keep up in adapting. Some teachers take the lead and try out various e-learning tools, but the main question is how do we lift an entire department from traditional didactics to a mindset and skills for e-learning didactics? This paper will explore: What are the main barriers and drivers for e-learning teaching development – and how should we consider this in an implementation plan?
Many teachers in our department are well on their way in using e-learning elements and we have interviewed a representative range of teachers individually to identify the most relevant questions, before we in fall 2019 interview all faculty members (70 persons) individually and all external professors (33 persons) through a questionnaire. We will move all courses to a new and better Learning Management System in September 2019 and during this establish a common approach and implementation, using change management inspired by the ADKAR-model. ADKAR stands for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement.
The benefits of improved learning technologies are obvious, just as there are many examples of stand-alone first movers in engineering education. There are, however, fewer studies dealing with the individual teachers’ motivations for developing e-learning skills. We will in the future focus on how to motivate and support the majority of teachers in getting on board with e-learning teaching.