TM

Volume 3, Issue 1 January/February 2001

This issue is co-sponsored by:

UNESCO; Academy for Educational Development; Educational Testing Service
The contents of this Issue do not necessarily reflect the policies or the views of the co-sponsors or their affiliates

5 The Education Enterprise: Is it Manageable?

Wadi D. Haddad, Editor

Education systems are huge enterprises that are hard to manage, maintain and ensure quality of input,
process and output. They need to undergo a structural re-engineering of their processes and techniques and
to modernize their procedures and applications -- at different levels of decision-making and administration.
Communication and information technologies must be an integral part of the restructuring design and
application.

7 Email to the Editor

Read what your colleagues have offered as feedback on previous issues of TechKnowLogia.

8 Education Management Information System: What Is It and Why Do We Not Have More of
It?
Kurt D. Moses, Vice President, Academy for Educational Development

An Education Management Information System (EMIS) is a comprehensive system that brings together
people, process, and technology to provide timely, cost effective, and user appropriate information to support
educational management at whatever level is needed. This article addresses applications for education, who
needs what information, the process to follow, the challenges of EMIS, and some simple lessons.

13 Technology and the Management of Learning: The New Accountability

Lawrence Wolff, Inter-American Development Bank

Technology, especially increased computing power and the rapid transfer of data, are now revolutionizing the
way schools and learning systems are managed and evaluated. Education is becoming a reliable system with
memory.

15 Education and ICTs: Current Legal, Ethical and Economic Issues

Zeynep Varoglu and Cédric Wachholz, UNESCO

This article examines the legal, ethical and economic issues relating to education and the use of new

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 information and communication technologies (ICTs). It starts with an analysis of the current legal
agreements governing trade in goods and services related to education and ICTs, followed by the
ethical debates arising from the legal frameworks. It then explores the role of the private sector and
questions the role of education - a public good or a commodity.

20 TechKnowNews
♦ “Smart Villages” to put Egypt on the Regional IT Map ♦ South African Strategic Alliance to Bring Voice
Interactive Distance Learning ♦ IFC Invests in Information Technology Education in India ♦ US Web-Based
Education Commission Releases E-Learning Report ♦

21 Computer Simulations and Policy Analysis

Noel F. McGinn, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University

Simulations for policy analysis can be structured or unstructured. This article describes several of each kind
of simulation and discusses how they are used and how their utility can be assessed.

26 New Technologies for Automated Essay Test Scoring

Richard Swartz, President, ETS Technologies

This article describes a groundbreaking automated essay scoring system developed by ETS Technologies.

30 HONDURAS: Smoothing the Process of the Project Cycle

Aimee Verdisco and Carlos Gargiulo, Inter-American Development Bank

This article describes the process of computerizing the project cycle of the Honduran Social Investment
Fund in 20 municipalities.

33 Using Technology to Manage Education Information: ERIC and REDUC

Dr. Lee G. Burchinal, President, Assist International Inc., Sergio Martinic, Director, Center for Research in
Development and Education, and Laurence Wolff, Inter-American Development Bank

This article analyzes the evolution, scope and innovations of two different cases of the use of technology for
managing education information.

36 EMIS Success In South Africa & Guinea: Insights From Practitioners

Luis Crouch and Jennie Spratt, RTI

Each case in this article represents a snapshot of a particular period in a country’s EMIS development as
observed by practitioners in the field.

39 Technology for Successful Management and Accountability in US K-12 Schools

Marco J. Morrone, Product Manager, Project Achieve

Many successful teachers and schools are putting in long hours tying together standards, assessments,
and resources. Automating as many aspects of this process as possible helps schools and teachers
make these connections quickly and easily, leaving more time for teachers to focus on teaching.

41 National-Level Educational Support Systems: The United Kingdom's National Grid for
Learning (NGfL)

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 Soledad McKinnon, George Washington University and Joanne Capper, The World Bank

The NGfL is a diverse and constantly evolving collection of Internet-based education resources targeted to K-
12 schools, further education, higher education and lifelong learning. It contains resources and discussion
forums for teachers, tutors, school and college managers, parents, and learners of all ages.

43 Electronic Environment for Management of Learning Systems

L.A. Plugge, S. Schoenmakers, and P.A. Kirschner, Maastricht McLuhan Institute, Netherlands

This article summarizes an in-depth review of electronic tools that enable flexibility and support of
collaborative teaching and learning environments. The authors looked into 50 different electronic
environments, reviewed nine of them and short-listed four environments that they considered well equipped to
serve learning and teaching, particularly in developing countries and are susceptible for efficient use in a
multi-lingual, multi-country, and multi-media network context.

46 Education Management Information Systems (EMIS): Guidelines for Design and

Implementation
Luis Crouch, RTI, Mircea Enache, EMI Systems and Patrick Supanc, The World Bank

This article provides guidelines on mapping decision-making responsibility and priorities, design strategies,
and implementation measures, and distills overarching lessons from international experience.

50 Education Management Information Systems (EMIS): Available Software and Guidelines for
Selection
Kurt Moses, Vice President, and Vivian Toro, Director, Academy for Educational Development

This article addresses strategic choices regarding development or purchase of EMIS software, reviews a
sample of available software, and describes seven steps for software selection.

55 No Strings Attached: Education Management Using Wireless, Internet and Smart Card
Applications
Editorial Staff

Wireless communications, Internet and Smart Cards can provide fast, reliable and cheap solutions to some of
the most pressing problems facing education systems today.

57 WorthWhileWebs
Gregg Jackson, Associate Professor and Coordinator, Education Policy Program, George Washington
University

The Web is being used increasingly not only to provide information and instruction, but also to support
policy development, planning, and management of educational systems. This article describes several
sites that do that.

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59 Orbiting The Dream: Satellites Open New Horizons For Africa’s Educators
Tressa Steffen Gipe

Imagine a small isolated rural village in Africa. The village schoolhouse receives current radio reports in the
local language with events from around the world, and the teacher is able to email student and payroll
records to the Ministry of Education in the capital. In the evenings the school doubles as a community media
center filled with enterprising villagers checking grain and livestock prices in the capital, while others keep in
touch with friends and family via email. Is it a dream or a reality?

61 On-line Distance Learning: The Experience of the International Institute for Educational
Planning, UNESCO
Bikas C. Sanyal

IIEP launched a program of distance learning (DL) in various areas of educational management (e.g. the
management of textbook production and distribution, refresher programs for former IIEP trainees, the
management of university-industry partnerships, etc.), based on self-learning materials prepared by its
faculty. This article deals with only one area – the training of human resources for university management.

63 AED: Technology as a Management Tool; A New Approach to Implementation

AED has been a leader in developing computer software programs for gathering and processing education
statistics and the comprehensive training programs to teach ministry officials and educational administrators
how to process, interpret, and use the data they gather. One of the foremost programs in education
management information systems is ED*ASSIST.

Editorial Calendar for Year 2001

YEAR 2001
January/ March/ May/ July/ September/ November/
February April June August October December

Management Science and Enterprise Social Studies Early Childhood Language

of Education Math Education Training Development and Education
Systems Parental
Education

Year 2000 Issues in the Archive

YEAR 2000
January/ March/ May/ July/ September November/
February April June August /October December

Higher Access to Basic Education Skill Formation Learning Never Teacher

Education Information & for All Ends (Lifelong) Support and
Knowledge Training

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The Education Enterprise: Is it Manage
Manageable?
The Scope
The education enterprise, by comparison to any other na-
tional activity, is huge and intricate. It involves educational
institutions all over the country, teachers and administrators
in large numbers, and students of every age that can reach
25-30% of the total population. For instance, the educational
system of a middle income country of about 10 million peo-
ple, can easily cover more than 11,000 educational institu-
tions, 140,000 teachers and 3 million students. The budget of
this enterprise may reach 20% of the government budget and
3-5% of the Gross National Product (GNP). By any measure,
this is a big enterprise to manage, maintain and ensure qual-
ity of input, process and output.
Success Brings Challenges
Recent reforms within the education enterprise have resulted
in observable successes in making educational opportunities
more accessible and equitable and the teaching/learning pro-
cess more effective. Yet these successes are making a hardly
manageable system even more complicated:
• The expansion of educational opportunities means more
schools in isolated rural areas, and more diversified
modes of delivery.
• Aiming for education for all means including students
from under-served populations who require special
measures to reach and have special needs to meet.
• Accent on learning requires setting of reliable and meas-
urable standards, and attending to individual differences.
• Decentralization and devolution of decisions to district
and local levels require better information systems and
management procedures.
• The involvement of more stakeholders in the education
process (parents, employers, unions, political parties,
etc.) is resulting in more transparency and accountabil-
ity. These developments demand a consistent flow of in-
formation, and force the education enterprise to be better
and more efficiently managed.
• The public sector, which until recently has had a mo-
nopoly on the delivery of educational services, is starting
to feel the competition from private enterprises which
have been entering the market in escalating numbers. In
many cases, particularly at the tertiary level, these pri-
vate entities are using the potential of information and
communication technology to lower cost and improve
efficiency. Competition will demand from the public
sector better-managed and more efficient systems and
institutions.
! 5 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
Wadi D. Haddad, Editor
What Management? What Technology?
Any business that is a fraction of the size and complexity of
a country's educational enterprise and that uses the manage-
ment techniques employed by most educational systems, will
go out of business in no time. Big businesses have discov-
ered how important management is to be well run, efficient
and competitive. In so doing, they utilized the potential of
technology to restructure their procedures and overhaul their
processes of production, distribution, training, feedback,
maintenance and administration. But the education systems
have been slow in exploiting the power of technology.
This contrast was well articulated by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
Chairman and CEO of IBM, in a speech to the U.S. National
Governors' Association, in 1995, which unfortunately applies
equally well today.
"Information technology is the fundamental underpin-
ning of the science of structural re-engineering. It is the
force that revolutionizes business, streamlines govern-
ment and enables instant communications and the ex-
change of information among people and institutions
around the world. But information technology has not
made even its barest appearance in most public schools...
Before we can get the education revolution rolling, we
need to recognize that our public schools are low-tech
institutions in a high-tech society. The same changes
that have brought cataclysmic change to every facet of
business can improve the way we teach students and
teachers. And it can also improve the efficiency and ef-
fectiveness of how we run our schools."
Many educational institutions and systems have introduced
simple management and statistical information systems. But
this should be only the beginning. Two inter-related meas-
ures are needed: First, education systems need to undergo a
structural re-engineering of their processes and techniques
and to modernize their procedures and applications -- at dif-
ferent levels of decision-making and administration. Second,
communication and information technologies must be an
integral part of the restructuring design and application.
More specifically, technology for management should be the
underpinnings of reform in three areas:
Management of institutions and systems. The same ele-
ments of computing and telecommunications equipment and
services that made businesses more efficient and cost-
effective, can be applied to schools and school systems to
www.TechKnowLogia.org
enable principals and superintendents to streamline opera-
tions, monitor performance and improve utilization of physi- TechKnowLogia™
cal and human resources. Technology also promotes com- Published by
munication among schools, parents, central decision-makers Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
and businesses that fosters greater accountability, public
support, and connectivity with the marketplace. At the In editorial collaboration with
school/institution level, technologies are crucial in such areas United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Or-
ganization (UNESCO )
as admissions, student flow, personnel, staff development Organization for Economic Co-operation
and facilities. At the system-wide level, technologies provide and Development (OECD )
critical support in domains such as: school mapping, auto-
mated personnel and payroll systems, management informa- EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
Wadi D. Haddad, President, Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
tion systems, communications, and information gathering,
analysis and use. INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD:
Gajaraj Dhanarajan, President & CEO,
Management of policy making. The process of policy analy- The Commonwealth of Learning
Dee Dickenson, CEO, New Horizons for Learning
sis and development is a sophisticated and strategic exercise. Alexandra Draxler, Director, Task force on Education for
It is, by necessity, an intricate, non-linear process in which a the Twenty-first Century (UNESCO)
variety of people and organizations with diverse perspectives Jacques Hallak, Ass't. Director-General/Education ,
are actively involved in the process through which issues are UNESCO
Pedro Paulo Poppovic, Secretary of Distance Education,
analyzed and polices are generated, implemented, assessed, Federal Ministry of Education, Brazil
adjusted and redesigned. Here information can be valuable in Nicholas Veliotes, President Emeritus,
storing and analyzing data on education indicators, student Association of American Publishers
assessment, educational physical and human infrastructure, Jarl Bengtsson, Head, CERI, OEDC
cost and finance. Technology can help not only in diagnosis ADVISORY EDITORIAL COMMITTEE:
but more importantly it can assist in constructing scenarios Joanne Capper, Sr. Education Specialist, World Bank
around different intended policy options to determine re- Claudio Castro, Chief Education Adviser, IDB
quirements and consequences. Each scenario can then be Gregg Jackson, Assoc. Prof., George Washington Univ.
James Johnson, Deputy Director, GIIC
systematically analyzed and evaluated, not only in terms of Frank Method, Dir., Washington Office, UNESCO
its educational desirability but also in terms of financial af- Laurence Wolff, Sr. Consultant, IDB
fordability, feasibility and sustainability over a sufficient Mary Fontaine, LearnLink, AED
period of time to show results. During policy implementa- Sonia Jurich, Consultant
tion, technology can facilitate tracer studies and tracking MANAGING EDITOR:
systems as well as summative and formative evaluation. Sandra Semaan

Management of learning activities. Technology also can be GUEST EDITORIAL ADVISER:

Kurt Moses, Vice President, AED
powerful in driving and managing new approaches to learn-
ing that involve more student interaction, more connections GENERAL QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
among schools, more collaboration among teachers and stu- FEEDBACK ON ARTICLES
dents, and more involvement of teachers as facilitators. EDITORIAL MATTERS:
TechKnowLogia@KnowledgeEnterprise.org
These needs are more critical in self-study, distance educa-
tion and e-learning settings and many platforms have been SPONSORSHIP AND ADVERTISING
developed to meet such needs. Sandra@KnowledgeEnterprise.org
****** ADDRESS AND FAX
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Wadi D. Haddad

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 ©Corel
Supporting Teachers with Technology: Don't
Do Today's Jobs with Yesterday's Tools
November/December 2000
I am a teacher educator at the University of the West Indies,
Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. Am involved in our distance
education as well. In addition am involved in a major reform
initiative by the Barbados Ministry to use technology to
mediate changes in how teaching is done. There was so much
in the article to stimulate ideas re the possibilities of more
relevant in situ training even in contexts where distance per
se is not an issue. Really stimulated my thinking re making
my various teacher education roles more student owned in
the interest of up-to-date practical, yet theoretically sound
training, cum action research possibilities. On a personal note
having done my first degree by distance I can relate to the
constraints mentioned in traditional training and the
possibilities offered by technology.
Desmond C. Clarke
University of West Indies, Barbados
Images of Teaching: The TIMSS Video Taping
Project November/December 2000
Excellent article. Very interesting. Thank you! Yours is the
first I have seen with the information presented. It is my
personal; opinion that California strains out an enormous
amount of creative teaching with its system of requiring
teacher's to conform and obtain a teaching "credential". How
do you recruit prospective teachers with bright and creative
minds and qualities of kindness, understanding and
leadership when you motion for them to spend a year of their
lives learning conformity in order to obtain a California
Teaching Credential and then pay them less than you pay
California State Prison Guards? Then, once you have these
willing conformists, you cement them in place with tenure!
Bah! Humbug! The bureaucracy is the major problem.
Bill Hackett
The Center for the Study of Social Structures, USA
General Feedback
I enjoyed learning about Techknowlogia. It's a fantastic
journal and I enjoy reading the contents. I appreciate the
! 7 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
"global" perspective you offer. I am a Technology
Coordinator at an elementary school in New Jersey. As a
project for our fifth grade class, I have tried very hard to
locate pen-pals, e-pals we call them, in Germany but to no
avail. I believe the opportunity for students to communicate
with "German e-pals," and vice-versa, would be an
excellent learning experience in ICT for all. Can you provide
any assistance that will enable us to further this project?
I am so happy to have learned of your journal. I am currently
working on my Doctorate in the area of curriculum and I am
researching "best practices" in education with the use of ICT.
(ICT, a term I've coined from reading Techknowlogia) Your
journal is surely an excellent resource. Usually you find a
plethora of information about technology in the United
States. Rarely have I come across such in depth information
about technology from a global perspective. Thank you for
your insight.
Linda Cole Woodson
New Jersey, USA
colewoodson@email.msn.com
I always enjoy your bulletin, and I was specially impressed
by Why I Love (GOOD) Training Videos by Mr. Claudio
de Moura Castro. Congratulations on your C&T diffusion
efforts.
Fernando Ortiz-Crespo, Ecuador
Sometimes such personalized messages touch you deeply. I
got out of touch of TechKnowLogia due to some other
demanding affairs but you shook me up. I would restore my
connections again. My heartiest gratitude.
Mrs. Urvashi Rathod, India
I have greatly enjoyed reading the articles that have appeared
in the journal, and I offer my congratulations to the
organizers for setting up this valuable instrument. In
particular, I enjoyed reading the frank assessment of distance
learning in China offered by Prof. Chen Xiangming. (China:
Teacher Training with TV Technology)
Prof. Jim Kohn
San Francisco State University, USA
www.TechKnowLogia.org
 Education Management Information System:
What Is It and Why Do We Not Have More of It?

Kurt D. Moses, Vice President

Academy for Educational Development

An Education Management Information System (EMIS) is a comprehensive system that bring together people, process, and
technology to provide timely, cost effective, and user appropriate information to support educational management at whatever
level is needed. EMIS actually contrasts with other types of information systems—notably:

• Statistical Information System (SIS): which is oriented to reporting historical data (at least a year after it is
relevant) and often provides considerable detail, usually mainly at the national level, in support of specific
research efforts; and
• Decision Support Information System (DSIS): which is oriented to direct support of key or future decisions
within an educational system and typically requires the proper functioning of both an SIS and an EMIS—
there are few effective forms of DSIS in operation now.

These distinctions are relevant because most of the educational world -- seldom known for a focus on speed and accuracy in
information -- is really oriented to a Statistical Information System type approach. Very few EMISs actually operate at the
multiple levels necessary for effective management of education in most countries, and very few systems actually have com-
prehensive DSISs that can be applied to key policy and decision points…the way they often are in the competitive private sec-
tor. As importantly, most Information Systems collect quantitative information that is often only 25-40% of a factor in major
policy decisions.

What Does This Mean for Educa

Education?
Education as a sector, particularly pre-university, in most
countries, is the responsibility mainly of the public sector
and usually one Ministry—the Ministry of Education and
Culture/Sports/Technology/Scientific Research. Even in
highly decentralized systems like the U.S., the responsibility
for primary and secondary education rests usually with a
state or district centralized agency with prime responsibility
for curriculum, standards, financing, and often provision of
key items like textbooks, instructional materials, and teach-
ers. In some instances, these agencies have only policy-
making authority (they help shape the executive and legisla-
tive dialogue and set and monitor standards) and in others
they have implementation responsibility. In much of the
developing world, ministries and agencies still have both
policy-making and implementation authority—but the im-
plementation component is being gradually weakened
through deconcentration and decentralization.
The overarching problem for education systems in most
countries is that on the one hand, they have too little infor-
mation, in an accessible form, for the issues they are now
facing, and on the other hand, they have too much informa-
tion (excessive detail) about issues that were important at one
time. Throughout the world, for education, there is often too
much information on “inputs” to education (the students,
teachers, and schools—even if the information is of ques-
tionable accuracy) and way too little information about criti-
cal factors like finances, use of instructional materials, and
even less on the outputs and outcomes of schooling—test
results, good instructional practices, effectiveness on the job
or at the next level of schooling.
Who Needs What Information?
Education systems are faced with both external and internal
information problems, linked to the kinds of stakeholders
that they have. (See article by same author, “Information
Systems for Education Management,” TechKnowLogia,
May/June 2000). The categories below are not exact, but
indicative.
External Stakeholders
External stakeholders view a Ministry or its agencies as a
service group – whose mission is to provide them with
needed information, advice (when requested), and policy

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execution – depending upon the public mandate. In practice,
political influence and the allocation of money often rule
these relationships, but information continues to be impor-
tant.
1. Other Ministries—particularly the Ministries of Fi-
nance and Planning:
In most developing countries, Ministries of Finance, and
frequently Ministries of Planning, have become very power-
ful because they are the locus of central funds and the central
agency through which large international donors work. Un-
der these conditions, the Ministry of Education must become
an irrefutable source of good information about the educa-
tional operations at a very detailed level and must provide an
historical perspective on trends as well as policy influences.
In recent years, pressured by the International Monetary
Fund, the World Bank, and several others, the concept of
Unit Costing has become very popular with planning and
finance groups. Unit costing means that the Ministry of
Education needs to come up with: very accurate student en-
rollment information, very accurate total cost figures for key
components of education, and some trends for both enroll-
ment and cost components. This typically requires increas-
ingly accurate tracking of schools, students, and teachers—
factors that many ministries are actually less able to track.
Hence, an integrated EMIS approach that links students and
costs is increasingly important. A Ministry of Education also
needs to know what this means—i.e. unit costing, and how to
incorporate truly educational priorities into its use. One of
the major EMIS features needed for this is the ability to do
budget simulation, as well as projections. The above minis-
tries will also require certain routine reports that are required
either monthly, termly or annually.
2. Donors and Other Funders:
As international donors provide assistance to a country’s
education system, they require measurable progress accord-
ing to targets, and accountability for the use of funds. This
calls for quite detailed information, and the administrative
qualities of accountability, transparency, and timeliness.
To provide donor requirements, ministries must have people,
organizational structure and systems that provide program-
based tracking of results (i.e. enrollments, teachers trained,
textbooks distributed, or curriculum revised) by time period,
and by milestone. (Use of the LogFrame approach provides
an appropriate way to organize such reviews—but Ministries
of Education still need to provide the raw data to make these
work). Most importantly, they need sufficient control of
their funds allocation. In some cases, an effective EMIS
means that even a simple Project Accounting program
(Quicken Books) is needed to integrate financial results.
! 9 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
3. Citizens:
With the rapid spread of democracy throughout the world,
citizens are demanding accountability from their educational
systems—and from their governments. Rather than simply
accepting education as given, more and more parents are
making demands on the educational system for performance,
for accountability for use of resources, and for transparency.
Ministries of Education have a key role in helping define
what are reasonable measures for these factors, and for
helping to put in place mechanisms for gathering and under-
standing measures of performance, accountability, and trans-
parency.
4. Other Providers of Education:
With rising democracy, the orientation of more economies
towards the market sector, and the internationalization of
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), other providers
of education are key stakeholders in Ministries of Education.
Some of these providers are religiously based, others secular,
others are strictly community based, and some are schools
converted from government to a government- assisted status.
Frequently these other providers need registration and certi-
fication from the Ministry – most ministries are very behind
in performing this function. Some providers look to the gov-
ernment for some portion of their funding – either of teach-
ers, or of instructional materials, or some other part of edu-
cational supplies. Typically, those requiring the most assis-
tance from government also provide the most frequent and
reliable reporting – those that do not, frequently, do not re-
port or even wish their operations to be well understood.
Ministries of Education, if not careful, can become only
ministries of public education when they have not attended
sufficiently to these other providers. In some countries, non-
government education is responsible for 50-70% of all pri-
mary and secondary education, and even in countries with
previously small private education sectors, they are growing.
Hence, Ministries of Education need to create EMIS struc-
tures that have major incentives for reporting and for reli-
ability, in conjunction with the non-governmental education
sector. In some instances, the Ministry may need to use an-
other trusted information group for non-governmental edu-
cation information (e.g. in Zambia, the Community Schools
Secretariat tracks the majority of community schools in the
country).
Internal Issues
Ministries are faced with a series of internal issues that in
many instances complicate response to external stakeholders.
The challenge of deconcentration and decentralization of
functions further complicates many of these internal issues.
www.TechKnowLogia.org
The three major issues for ministries are: 1) old organiza-
tional structures that do not meet current challenges; 2) hier-
archies that may not be responsive; and 3) the speed of trans-
fer of information.
1. Organizational Structures:
Most Ministry organizations were developed during the
1950s and 1960s. Some even date back to the late 1930s.
As a result, the necessary links to more modern educational
integration have not taken place. In some instances, plan-
ning, rather than being no lower than the second level in a
ministry, is subordinate to some other unit– or else so iso-
lated from line responsibilities that it lacks resources. In
other instances, the individual sectors like basic and secon-
dary education are so bureaucratically isolated from one an-
other that common issues do not get addressed. With the
HIV/AIDs pandemic sweeping many countries, effective
coordination with Ministries of Health and Environment has
no effective entry point and therefore programs end up being
established outside the regular structure.
As importantly, most countries still have “stove-pipe” struc-
tures of ministries replicating the national function at each
lower level – for example, province, region, district, and in
some cases zone. These “stove-pipe” structures of parallel
operation – a representative of Ministry of Education, Health,
Finance, Planning, Social Welfare, Labor, etc. at every level,
create a great deal of duplication and require multiple infra-
structure investments to support each ministry.
Some countries, recognizing the duplication and realizing the
need for organized collaboration have created departments of
social services combining education, health, and labor.
Other countries have created government-wide data networks
that allow sharing of information more readily both across
and within ministries, enhancing some of the links that are
artificially blocked by organizational barriers.
2. Functional Hierarchies:
One of the most compelling challenges for the public sector,
and ministries of education in particular, is the new sets of
skills necessary for effective operation. All public service
has been slow to set aside special labor categories for those
who operate computers, develop computer programs, main-
tain networks, and configure national communication struc-
tures. A similar situation is happening with good policy and
information analysts.
Another issue is that while there are attempts to delegate
decision making to lower level personnel, those officers may
not have access to the information needed to make enlight-
ened decisions in a timely manner. The information revolu-
tion, of which EMIS is a part, requires that organizations
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rethink how they are organized, and what information is
really needed for each position. Decision mapping is one
technique to clarify what types of decisions are made and
where the decision occurs. This provides some guidance on
how to structure access to information.
3. Timeliness of Information Transfer
There is a serious problem with the speed at which informa-
tion is conveyed in most government systems. Not only does
most information depend upon moving a piece of paper from
one place in a country to the capital city, but also the same
paper needs to be moved around various offices within a
ministry or regional office. Many registries (in Anglophone
countries) that are often the first recipients of paper, have
become almost dysfunctional—people do not even know that
paperwork has been sent forward. In other cases, traditional
practices of sending all personnel paperwork care of the
Permanent Secretary – even if he/she is not the decision-
maker on the matter – further delay and complicate adminis-
trative action. Ministries often find themselves inundated
with paper in duplicate and triplicate on matters that could
have been resolved at lower levels.
The net result of much of this activity, built on old proce-
dures, is delay. Information that is needed can, frequently,
only be gotten on an emergency basis—with individual tele-
phone calls or faxes—because the routine processing is so
stalled. In other cases, paperwork is sent two or three times
because of misrouting, non-delivery, or slow processing—
hence actions sometimes catch themselves coming and
going. Finally, because of traditional approaches, laborious
letters are often used instead of forms or even machine
readable inputs. The result is that more intermediate people
are needed to interpret a letter, rather than a form, and more
delays are introduced.
An effective EMIS can begin to change both the tools and
the processes used to exchange information and to support
decisions. An effective EMIS needs to address not only what
information is necessary for decisions, but also who will use
it, in what manner, and how that process is to be supported.
Only when the entire cycle of people, process, and technol-
ogy is addressed can governments expect to see real change
in the speed with which information flows, and consequently
an option for increasing the speed of decision-making.
A Process to Follow
Most educational establishments have some type of man-
agement information—even if it is just a blackboard outside
a school listing every week enrollment by grade. Informa-
tion is being provided to those who might want to use it. But
a modern system needs more than this on a supported basis.
As a minimum, upgrading, modernizing and seizing on new
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approaches to improve education delivery using EMIS re-
quires the following:
1. Determine who the stakeholders are for education
information. Most systems can determine this quite
quickly and there are many guides to this.
2. Assess who needs information for what decisions.
Decision-making as the focus for defining information
needs is the key to an effective EMIS—one that is ap-
propriate in size and complexity to the current situation.
Answers to this question will distinguish those who
need information from those who would like to know.
3. Determine which functions need to be supported and
at what level. With decentralization, a function like
personnel recruitment may no longer be a national ac-
tivity, but rather devolved to the District level. Hence,
the personnel recruitment function will need support at
the District level, and perhaps the sending of summary
information to the national level.
4. Assess available resources. Assessing resources means
not only financial, but also material, personnel, time, and
commitment. More EMIS efforts have failed because of
the unavailability of good personnel and commitment
than any other cause.
5. Set priorities (short-term, medium-term, and long-
term), get some knowledgeable review and set a time-
frame. Knowing what might be needed and what is
available, determines what is most important. A simple
question to help set such priorities is..”What information
is really needed for each position within one year.“
Make sure to allow time to get a decent review of the
plan by someone who has already done it in an institu-
tion of similar size and design.
6. Get multiple commitments. EMIS will change the way
in which people work, and will affect how they view
their jobs and their work. They need to be involved at
the design stage and during the subsequent stages.
7. Get sufficient resources for people, for the process,
and then for the technology. People and process will
determine the effectiveness of EMIS, not the Technol-
ogy. As a result, plan on spending at least 25% of any
EMIS budget on training during the initial stages, and
another 15-30% on “reengineering.” Over time, train-
ing and software will be the largest costs for EMIS, not
the equipment.
8. Stay clear on the outcomes and monitor. Make sure
that the key information needed will be produced and
focus on that as the outcome of the system. To do this,
prototypes are often effective as a way to get a clear
sense of outcomes before a full system comes into place.
The key part of this stage is to keep checking and mak-
ing sure that the necessary outcomes are coming. Ex-
hibit A below provides one indication of how the vari-
ous outcomes from an EMIS can be conceptualized.
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The Challenge for EMIS
Education Management Information Systems have a techni-
cal element, but they are primarily about the use of informa-
tion. Using information is a highly specific, often personal
activity that affects work habits, work style, and work flows.
Since information use tends to be specific, training and
reengineering are a big part of making EMIS effective.
Many old style information systems have ceased to work not
because they became obsolete, but because the people sup-
porting them failed to maintain them properly. EMIS will
involve several things that are critical to success:
1. Set standards for information. As part of EMIS, in-
formation that is needed must be defined, described, and
sourced.
2. Set timing. Information will vary simply by being gath-
ered at a different time. If you measure enrollment in
January, rather than April, the counts will be different—
both accurate, but different.
3. Define the level of possible accuracy. Most systems
(statistics, personnel, inventory, textbook, examina-
tions), except finance, cannot report with more than 2-
3% accuracy simply because of delays.
4. Reports should be the result of daily activities not
special purpose efforts. To the extent possible, all re-
porting should derive from daily operational activities –
not be a special, separate activity. For example, enroll-
ment reporting should derive directly from the school
registry of students.
5. Define formats early, so that people get used to and
understand how information is presented. Formats
should also set the stage so that users of information can
ask multiple questions. For example, if one presents en-
rollment data for the nation, EMIS must be prepared to
support an elaboration at the provincial, regional, district
or other level—as well as provide information on
trends—to allow not just a snapshot of activity—but the
basis for analysis.
6. Ensure that the providers of information quickly see
the results of their work. The quicker and closer in-
formation processing is to the source, the higher the
level of accuracy and speed of correction.
7. Measure the cost of producing information. Most
ministries produce more information than they need or
can use, and no one really measures the cost. Annual
surveys, as one example, can cost up to $400,000 per
administration—a high cost if only a fraction of the in-
formation is made available.
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Some Simple Lessons
There are a few simple lessons surrounding EMISs that can
serve as a high level guide for most ministries and their
agencies. Although there will always be highly technical
detail underneath these lessons, policy makers should be able
to be guided by them.
1. EMIS is not working unless it is able to give guidance to
three basic issues for decision-makers:
• What is going on?
• What caused the current situation?
• What can be done about it?
2. For educational statistics at a District level or above, the
minimum standard for information is, “This year’s in-
formation, this year.” Effective systems provide much
more frequent updates at all levels, but the above is a
minimum.
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3. Put information into the hands of people who can use
it—and quickly. This means that, for example, testing
data should be in the hands of teachers quickly so that
they can improve, not just judge. It means that if re-
cruitment of teachers is at the District level, District of-
ficials need personnel information quickly and in use-
able format—not just national level staff.
4. Do not let the Perfect be the enemy of the Good. Too
many overly complex, and difficult to sustain, EMIS
systems have been developed because of the goal of per-
fection, when what the Ministry needed was a good
system.
Above all, we must recall that an EMIS is a tool to make the
goals of education for a nation’s population a reality. In the
long-term, the true test of an effective EMIS is whether it has
directly fostered the accomplishment of those goals.
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Technology and the Management of Learning:
By Laurence Wolff
Behind Closed Doors
Teaching has been a work of "artisanship" since the time
of Socrates. Even with formal teacher training colleges,
most teachers have toiled alone in their classroom, unseen by
all except an inquiring school principal. What has happened
in the classroom has been between the teacher and the stu-
dent. Schools themselves have been only sporadically evalu-
ated. Successful teachers and schools have usually been
defined anecdotally as those with the best reputation or those
with the highest percentages of students who moved on to
the next level of education or entered the most prestigious
institutions at the next level.
Even with the increasing emphasis on accountability and the
start of the use of education management information sys-
tems (EMIS) in education, it has been difficult and time con-
suming to measure in a timely manner how teachers and
schools were functioning. Minimum data on school per-
formance, such as completion rates, have typically been a
year out of date in developed countries such as the USA and
three or four years old in developing countries. Test results
have taken many months to score and it has been excessively
time consuming and expensive to definitively identify and
seek to explain well performing schools.
Opening the Doors
Technology, especially increased computing power and
the rapid transfer of data, are now revolutionizing the way
schools and learning systems are managed and evaluated.
With computing power and nearly instantaneous communi-
cation with central data processing systems, it is now possi-
ble to have data-driven educational goal setting and rapid
measurement of results. Education is becoming a reliable
system with memory.
In the new data driven educational process, scores on tests, as
well as dropout rates, and even instances of school violence
or disruption, can be made available to decision making
authorities or the general public within days and at most a
few months. These results can now be linked with school
and student characteristics. "Effective" schools can be iden-
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The New Accountability
tified; these are not simply high scoring schools, but rather
they are schools, which, given the socio-economic makeup of
their student body, score higher than would be expected; or
they are schools that increase performance from year to year.
With the new availability of reliable data, principals can be
asked to set measurable goals and are then evaluated on the
basis of the extent to which they have met these goals.
Computer analysis can even track value-added learning of
students from one year to the next, providing, for the first
time, measures of the extent to which teachers are achieving
their goals.
Available items from test scores can permit comparison of
school and district performance with systems throughout the
country as well as the world. For example, two thirds of the
test items from the Third International Math and Science
Test (TIMSS) of the IEA are now available for downloading
from the Internet (http://timss.bc.edu/). Therefore any school
or school system, on its own, can compare its student per-
formance with that of 42 other countries in the world.
Schools and school systems can determine how far they have
to go to reach the level of performance of the students of
Singapore, who score half a standard deviation higher than
any other national school system in the world.
A Case of Goal Setting and Moni
Moni-
toring
Many state school systems in the United States have
moved in this direction. For example:
• Texas (http://www.tea.state.tx.us),
• North Carolina (http://www.dpi.state.nc.us), and
• Maryland (http://www.msde.state.md.us),
among others, are publishing school level test scores on their
Internet sites. Data driven goal setting can also be under-
taken at the local or county level. The Montgomery County
Public School System (MCPS) in Maryland, USA, is an ex-
ample of data-driven school management focussed on goal
setting and accountability.1 Analysis of scores, dropout
rates, and changing demographics has helped to define the
challenge for this school system. The county for many years
had a mainly white, middle class, relatively high performing
clientele and was considered one of the leading school sys-
tems in the USA. The past ten twenty years have seen a
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dramatic demographic change. In the year 2000, only 49%
of enrolled students were white, with the remainder black,
Hispanic, and Asian. The data show an enormous chasm
between the achievement scores of Hispanics and blacks
compared with achievement of and whites and Asians. If the
county does not reduce the gap soon, its vaunted educational
system will become second rate. Its new clientele requires a
new set of strategies.
The county's goals have been defined on the basis of data and
detailed focus group discussions with critical stakeholders.
The critical goal is to reduce the gap between the poorly and
well performing minorities in achievement, while at the same
students and measuring performance, but has kept the results
confidential. Finally Mexico is publishing the results of
some of its research. A recent document identified 1000
high performing schools located in poor neighborhoods.4
Using these data, research teams undertook qualitative analy-
sis of the qualities of these schools. They found that these
high performing "value added" schools had dynamic leaders,
consistency and continuity, clear goals, and strong school
community relationships -- results very much like those of
similar studies. The Mexican authorities now have the be-
ginnings of a roadmap to increase the quality of education in
their country.

New accountability requires school princi-

time raising the bar for achievement of all students. The
county has begun to require data-driven action plans for all
schools. Within the next two years, MCPS is seeking online
rapid data availability throughout the county.
One critical objective is to increase the number of students
successfully taking Algebra 1 in ninth grade, since research
has shown that algebra is the key to students remaining and
succeeding in school. Individual schools are setting, and
some are achieving, goals such as raising the number of ninth
grade students successfully completing algebra from 60 to
90%. A second effort at raising the bar for all students is to
increase the numbers of students, especially minorities, tak-
ing advanced placement (AP) tests, which are college level
courses with a nationally defined curriculum and objectively
scored tests. Students are "self-selecting" into AP classes
and teachers are challenged to keep the scores at the same
level with a wider self-selected classroom population. Also
based on research, the county has undertaken a series of out-
reach programs to Hispanic and black parents, and estab-
lished strategic alliances with early childhood education
groups.
More Accountability and Transpar
Transpar-
ency
Data and research driven policy decisions are not unique
to the United States. Chile regularly publishes the school by
school results of testing program SIMCE,2 and the Brazilian
State of Sao Paulo3 will also shortly publish its results.
Mexico is a country that for many years has been testing its
pals with wide reaching skills, able to moti-
vate teachers, understand figures, interact
with parents, identify goals, and remain
committed over a long time.
Some teachers, and their representatives - teachers' unions -
have been questioning the new process of data driven ac-
countability and transparency. Some may argue that the
intimate and personal relationship between the student and
teacher is compromised, and that teachers no longer have an
opportunity to be creative, since they are tied to external ex-
aminations. They argue that tests and data can only measure
a small element of the educational process. The fact is that
teachers are losing the free hand they once had in the class-
room. But a data driven, transparent education system, with
the right goals and measurements, can only help them in their
task. At the same time, to work, the new accountability re-
quires school principals with wide reaching skills, able to
motivate teachers, understand figures, interact with parents,
identify goals, and remain committed over a long time. The
demands are so great that some studies in the USA report
problems of “principal burnout”.5 For the new accountability
to be successful, school systems throughout the world will
need to develop coherent programs, which develop, nurture,
and adequately remunerate a new generation of school prin-
cipals.

1
See “Our Call to Action: The Citizens Budget for FY 2001,” Montgomery County School System, Rockville Maryland, De-
cember 1999 and also http://www.mcps.k12.md.us. Documents on the Web site include “Annual Report to Parents, Staff and
the Community,” “Raising the Bar, and Closing the Gap, Because All Children Matter,” and “Teacher Evaluation System.”
2
See http://www.mineduc.cl/simce.
3
See http://www.educacao.sp.gov.br.
4
See Mexico, Secretaria de Educacion Publica, “Distribucion de los planteles publicos de educacion primaria y secundaria,
segun el nivel de acertos de sus alumnos en los examenes de carrera magisterial” and also http://www.sep.gob.mx.
5
See the Harvard Education Letter, November-December 2000 and online at http://www.edletter.org.

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 Education and ICTs:
Current Legal, Ethical and Economic Issues
Zeynep Varoglu and Cédric Wachholz, UNESCO

This article examines the legal, ethical and economic issues relating to education and the use
of new information and communication technologies (ICTs). It starts with an analysis of the
current legal agreements governing trade in goods and services related to education and
ICTs, followed by the ethical debates arising from the legal frameworks. It then explores the
role of the private sector and questions the role of education - a public good or a commodity.
For the purposes of this article, ICTs have been defined as radio, television, computer hard-
ware and software, and the Internet. The discussion concentrates solely on the provision of
educational content and ICTs, but does not focus on issues of connectivity (e.g. telecommu-
nications).

Legal Agreements – Emerging Trends
Until the mid 1990s, inter-governmental forums like the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and
UNESCO dealt on an international level with questions of
intellectual property (IP) and copyrights. The idea of guar-
anteeing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) originates from
the recognition that there is public interest in ensuring IPR as
it promotes innovation and progress in the arts, science and
technology. Private economic interests, issues of individual
ownership (of the owners and/or creators of IP), issues con-
cerning moral values (of IP) and public interest in gaining
access to information have largely influenced the develop-
ment of IP conventions. The WIPO has been relatively open
to the socio-cultural dimension of developments in the field
of ICTs and has in the past offered an arena within which the
interests of developing nations could be voiced.1 This is re-
flected in conventions designed to ensure the financial remu-
neration of authors of IP (Paris Convention for the Protection
of Industrial Property 1883 and the Bern Convention for the
Protection of Literary and Artistic Works 1886), and to pro-
tect the moral rights of IP authors against modification with-
out the creator’s consent (The 1928 Revision of the Bern
Convention).
The public, especially educators and learners, has a critical
interest in preserving the copyright exemptions granted in the
above conventions. These exemptions ensure the freedom of
expression, access to information and cultural goods, and the
dissemination of knowledge through education, research and
libraries.2 Today, however, technological and legislative
changes that have been enacted by the information society
threaten to disrupt the delicate balance, which has been
struck between the rights and interests of individuals, indus-
tries, and societies. Copyright is expanding with regards to
the items protected, but also with regards to the area and the
period of protection.3
Industry is moving quickly to secure the distribution of their
products. In addition to the copyright, distributors use new
contracts and technological devices for the protection of their
goods. Electronic licenses, which users can accept with a
simple mouse-click, often forbid the user’s exercise of the
above-mentioned copyright exemptions, which are never-
theless recognized by law.4 In addition, new technological
barriers to the public domain have emerged along with dif-
ferent electronic management systems. These tools make it
possible to license access and to monitor on-line utilization
of works with contractual and technological protections. An-
other example of the move from a system intended to protect
creative works towards a system meant to protect private
investment is the case of the European database protection
directive. The copyright protection, which covers the original
architecture of the database, is supplemented by a protection
of the content itself. Consequently, the database producer can
prohibit retrieval and reutilization of material - including
basic information - for a 15-year period.5 This amounts to
granting a monopoly over a collection of information and
threatens the public access to information. Another is the
recent increase of the period covered by copyright. In many
countries, notably in Europe and the United States, the copy-
right period has been extended from 50 to 70 years after the
creator’s death.
The increased emphasis on profit has affected the develop-
ment of ICTs for education; legal negotiations have resulted
in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and
the agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS) under the GATT/WTO negotiations. The TRIPS

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was part of the discussions held by the General Agreement rations. As stated by UNRISD, “In sum the regime threatens
on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) negotiating forum. The GATT to negate the possibilities that cyberspace offers for a new
was replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in global forum, and to reduce this space to a marketplace
1995. In the context of the present study, the GATS mainly where a controlled volume of ideas will be traded.”12
relates to the development of educational services, and the
TRIPS to educational content. WIPO - WTO Debate13
The GATS6 (concluded in 1994) represented the first open
The inclusion of TRIPS in IPR discussions in the
discussions on promoting international trade in education
GATT/WTO negotiations was a source of discord between
services as if these were everyday consumer goods.7 GATS
the numerous participating developed and developing coun-
relates to the provision of education services in four areas:
tries regarding the benefits of IPR and on the appropriate
forum for discussions/negotiations on this issue.
1. Consumption abroad by citizens of a member country
(e.g. taking a course abroad);
One element of this debate is the role of WTO vis-à-vis that
2. Cross-border supply of a service (distance education);
of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as the
3. The commercial presence of a service supplier from
de-facto lead organization for IP matters. Many developing
member country A in the territory of member country B
countries continued to push for WIPO, where they were nu-
(foreign universities); and
merically superior to developed countries, as the lead organi-
4. The presence of natural persons from country A sup-
zation in IP matters. Special transition periods to phase
plying a given service in country B (e.g. foreign teachers
TRIPS commitments have been proposed for several devel-
in a country).
oping and least-developed countries. During the 1980s the
USA began to view GATT/WTO as the most promising fo-
The GATS is an important step in a process of 'opening'
rum for obtaining international intellectual property protec-
markets for services (including education) and the Millen-
tion, because it offered a dispute resulting mechanism that
nium Round of GATS negotiations is expected to ‘bring for-
could be used for IP matters.
ward’ the debate on the privatization of education. Only 40
of 143 Member States of WTO have agreed to fully imple-
In this framework, de-
ment GATS in the field of education.8 The GATS is there-
veloped countries ar- Only 40 of 143
fore not fully operational in the field of education, but its
gue that IP protection Member States of
implementation is indicative of the trend towards interna-
tional competition in national education markets.
promotes more rapid WTO have agreed to
economic growth and
development, while fully implement
The TRIPS relates to educational goods, and includes tech-
countries with less IP GATS in the field of
nology-related intellectual property such as computer soft-
ware.9 Computer software areas protected under TRIPS in-
protection have slower education.
evolution in size and
clude the prohibition of exact or near-exact copying of pro-
complexity of their
gram code and certain aspects of user interfaces.10 A Euro-
local markets. Therefore the argument follows that reforms
pean Union Directive on databanks aims to bring digital in-
of laws are a precondition to continued economic growth.
formation sources under the provisions of a copyright agree-
Benefits cited for stronger IP protection, aside from reduced
ment, meaning that many products in the public domain
enforcement and transaction costs, include increases in: do-
come under IPR protection once they are incorporated into
mestic investment and R&D; flow of new products, technol-
electronic databanks. In 1996, a lobby representing the inter-
ogy transfer; improvements in local knowledge and enhanced
ests of private companies such as Microsoft, Apple and IBM
value of patents.
proposed an article that would imply a 'pay per view' system
for Internet resources. This initiative was halted by a lobby
Numerous developing countries14 fear that protection of
that included Netscape, libraries and Internet Service Provid-
products and technology would enable large multinationals
ers who argued that such an act would “undermine the at-
to secure global monopolies and thereby charge exorbitant
tractiveness of the Net and seriously hamper free access to
prices for their goods. Arguments raised against increased
information.”11
enforcement of IP protection include the risks of: under-
utilization of inventions (patents may simply be used to pre-
Critics stress that TRIPS opens the way for private busi-
vent others from making or selling the product in the national
nesses to appropriate public information and represents a
market); scarcity of essential commodities (many countries
danger to equitable participation in the emerging knowledge
believe that certain products and technologies should not be
society. These agreements reflect a bias towards trade inter-
included in the intellectual property protection regime); re-
ests of developed countries over national socio-cultural aspi-
duced autonomy (the resistance to the establishment of a

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uniform global standard); and the lack of stimulus for 'local
specific' products (most patents in developing countries are
issued to foreigners).
Some developing countries express more interest in technol-
ogy transfer than in the encouragement of domestic innova-
tions and appropriating new technologies. The fundamental
premise of private property rights in industrialized countries -
that knowledge is a private capital – is challenged by a num-
ber of developing countries. It was argued that in some
countries certain forms of intellectual property are viewed as
a public good and that some cultures are hostile to any notion
that knowledge is a private capital.
The Private Sector as a
New Education Protagonist
The TRIPS and GATS legal agreements explicitly open the
doors for multinational companies to fill education market
niches and to compete with traditional institutions. The inte-
gration of ICTs and education is becoming both a key factor
for global economic success and a big business in itself.
UNDP (1999) highlights the direct link between control over
information and economic returns.15 As stated in its 1999
Human Development Report, more than half of the GDP in
the major OECD countries is now 'knowledge-based'. It is at
present impossible to support this general statement with a
comprehensive assessment of the economics of ICTs and
education. There are, however, a series of indicators that
point to the increasing economic significance of the ICT
sector in international economies and some national econo-
mies. Important variables include the contribution of the ICT
industry to the GDP of national economies and the role that
ICTs play in overall business investments.16 This section
examines the growth of the Internet-based distance/online
learning trend, and then provides an analysis of cost-
effectiveness of the different ICT-based learning options as a
whole.
The private sector is very interested in getting a larger share
of what it calls the education market, where global public
spending tops one trillion dollars.17 This figure represents the
costs of over 50 million teachers, one billion pupils and stu-
dents and numerous educational establishments. Education
businesses (for-profit schools, publishers, school supply
companies, corporate training firms, etc.) generate nearly
US$100 billion in revenue annually.18
There is, however, a notable lack of reliable information
concerning the scope and growth of this education market,
particularly with regard to the e-learning market.19 This phe-
nomenon is largely explainable by the fact that hardware,
software, training and telecommunication companies, corpo-
rate consulting firms, start-ups, franchises, etc. have an im-
portant financial interest in forecasting exponential growth in
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this field. These groups tend to present the complete techno-
logical makeover of education as a matter of urgency.
It is clear that investors are pouring ever-larger sums of start-
up capital into education businesses, a market that is cur-
rently still US-centric. The education and training industry is
now North America’s second largest, accounting for nearly
10 percent of its GDP. It is also the fifth largest service ex-
port at US$8.5 billion in 1997.20
Almost all investment firms predict exponential growth, es-
pecially for the online-distance education (e-learning) mar-
ket. Speculations are impressive: ‘We expect and online
training market of US$4 billion in 1999, growing at 40 per-
cent annually (Merrill Lynch); it will exceed $7 billion by
2002 (IDC); it will nearly double in size every year through
2003, reaching approximately $11.5 billion by that time (WR
Hambrecht+CO); $46 billion by 2005 with 50 percent to 85
percent gross margins. (Piper Jaffray)’.21
In contrast, government publications (U.S. Department of
Education;22 Australian Department of Education)23 state that
definitive figures on the size and growth of the industry are
not available. Some reports24 cite examples wherein large
companies finance studies by small ‘research institutes’,
which conveniently forecast exponential growth.
Education as A Public Good or
As A Commodity?
The development of the education market calls into question
the role of education: is it a public good or a commodity?25
What is the 'added value' of maintaining education as a pub-
lic good, assured by the State, especially in the cost-intensive
field of ICTs? How can the involvement of private industry,
developing education as a commodity 'for profit' be benefi-
cial to the pupil? Where and how can educational content and
services benefit best from the current growth of ICTs?
Traditionally, the state assures the financing, provision, ad-
ministration, and regulation of educational activities. In prin-
ciple, the advantages of this system of 'education as a public
good' are: equitable access to education; quality education
for all (through the redistribution of resources, coherent
methodologies and the harmonization of curricula etc.);26 the
promotion of civic responsibility and a common set of values
(education that empowers people to contribute effectively to
the democratic development of the country); and the preser-
vation of cultural diversity (promotion of a common lan-
guage and multilingualism).
Nevertheless, public education systems are often hampered
by difficulties in realizing their full potential due to factors
such as: severe budgetary constraints affecting quality and
access;27 long-term planning objectives maintained by rigid,
www.TechKnowLogia.org
top-heavy bureaucratic structures that restrict the provision
of up-to-date ICT training options;28 and lack of a clear strat-
egy for linking national education policy objectives to global
challenges arising from international diplomatic negotiations
(e.g. the GATS which effects national education systems, but
is decided in the international arena).
The provision of educational goods and services by private
industry represents a means to meet some of the challenges
facing public education systems, discussed above. For ex-
ample, a reduction of education costs and an increase in the
efficiency of educational programs seem possible with in-
creased competition between education suppliers.29 Ideally,
private industry would be capable of providing custom-
tailored 'just-in-time' education based on good analysis of
industry needs. It could primarily facilitate on-line education
content (vs. learner) mobility and access to the latest tech-
nologies. In the past, private providers have also improved
teaching quality in certain programs through the training and
evaluation of teaching staff as well as the recruitment and
support of part-time staff with both practical and teaching
expertise.30
However, greater involvement of private industry in educa-
tion brings risks that threaten the main objectives of public
education systems. Limited resources and lack of competi-
tion between suppliers may adversely affect quality, access,
and price of educational services, as marginalized groups do
not constitute a significant ‘target’ market.31 In addition, the
objective of private companies is not to develop autonomous,
critical future citizens, but workers and consumers. Other
risks include increased standardization/acculturation proc-
esses; dominance of foreign teaching models; lack of appro-
priate educational content in local languages; threats to
teachers’ working conditions (e.g. job security); and in-
creased dependence on foreign educational resources. The
curtailment of nation-state sovereignty also carries certain
risks, when questions concerning social development are
being transferred to WTO and its arbitration procedures.
Likewise, new e-learning providers are not bound by the
norms and ideals of traditional higher education and thus
might fail to link research and teaching, and to provide
community service, a comprehensive curriculum, or aca-
demic autonomy and control.
A serious risk of using public funding to support national
education and ICT development is that it may only nurture
an illusion of egalitarianism, while differences in access to
computer communication in fact reinforce existing inequali-
ties within the countries. Development agency investment in
this sector has also been criticized as principally helping the
communications industries penetrate new markets and set up
new dependencies. The ICT development agenda, directed
by powerful pressure groups, is driven by supply rather than
by demand, and is currently dominated by western educa-
tional models and market leaders. Inherent risks in this con-
text include the creation of monopolies of brand-name uni-
versities and celebrity professors, concentration of the own-
ership of content and communications system, as well as a
shortage of affordable, high quality, relevant software in
critical sections of the education market.32
Though private industry, motivated by the growing ICT and
education market, has the means to counter difficulties faced
by public education systems in specific fields (e.g. ICT
training classes for corporate management) and to contribute
to the improvement of services, it might also weaken the last
inclusive fortresses, which form critical citizens on all levels
- education systems. Each country needs to analyze these
developments critically, to forecast risks and formulate
strategies that will take into account the interests of future
generations.

1
Hamelink, Cess J.: Chapter 1, Human Development, in: World Communication and Information Report 1999-2000, cf. p. 43. Available at:
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/wcir/en/report.html.
2
Dusollier, Séverine; Poullet, Yves; Buydens, Mireille 2000: Copyright and access to information in the digital environment. A study pre-
pared for the UNESCO congress Infoethics 2000, p. 4. Available at:
http://webworld.unesco.org/infoethics2000/documents/study_poullet_en.rtf.
3
Dusollier, Séverine; Poullet, Yves; Buydens, Mireille 2000: Copyright and access to information in the digital environment. A study pre-
pared for the UNESCO congress Infoethics 2000, p. 4. Available at:
http://webworld.unesco.org/infoethics2000/documents/study_poullet_en.rtf.
4
Dusollier, Séverine; Poullet, Yves; Buydens, Mireille 2000: Copyright and access to information in the digital environment. A study pre-
pared for the UNESCO congress Infoethics 2000, p.19. Available at:
http://webworld.unesco.org/infoethics2000/documents/study_poullet_en.rtf.
5
Dusollier, Séverine; Poullet, Yves; Buydens, Mireille 2000: Copyright and access to information in the digital environment. A study pre-
pared for the UNESCO congress Infoethics 2000, p. 7. Available at:
http://webworld.unesco.org/infoethics2000/documents/study_poullet_en.rtf.
6
Education International Public Services International, The WTO and the Millennium Round: What is at stake for Public Education? EI/PSI
joint Publication.
7
The two main principles of the GATS are the most favored nation principle (all GATS signatories get favorable treatment from each other)
and national treatment (foreign companies in market of a country get the same favorable treatment as national companies in operating in the

! 18 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org

same market).
8
Education International and Public Services International: The WTO and the Millennium Round. What is at stake for Public Education?
Common concerns for workers in education and the public sector, Available at: http://www.ei-ie.org/main/english/index.html.
9
Gorlin, Jacques J. (1993) Update on International Negotiations on Intellectual Property Rights in Wallerstein, Mitchel, Mogee, Mary Ellen
and Roberta A. Schoen (eds) Global Dimensions of Intellectual Property Rights in Science and Technology, National Academy Press,
Washington DC, p.175.
10
Samuleson, Pamela (1993), A Case Study on Computer Programs. In Wallerstein, Mitchel, Mogee, Mary Ellen and Roberta A. Schoen
(eds.) Global Dimensions of Intellectual Property Rights in Science and Technology, National Academy Press, Washington DC p.295.
11
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD ) Info Tech project: ICTs and Social Development: the Global Policy
Context p.10.
12
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD ) Info Tech project: ICTs and Social Development: the Global Policy
Context p.10.
13
For the following paragraph, cf. Gutterman, Alan S. and Brown, Robert (Editors), Intellectual Property Laws of East Asia, Singapore,
Sweet & Maxwell Asia 1997 Chapter 1, Intellectual Property in the Global Marketplace.
14
The phasing of TRIPS agreements have been promoted for developing countries and in particular for LDCs. (Gutterman, Alan S. and
Brown, Robert (Editors), Intellectual Property Laws of East Asia, Singapore, Sweet & Maxwell Asia 1997, Chapter 1, Intellectual Property in
the Global Marketplace).
15
The growing significance of the ICT sector in international economies (and some national economies) are indicated by the contribution of
the ICT industry to the GDP of national economies, as well as by the role that ICTs play in overall business investments, cf. UNESCO 1999,
World Communication and Information Report 1999-2000, p. 34.
16
UNESCO 1999, World Communication and Information Report 1999-2000, p. 34.
17
Education International and Public Services International: The WTO and the Millennium Round. What is at stake for Public Education?
Common concerns for workers in education and the public sector, p. 2 Available at: http://www.ei-ie.org/main/english/index.html.
18
It is not clear if this is the revenue for the U.S. or the entire world, in: Peter Stokes 2000, e-learning: Education Businesses Transform
Schooling, White Paper prepared under contract to the American Institutes for Research on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, Of-
fice of Educational Technology, p. 5.
19
E-learning is here defined as the use of connected (inter-, intranets) computers in education to provide programs that deliver instruction, to
facilitate communication between learner and tutor, or to enable students to have access to remote sources of information.
20
Stephen P. Heyneman (1999), How large is the International Market for Educational Technologies and Services? TechKnowLogia, No-
vember/December 1999, p 1. [Available at: http://www.techknowlogia.org]
21
Cross, Jay (2000): The e-learning FAQ. [Available at: http://www.internettime.com/forum/faq.htm on 21/7/00], p. 9.
22
Peter Stokes 2000, e-learning: Education Businesses Transform Schooling, White Paper prepared under contract to the American Institutes
for Research on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology.
23
Australian Department of Education (2000): The Business of Borderless Education. Evaluations and Investigations Programme, Higher
Education Division. Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, 313 pages.
24
E.g. Cordes, Colleen and Miller, Edward (ed.): Fool’s gold: a critical look at computers in childhood. Alliance for Childhood, p. 98.
25
Education is first of all a human right and it will remain a public good, because education has substantial externalities. This means that the
public has a substantial interest in offering every individual a basic education. UNDP 1999, Global Public Goods: International Cooperation
in the 21st Century, edited by Inge Kaul, Isabelle Grundberg, and Marc A. Stern; Oxford University Press. Executive Summary,
http://www.undp.org/globalpublicgoods/Executive_Summary/executive_summary.html.
26
Philippe Quéau 2000: Governing the Global Knowledge Society, p.7,
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/points_of_views/queau_9.shtml.
27
The increasing demand for lifelong education opportunities results in the limited resources often being inefficiently and inequitably dis-
tributed towards higher education, though this area has lower social rates of return than investments in primary and secondary education.
(Gerver Torres and Sarita Marthur 1995: The Third Wave of Privatization. The World Bank, Washington, D.C., p. 9.
http://www.worldbank.org/education/economicsed/private/publications/thirdwave.htm , accessed on 7/26/00).
28
Private: short term revenue versus public sector: longer term resource planning; also tension between curriculum requirements and flexi-
bility brought about by educational software; software quality criteria change fast, bureaucracy has difficulties to follow. OECD/CERI Proj-
ect (1999), ICT and the quality of learning, Educational Multimedia Software Quality Group, Record of meeting of experts, 15-16 April
1999, point 1.6.
29
The involvement of the private sector might thus help to overcome budgetary constraints effecting the public sector.
30
Australian Department of Education (2000): The Business of Borderless Education. Evaluations and Investigations Programme, Higher
Education Division. Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, p. XIII.
31
Private industry focuses on people and educational services with promises of high return on investments rather than equity and social re-
distribution. ICTs could have developed devices based on sound, touch, images or symbols which do not require literacy, but markets are the
driving force for technological developments, and the needs of illiterates in the developing world were, and still are, completely ignored
(UNESCO 1999, World Communication and Information Report 1999-2000, p. 33).
32
OECD/CERI (1999), Working paper by the OECD Secretariat on Educational Multimedia Partnership, 22/6/1999, p. 1.

! 19 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org

 TechKnowNews
“Smart Villages” to put Egypt on
the Regional IT Map
Egypt is planning to build high-tech “smart villages” or IT
business parks in an attempt to compete with Dubai, Jordan
and Israel as the region’s technology hub. Egypt’s
Communications Minister, Ahmed Nazif, touted Egypt as the
gateway to Africa as well as a leader in media, television,
cinema and the Internet. The first “village” will build
outside Cairo, with a second planned for Mansoura, 125km
north of Cairo, and a third in Alexandra. President Hosni
Mubarak has allocated government land for these villages as
well as given them 10-year tax breaks. The private sector
has committed $26 million, from alliances with companies
including Microsoft, IBM and Cisco.
http://www.woza.co.za/reuters/nov00/egypt13.htm
Source: Balancing Act-Africa
South African Strategic Alliance to
Bring Voice Interactive Distance
Learning
A strategic alliance between MacroMagic Holdings and
CampusWise will bring advanced voice interactive distance
training via the Internet. The chosen technology, called
InterWise, will allow any student worldwide to participate,
regardless of time zone, and using the existing bandwidth
infrastructure. The service will offer live instructor-led,
voice interactive training sessions that will provide a “unique
sense of community” and will enable students to participate
in application sharing and teachers to utilize evaluation tools
that will enable them to continuously monitor the students’
progress. The minimum technology requirements for
participation are a computer with Internet access on a
standard telephone line, a sound card, and a headset with a
microphone.
http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/business/2000/0011170912.
asp
Source: Balancing-Act Africa
! 20 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
IFC Invests in Information
Technology Education in India
The International Finance Corporation will help India bridge
the digital divide gap by investing in student loans for
information technology education and financing a pilot
project to develop Internet-based education for children in
Indian slums. Developed jointly by Citibank, NIIT (an
Indian e-business solutions organization), and IFC, the
student loan project will help provide access to information
technology education by financing tuition fees of students
from lower-income families. The pilot project, called "Hole
in the Wall", “aims to discover how much poor children in
slums and rural areas of India can learn from a web-based
curriculum through a purpose-built Internet kiosk.”
http://www.worldbank.org/edinvest/niit_ifc.htm
Source: NIIT Limited.
US Web-Based Education
Commission Releases E-Learning
Report
The Web-based Education Commission, on December 19,
1999, released the most comprehensive analysis to date on
how the Internet is being used to enhance e-learning at the K-
12, higher education, and corporate training levels. Findings
revealed that the Internet “enables education to occur in
places where there is none, extends resources where there are
few, expands the learning day, and opens the learning place.”
It also “connects people, communities, and resources to
support learning,” and it, “adds graphics, sound, video, and
interaction to give teachers and students multiple paths for
understanding.” On the other hand, the report finds that the
Internet can also increase the technological gap between the
“haves” and “have nots.”
The Web-based Education Commission was established in
November 1999, by Congress to develop specific policy
recommendations geared toward maximizing the educational
promise of the Internet for pre-K, elementary, middle,
secondary, and post secondary education learners. It is made
up of 16 members, all appointed by Congress.
The report is available on the Commission’s website at:
http://www.webcommission.org .
www.TechKnowLogia.org
 Computer Simulations
And Policy Analysis
Professor Emeritus, Harvard University
Why Simulations
Simulations are used to study situations we do not yet fully
understand. If we had enough data and understanding, a
mathematical or algorithmic model could provide valid
answers to a problem. In many circumstances, however, we
lack understanding and cannot collect data. In the heat of the
policy process there is not enough time, authority or
resources, and data collection might create unrealizable
expectations or generate resistance to future reforms.
Simulations or representations of reality permit “innovation”
with less risk of doing harm and at less cost of time and
resources. A simulation can serve as an operating theory
which we “test” against our experience and best judgment.
Some simulations allow players to assess how well they have
done; these are called simulation games in which participants
or players compete against an underlying model or against
other players.
Simulations for policy analysis can be sorted into two
families. In one family are those that use algorithms to
simulate how a system operates. Users’ choices and possible
outputs are specified in advance. These simulations
sometimes are called structured or closed: they include
single-step as well as so-called interactive or decision tree
simulations. In these simulations the policy context and
process is defined a priori. Objectives are fixed, and all
constraints are known. Operation of the simulation points to
a “best choice” policy.
In the second family are simulations in which definitions of
“good” or “best” answers vary by situation according to
participants and judges. These are known as unstructured or
open simulations. They are based on transactions between
several actors with competing objectives; constraints become
known through action. Policy is the result of negotiation; it is
a product of multiple decisions by several actors.
The next two sections described several of each kind of
simulation. A third section discusses how simulations are
! 21 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
Noel F. McGinn
used, and how we can assess their utility. A concluding
section offers an argument for greater use of simulations in
policy analysis.
Structured Simulations
These simulations begin with the definition of a problem
situation. The next step defines the dimension along which
various types of simulations can be arranged.
Single-step, Non-interactive Simulations
One class of structured simulations is those in which all
choices and their impact on outputs of the simulation are
specified in advance. One type is designed to generate
responses to a single input of data. The operator sets the
initial values of the model, which then produces results. The
simulations may be run many times to define a “best”
solution or policy option. Examples are models that allow
users to vary conditions and estimate:
• future enrollments (Hoenack, 1997; Richardson &
Lamitie, 1989);
• internal efficiency (Schiefelbein, 1991);
• public finance (Wassmer & Fisher, 1996); and
• costs over time (Andersen, 1980).
They also have been used to estimate:
• supply of teachers as a function of training, aging,
retirement and death;
• the impact of changes in inputs (e.g., teacher training vs.
textbooks vs. class size) (Webster, 1997); and
• supply of graduates for the labor market.
One of the earliest (and most complex) simulations of this
type used linear programming to estimate the feasibility of
different kinds of policies in the context of a national reform.
The model estimated flows of students through the system,
www.TechKnowLogia.org
levels of training of workers in the labor force, numbers of
teachers, annual costs for training students, teachers and
workers, space available for students, and number of workers
required in the labor force. The model first revealed that
targets (for the labor force) could be met only by expansion
of secondary education. The simulation then permitted an
assessment of the cost feasibility of alternative policies (such
as automatic promotion, improved teacher quality and
reduced repetition) (Schiefelbein & Davis, 1974).
Another type permits a single user to interact with the model,
inputting data in response to the model’s response to earlier
inputs. If the first kind of simulation is used to estimate
likely outcomes from policy choices, this second kind is used
most often to estimate the sensitivity of the (assumed)
situation to a series of policy decisions. The relationships
between user inputs and outputs are probabilistic rather than
fixed. Unexpected outcomes require the user to keep more
variables in mind and to think strategically. In principle, any
single step deterministic simulation could be converted to an
interactive simulation by multiplying each coefficient by a
probability matrix. Technicians doing policy analysis use
single-step simulations most frequently. The main goal is to
generate the best response given the information built into
the model underlying the simulation.
Multi-step or Interactive Simulations
These simulations are most appropriate when more than one
decision-maker is involved in setting policy, that is, when the
policy process is seen as requiring political as well as
technical inputs. Because they can be used to generate more
than one feasible and likely outcome, they are used primarily
to identify alternative policy packages and a range of
outcomes rather than to identify a “best answer.”
Exemplary of this kind of simulation is APEX (Assessing
Policies for Educational Excellence) (Healey, 1984). The
underlying model shows the effects on enrollments, costs,
and school quality as a result of decisions affecting class
size, teacher training and other inputs. The model was
sufficiently complex to allow users to vary sets of variables
simultaneously. The simulation was developed initially to
assist the Opposition to the Apartheid government of South
Africa to anticipate the consequences of government-
proposed education reforms. Groups first discussed what
they thought would happen if policies were changed, then
compared their speculations with the model’s results. After
the transition to a democratic government, APEX was used
extensively to educate citizen groups on what reasonably
could be expected from various policy reforms.
Another kind of multi-step simulation is EPICS. This runs as
a table game in which the players’ decisions are scored by an
underlying computer model that calculates the impact of
! 22 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
allocations on educational indicators such as enrollment,
class size, gender equity and internal efficiency, as well as
indicators of economic growth, public health and population
growth. Players represent the staff of a ministry of education
charged with resource allocation through the annual budget.
Normally, the simulation takes players through five rounds
or annual budgets. External “events” that occur in several
rounds require that players reconsider the strategies they are
developing.
REDUC (the Latin American Network of Centers of
Educational Research) has produced six policy analysis
simulations. These combine structured and unstructured
elements (Heuristica educativa, 1998). Players assume roles
within a government agency, and must negotiate with other
actors to determine allocation of scarce resources. An
underlying mathematical model generates system responses
to these allocations, which then stimulate further
negotiations. The structure and logic of the simulations is as
follows:
• In teams, participants study a prepared case of a
fictitious developing country and formulate a diagnosis
and strategy for improvement.
• Teams acting as representatives of the government
allocate resources among various pre-determined policy
options. The simulation provides information about costs
and coverage for each policy. Team members represent
different sectors within the government; they compete to
convince the president that their sector should receive
the resources sought.
• At the end of each of three periods, the simulation model
reports the effectiveness of the team’s policy choices.
The cycle of resource allocation is repeated. (See “Using
Technology to Manage Education Information” in this
issue of TechKnowLogia for more information on
REDUC).
A third type of multi-step simulation presents participants
with an initial problem situation for which they must choose
among pre-determined policy options. Ensuing problem
situations presented by the simulation are determined by the
participants’ choices, that is, the simulation reacts to the
participants’ choices. Players experience simulations of this
kind as "interactive," but it should be noted that in fact the
underlying model is fixed. They might be likened to a
decision tree that permits choices that can describe a finite
number of paths.
One example of this kind of model is DECIDE (Welsh &
McGinn, 1999), a computer-based simulation designed to be
used by teams that discuss where to locate decision making
to solve the problem presented by the computer. The
sequences of situations that follow correspond to the school
calendar and are reactive to the participants’ choices. Each
www.TechKnowLogia.org
new situation provides text evaluating the previous choice in
terms of whether it solves the initial problem or generates
new ones. The participants’ progress is “scored” in reference
to whether they are able to keep up with the school calendar.
These multi-step simulations are designed to be used in
training seminars in which prior modules provide
information about policy options and their effectiveness. In
addition, the simulations themselves contain [Help] screens
or printed information linked to the specific choices facing
the participants. Often, a final training module is structured
to debrief participants and synthesize the policy principles
that have been learned.
Unstructured Simulations
Some problems are so complex, or so little understood, that it
is not possible to construct an underlying model. One
objective of unstructured simulations is to generate
information that contributes to improved understanding.
The well-known Delphi technique serves this purpose. The
technique was developed originally by the US military to
anticipate possible Soviet reactions to an accidental missile
launch by the United States. US participants took the roles of
Soviet officials and responded within their roles to an
extensive set of questions. Answers were collated and
presented to participants; those with deviant responses were
asked to justify their position. This process was continued
until participants reached a stable set of positions.
Latin America recently applied the Delphi technique with
respect to educational policy alternatives. One study asked
experts to comment on the effectiveness, cost and likelihood
of implementation of a wide variety of policies for primary
education, for which there is insufficient empirical research.
Those who varied from the central tendency on a given
alternative had to explain their reasoning. The final product
is a set of simulated data, based on informed speculation. In
this case, the study produced several conclusions that
contradict current policy initiatives (Schiefelbein, Wolff, &
Schiefelbein, 1999).
Role playing simulations are used widely as training
devices. They make it possible for participants to experience
(at low risk and low cost) some of the arguments and
processes that take place in policy analysis. Sometimes
computer software is included that contains information, or
programs the sequence of decision situations. For example,
simulations are used to train school principals in school
management or operational policy analysis. In an early
version, the “In-Basket” simulation, participants were
presented with serial memoranda from staff describing
problems to be resolved. In a more recent version, computer
! 23 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
software serially presents participants with information from
“interruptions, investigations and walkthroughs” to which
they indicate how they would respond (Maynes, et al., 1996).
Simulations for university officials provide them with case
studies and a simulated planning exercise (Morrison &
Brock, 1991). Simulations are used to train students in policy
analysis and leadership (Menton, 1994; Pickert, 1992), and
teachers in decision-making (Simon, et al., 1995).
Some educational policy decisions are made in a highly
conflictive arena involving multiple actors. Each of the
actors may come to the arena armed with results from the use
of some model, but each model is likely to be designed to
maximize different values or objectives. One or more actors
may seek to understand the prior objectives of the others, and
to include those in their personal simulation model. What
their model cannot do, however, is anticipate how the other
actors will react to the actions taken by the “informed” actor.
The situation is something like that in the game of chess.
Not only does the opponent have multiple options for
moving pieces at any given moment, but she/he may also
choose to try for a Win or a Draw. High-speed computers
compete successfully with champion chess players by
assessing the risk of every possible counter to the opponent’s
move. This is seldom feasible in real world policy situations
that have more options and actors than does chess.
Unstructured simulations provide minimal rules about
players’ choices; “scoring” is generally in terms of achieving
objectives (that may change with the course of play).
How are Simulations Used?
In some instances several simulations (or a mega simulation)
can be used for training in the policy process. One example
simulates an educational reform process, with simulations of
definition of mission, problem identification, problem
analysis, and implementation (Rowley & Hudzina, 1995).
The Utility of Simulations
Simulations are used primarily to expand understanding. One
categorization distinguishes between tactical-decision
simulations (such as resource allocation), and social process
simulations (Gredler, 1992). The former include as purposes:
• collect tacit knowledge and define complex problems;
• experience the sequence of events in a complex process;
• broaden understanding of critical variables; and
• learn about likely outcomes to resource allocation.
Social process simulations, on the other hand, serve
primarily to provide experience in the range of objectives
and actions that actors can take in the process of constructing
policies.
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Simulations, unlike research experiments, do not test simulation models are used to shape public opinion in a
hypotheses against reality. On the other hand, their objective desired direction.
is to improve our understanding of the reality that is
simulated. This poses a dilemma. Unless we argue that a
given problem has a best answer or that only certain
objectives are permissible, there is no way to demonstrate
Conclusion
that use of simulations results in “better” decisions.
Empirical research describes what has already happened. In a
rapidly changing world, the validity of conventional research
findings can quickly fade. On the other hand, systematic
How to Evaluate understanding cannot proceed without objective information.
Simulation Programs Simulations offer a means to study situations of rapid change
and high complexity that conventional empirical research
Evaluations of simulations focus on characteristics of the
cannot handle. Suppose, for example, we want to assess the
simulation itself, or on attitudes and behaviors of participants
possible impacts of new forms of education. A conventional
during and after the simulation. A good simulation has to
experiment will take years to deliver results. Simulation of
be credible if participants are to generalize to real-world
critical elements in the new forms may, however, yield
situations. This includes the problem definition, the sequence
valuable insights into problems and promises.
of events, the options available to participants, and
consequences of those actions. Non-structured or open
There is, of course, a risk involved. Simulations are not
situations have to define roles well enough so that
reality but can be very convincing. They share that quality
participants create a believable situation, yet avoid
with many of the development hypotheses offered as the
conditioning what participants do.
latest truth. In persuading a naïve decision-maker to jump to
action, reality can be made to imitate art, with disastrous
The simulation, or a series of simulations, has to run long
consequences. In a highly turbulent environment, or in a
enough for participants to form and test generalizations that
situation calling for radical reform, policy choices based on
result in re-organization of thinking and behavior. The
structured simulations are especially suspect. Simulations of
insights gained from running simulations might be about the
this type rely heavily on the past for their models of reality:
effectiveness of specific policy choices, or about the
they are the wrong vehicle to carry us into the future.
sensitivity of the simulated system to different changes. They
may also be about the kinds of factors, processes and social
Risks of peremptory action are reduced by broadening the
actors that must be taken into account in policy analysis.
range of actors involved in the policy process. Unstructured
These can include variations in physical inputs, in the
simulations can be highly useful procedures not only for
identity and objectives or values of the actors involved in the
identification of new policy alternatives but also for
policy process, or the sequence of events in the process itself.
generation of consensus around objectives and policies to
achieve them. The simulation provides a systematic means to
A common criterion for evaluation of a simulation is whether
make explicit the tacit knowledge of various actors, and to
experts find it thought provoking and credible. When the
construct a shared perspective on the problem situation.
credibility of a simulation is high, its results can be used as if
These simulations are an important tool for reformers
they had empirical validity, and may play a decisive role in
seeking a new education.
policy struggles. For example, the results of sophisticated

REFERENCES
Andersen, D. F. (1980). Using Feedback Simulation to Test Educational Finance Policies. Policy Sciences, 12(3), 315-331.

Gredler, M. (1992). Designing and Evaluating Games and Simulations. Houston TX: Gulf Publishing Company.

Healey, F. H. (1984). Policy Support in South Africa: An Emerging Paradigm. The Forum for Advancing Basic Education and
Literacy, 3(4).

Heuristica educativa. Santiago: UNESCO/OREALC, 1998.

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Hoenack, S. A. (1997). An Application of a Structural Model of School Demand and Supply To Evaluate Alternative Designs
of Voucher Education Systems. Economics of Education Review, 16(1), 1-14.

Maynes, B., & et al. (1996). Computer-Based Simulations of the School Principalship: Preparation for Professional Practice.
Educational Administration Quarterly, 32(4), 579-94.

Menton, L. K. (1994). The Use of Simulation as a Teaching Strategy for Civic Understanding and Participation. Teaching
History: A Journal of Methods, 19(1), 3-18.

Morrison, J. L., & Brock, D. M. (1991). Organizational Planning and Policy Analysis: Combining Theory with Experiential
Learning. Innovative Higher Education, 15(2), 137-51.
Pickert, S. M. (1992). Using Simulations to Teach Leadership Roles. Teaching Education, 5(1), 37-42.

Richardson, G. P., & Lamitie, R. E. (1989). Improving Connecticut School Aid: A Case Study with Model-Based Policy
Analysis. Journal of Education Finance, 15(2), 169-88.

Rowley, K., & Hudzina, M. (1995). Mega Planning: A Simulated Re-Invention of U.S. Public Schools. International Journal
of Educational Reform, 4(3), 271-84.

Schiefelbein, E. (1991). Efficiency and Quality of Latin American Education. Santiago, Chile: OREALC-UNESCO.

Schiefelbein, E., & Davis, R. G. (1974). Development of Educational Planning Models and Application in the Chilean School
Reform. Lexington MA: Lexington Books.

Schiefelbein, E., Wolff, L., & Schiefelbein, P. (1999). El Costo Efectividad de las Politicas de Educacion Primaria en America
Latina: Estudio basado en la opinion de expertos. Boletin del PREALC, 49.

Simon, S., & et al. (1995). The Simulated Class as a Method for Studying Teacher Decision Making. Computers in Human
Behavior, 11(2), 163-80.

Wassmer, R. W., & Fisher, R. C. (1996). An Evaluation of the Recent Move to Centralize the Finance of Public Schools in
Michigan. Public Budgeting & Finance, 16(3), 90-112.

Webster, T. (1997). Cost Analysis and its Use in Simulation of Policy Options: The Papua New Guinea Education Finance
Model. International Review of Education/Internationale Zeitschrift Fuer Erziehungswissenschaft/Revue Internationale de
L'Education, 43(1), 5-22.

Welsh, T., & McGinn, N. (1999). DECIDE: A Simulation of Relocating Decision Making in Education Systems (Version 4)
[CD]. Washington DC: Academy for Educational Development.

! 25 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org

 New Technologies
For Automated Essay Test Scoring
Richard Swartz
President, ETS Technologies
rswartz@etstechnologies.com

ETS Technologies, a new subsidiary of Educational Testing Service, was established with
the goal of bringing ETS's many technological innovations in the field of assessment to
institutions of higher education, community colleges, school districts, and online learning
partners. The current focus of ETS Technologies' efforts is on enhancing the use of learning
and assessment tools by providing automated scoring capabilities built upon natural
language processing (NLP) technology. ETS is a leader in the field of NLP research and is
noted for the development of e-rater™, an automated essay scoring capability currently used
in the scoring of essays written by Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) ™
examinees. ETS Technologies' first product, Criterion Online Writing Evaluation, is a web-
based service that incorporates the e-rater scoring engine to provide students and teachers
with score feedback on writing samples. Ongoing e-rater research is focusing on providing
additional information about a student's writing ability that will aid in the improvement of
writing skills. ETS Technologies' scientists are also conducting research on the development
of c-rater, an application that evaluates the conceptual accuracy of short-answer responses.

E-rater™ Proven highly effective and accurate, e-rater has provided

E-rater is a groundbreaking automated essay scoring system
developed at ETS by Dr. Jill Burstein and other researchers
in natural language processing, a sub-field of artificial
intelligence. The e-rater system is designed to score essays
based on an analysis of writing features as reflected in
holistic scoring rubrics. E-rater is an extraordinary
automated essay scoring technology now available to
institutions and corporations. For over a decade, ETS has
been researching the characteristics of natural language and
how to devise computer programs to evaluate writing.
Building on earlier research, ETS scientists took the general
qualities of writing - syntactic variety, topic content, and
organization of ideas - and found ways to directly measure
each quality and automatically extract them from essays
using natural language processing (NLP) and information
retrieval (IR) techniques. The result was an automated
scoring technology that allows the computer to be taught the
features of writing and provide accurate writing assessment.
The system is designed to analyze two types of essays:
analysis of an issue and analysis of an argument. E-rater
scores a word-processed essay within seconds.
one of the two scores for over 600,000 examinee responses
to essay questions administered as part of the GMAT. The
agreement rate between e-rater and expert faculty readers on
GMAT essays consistently exceeds 97 percent.
Many of the NLP techniques used in automated essay
scoring are described in research reports and studies
available at http://www.ets.org/research/erater.html.
How E-rater Works
While e-rater is a powerful scoring engine, it is not meant to
replace a teacher whose judgment is essential to helping
students improve their writing ability. E-rater learns to score
essays on a particular topic by processing a significant
number of essays on the topic, each of which has been scored
by two or more faculty readers.
E-rater replicates the scoring process of expert faculty
readers when they judge writing. Like faculty readers, e-rater
evaluates essays in terms of salient features reflected in a

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scoring rubric (also called a scoring guide). These features
include:
• Structure: Syntactic variety, or the use of various
structures in the arrangement of phrases, clauses, and
sentences;
• Organization: Characteristics associated with the
orderly presentation of ideas, such as rhetorical features
and linguistic cues (logical connections between
sentences and clauses); and
• Content: Vocabulary related to the topic, such as
relevant information and precise or specialized
vocabulary.
E-rater is trained on these features by analyzing large
samples of essays that have been scored by expert readers.
E-rater is fed sample essays representing each score point on
the scoring scale (or scoring rubric) and uses NLP techniques
to replicate the scoring performance of readers. It goes
through this process of feature analysis and model building
for each essay topic that it scores. Thus, the final set of
features (that is, the model) used to compute scores is likely
to differ somewhat across topics.
E-rater features must not only be predictive of readers'
scores, but also must have some logical correspondence to
the features that readers are instructed to consider when they
award scores. These characteristics are specified in the
scoring rubric that guides readers when they score essays.
After evaluating these features, e-rater generates a holistic
(or overall) score based on what it has learned about essays
on that particular topic.
Try E-rater
If you would like to see how e-rater works, you can select a
sample essay on a demo topic and submit it to e-rater for
scoring. Several seconds later, you will see the e-rater score
assigned to that essay, along with a descriptive text
associated with that score point. Access the website at
http://www.etstechnologies.com for information and
instructions.
Caveats
An e-rater score will be most beneficial to students who
make a good faith effort at using it to improve their writing
skills. When writers respond to the topic and develop an
essay response in the suggested time, they will receive a
score that corresponds to a reader's evaluation based on the
scoring criteria for that topic. It is important to remember
that e-rater is a software program. It cannot read or respond
to an essay as a teacher would. The computer learns to score
essays on each topic by comparing linguistic features of
writing that match a large group of "training" essays at each
score point on the score scale. The resulting model is used to
evaluate a student's essay by comparing all of the words and
! 27 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
combinations of words (e.g., phrases and clauses) in it to all
of the words and combinations of words in the training set.
E-rater does not count the number of words in an essay;
instead it looks for particular words and groups of words that
have meaning in relation to the topic and the content found in
all the training papers.
E-rater Advisory Messages
If e-rater cannot make a connection between a particular
essay and the essays upon which the model was built, then
no score is displayed to the writer. Rather, one of several
possible Advisory messages is displayed. These Advisory
messages give the writer information that may help them to
improve their essay.
When an Advisory message is displayed, it is for one of the
following reasons:
• Compared to other essays written on this topic, the essay
contains more repetition of words and phrases.
• Compared to other essays written on this topic, the essay
is briefer and less well developed.
• Compared to other essays written on this topic, the essay
might not be relevant to the assigned topic.
• Compared to other essays written on this topic, the essay
appears to be a restatement of the essay topic with few
additional details.
• The essay does not resemble other essays written on this
topic. It may exhibit a unique style or vocabulary or a
pattern of development not typically found in other
essays written on this topic.
• The essay is too brief to evaluate.
Experienced writers, teachers, and writing assessment
specialists have tested e-rater to determine the extent to
which it "understands" the content of essay responses. Some
of these writers have submitted essays that have tricked e-
rater into giving a score even though the essay does not make
any sense. The individual words in these "challenge essays"
are grammatically correct, but they are strung together in
such a way that they create nonsense sentences. Advisory
messages serve to alert writers that e-rater can intercept
many essays that are not authentic responses to the essay
topic.
Using E-rater
To make use of e-rater, institutions and companies may
either use standard writing prompts available from ETS
Technologies or they may develop their own writing
prompts. Standard writing prompts from ETS Technologies
are ready-to-use, since e-rater scoring models have already
been built for them. Those who choose to develop
customized writing prompts must then collect essay
responses to these prompts, score them, and transmit them to
ETS Technologies such that an e-rater scoring model can be
built and certified.
www.TechKnowLogia.org

In order for e-rater to build a scoring model for a topic, it
must first be trained by analyzing essays written on that
topic. These essays must each have received two scores from
independent readers who have been trained to apply scoring
standards consistently and fairly. This pool of training essays
must also represent the entire scoring scale (most often a
scale from 1-6), so that e-rater can be trained to recognize
essays at each of the score points. If the scores are not
assigned consistently and accurately, then e-rater will not be
able to ascertain what a "6" essay looks like and how it
differs from a "5" essay, and so on. Thus, the reliability of a
customized scoring model depends, to a large extent, on the
quality of the scoring process and on having the necessary
number of essays at each score point across the scoring scale.
If there are not enough "6" essays in the training data, then e-
rater will not learn to accurately recognize an essay that
deserves a "6" when essays are submitted for e-rater scoring.
To build a customized scoring model, you will need
• Scoring standards clearly defined in a scoring rubric (or
scoring guide);
• An essay topic that reflects the writing task represented
in the scoring rubric;
• A student population identical or similar to the
population who will be using the topic; and
• Two independent reader scores for each essay response.
ETS Technologies' first product, Criterion Online Writing
Evaluation, is a web-based service that incorporates the e-
rater scoring engine and provides students in middle-school,
high school, and college with instant score feedback on
writing samples they submit. The Criterion service is
designed to supplement writing instruction; it expands
opportunities for learners to practice writing and receive
reliable feedback based on widely accepted standards.
Licensed to academic institutions, Criterion offers students
an opportunity to improve their skills by writing and revising
in a self-paced, risk-free environment. From September
through December 2000, more than 50 schools and colleges
throughout the U.S. participated in a pilot of Criterion.
Feedback from pilot institutions will help enhance Criterion
service.
For institutions with no need for real-time scoring, ETS
Technologies will soon make available a batch scoring
service. This service will permit institutions to collect word-
processed essays from their users and submit them for
! 28 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
scoring in a single batch. A file of essay scores, associated
with individual essays, would be returned to the institution.
Uses of Criterion
Writing teachers and other educators have suggested three
uses for Criterion
1. Supplement to Classroom Instruction
At the beginning of a course, instructors can get a global
assessment of a class's writing ability without grading each
student's essay. Early in a course, an instructor can select
one of Criterion's topics as a first assignment, using the
results as the basis for individual writing conferences or any
other instructional application. The same topic can be used
at the mid-term and/or end of the course to track
improvement. On the basis of one or two Criterion
evaluations, an instructor may refer students to a writing lab
or resource center for early intervention. During a course,
students can benefit from ongoing writing and revising
practice, and from obtaining immediate feedback, all of
which remains a part of an individual portfolio. This
opportunity provides practice with or without instructor
involvement.
2. Learning Center or Resource Room Instruction
and Feedback
Tutors and resource teachers can use a student's essay
response and score for baseline and ongoing evaluation. With
this information, both tutor and student can set goals and
create activities to develop the writer's skills and confidence.
Students who visit the Learning Center on an "as needed"
basis can write on an authentic topic and receive standards-
based feedback. Instructors can collaborate with tutors and
resource teachers to design writing and revising strategies for
students who need individualized instruction or targeted
practice to correct specific writing problems.
3. Placement in Writing Courses
The e-rater score should be considered as one piece of
evidence about a student's writing ability. When an e-rater
score is being used for an important decision about a
student's performance, instructors should review and evaluate
the e-rater score to ensure that the appropriate decision about
placement or performance has been made. Colleges and
universities may require all incoming students to write on
one of Criterion's topics under timed testing conditions. On
the basis of these results, students can be assigned to the
appropriate level of writing course. During the first week of
class, instructors can confirm placement by assigning
students a Criterion topic and reviewing the feedback.
Appropriate changes in class assignments can be made early.
Topics and Rubrics
Criterion's topics are designed for different purposes and
grade levels. In Version 1, Criterion provides essay topics in
www.TechKnowLogia.org
three different categories that can be used in a variety of
instructional applications:
• College-level topics used for placement decisions and/or
in introductory composition or developmental writing
courses.
• Academic skills topics used for assessing general
writing ability. These topics may also be suitable for
upper-level high school students.
• National standards topics used in 8th and 12th grade
expository writing classes.
When selecting a group of topics for students, it is important
to consider the following:
• Appropriateness of the writing test for the population;
• Suggested writing time for the task; and
• Features in the rubric that shaped the automated scoring
model.
While college-level students could respond to the 8th grade
essay topic, their score feedback would reflect how their
writing compares to 8th grade writing -- not college-level
writing.
Within the Criterion web-based service, a "test" is an essay
topic. Your school or institution will select the topics your
students will use during the pilot. These topics will be
grouped and located in your account, and students will be
directed to a website location to access them. "Take a Test"
shows you what students will do and see as they access
Criterion's topics.
Teacher Participant Report
Instructors have access to each student's file, grouped by
class or section. These files are organized by student name.
Instructors can review all essays and scores within each file
and can print the report and all contents for classroom or
conference use. When you open the Teacher Participant
Report, you will see the Enterprise Reporter screen.
Enterprise Reporter offers five types of reports. The reports
that currently appear have limited functionality at this time.
A sample of student essays and scores is included in the
Participant Report and List Report to demonstrate a few of
the functions that were available to pilot participants.
Student Participant Report
When students submit essays for scoring, they will receive
an immediate report with the score and the features of
writing associated with that score point. Students may track
their progress by accessing their reports to see all essays (or
tests) they have written. These reports are organized by date,
and indicate essay topic, essay response, score, and printing
capability.
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C-rater
C-rater or concept-rater is an exciting automated scoring
technology under development at ETS Technologies. Our
scientists are exploring the feasibility of automating the
scoring of short-answer content-based responses to questions
such as those that appear in a textbook's chapter review
section.
ETS Technologies is now conducting research that explores
the feasibility of automated scoring of short-answer content-
based responses, such as those based on questions that
appear in a textbook's chapter review section. Research
scientists, Dr. Claudia Leacock and Dr. Martin Chodorow,
have developed an automated scoring prototype, concept-
rater (c-rater), using natural language processing technology,
and have evaluated its effectiveness at producing
"right/wrong" or "credit/no credit" ratings. Initial results are
encouraging; c-rater achieved over 80 percent agreement
with the score assigned by an instructor. If successful, this
research has the potential to evolve into an automated
scoring application that would be appropriate for evaluating
short-answer constructed responses in online instruction and
assessment applications.
To enhance this research program, ETS Technologies is
interested in collaborative research projects with institutions
assessing students' responses online and with companies
offering online instruction. For such collaborations, the
institution or company would provide:
• Short-answer questions used in an online course
application, for which the desired responses consist of a
concept (e.g., a definition or a summary) about two or
three sentences long;
• The digital form of the textbook or materials on which
the course is based;
• "Gold standard" answers to each of the questions,
written by at least two content experts or instructors; and
• Approximately 100 students' online responses to the
questions, with scores by content experts using the "gold
standard" answers.
Those interested in discussing research opportunities can
contact Claudia Leacock at:
cleacock@etstechnologies.com.
Further Information
For more information on ETS Technologies and e-rater, c-
rater, and Criterion Online Writing Evaluation, see the
website, http://www.etstechnologies.com.
www.TechKnowLogia.org
 HONDURAS:
Smoothing the Process of the Project Cycle
In all matters relating to public policy: implementation mat-
ters, good ideas rarely suffice. Good ideas may lead to good
project designs but, unless good designs lead to good imple-
mentation, the chances are slim that good projects will pro-
duce good results. The differences are not merely abstract.
Although not all ideas are equally easy to implement, in the
end what separates a good project from a bad one is the fit
between the complexity of the operation and the capabilities
of the implementing institution(s). Good projects are imple-
mentable.
SOCIAL INVESTMENT FUNDS
Drawing from recent experiences in the world of develop-
ment policy, the social investment funds (SIFs) provide par-
ticularly illustrative examples of the relation between project
design, implementation, and results. Social investment funds
are autonomous entities originally created (early 1990s) as
temporary mechanisms for mitigating the adverse effects of
structural adjustment on the poor (see Goodman, et al., 1997;
Tendler and Serrano, 1999). Most remain in operation today.
Justifications leading to their creation and prolonging their
existence may vary, but largely they are grounded in a belief
that social investment funds offer what line ministries gener-
ally lack: institutional capacities, flexibility, and demand-
drive. Social investment funds owe their creation precisely to
a desire to get around weak, overly centralized and fiscally
strapped ministries and to rapidly deliver goods and services
to local communities. Insofar as these structures are parallel
to but distinct from line ministries, they are not subject to
civil service or procurement regulations of the state. Dis-
bursement of funds and implementation of works thus are
deemed to be more timely and efficient.
The Honduran Social Investment Fund (FHIS, for its abbre-
viation in Spanish), created in 1990 as a decentralized arm of
the Office of the Presidency and recently extended through
2012, falls squarely along these lines. Its main activities, past
and present, focus on the formulation and implementation of
local development projects in the fields of education, health,
potable water, sewage, and small-scale roads. Indeed, the
Fund has had considerable success: since its inception, an
estimated US$35-40 million is invested annually and various
indicators of poverty have shown improvement. The con-
struction of rural health centers has increased access to pro-
fessional medical care, and water quality has been improved
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Aimee Verdisco
Carlos Gargiulo
Inter-American Development Bank
throughout the FHIS target area. In addition, more than half
of the net increase in supply of education can be traced to
public works initiated by the FHIS; this, in turn, has led to a
reduction in student/teacher ratio from 45 in 1993 to 37 in
1998. Yet, in the wake of Hurricane Mitch, US$80 million in
projects has been backlogged and capacities for rapidly dis-
bursing funds and responding to local demands have been
stretched, perhaps too thinly.
COMPUTERIZATION OF PROCESS
To ease these processes and smooth the operation, FHIS is
banking on the potential of computers and the Internet. With
the support of the Inter-American Development Bank, the
Fund is in the process of computerizing the project cycle in
the 20 municipalities with adequate administrative and tech-
nological infrastructure.1 Technology is seen as an immediate
and effective means for boosting the institutional capacities
of these municipalities, especially in matters dealing with the
formulation and implementability of projects. As computeri-
zation of the FHIS project cycle takes hold, many responsi-
bilities will be delegated directly to local communities, thus
generating gains in administrative efficiency and local own-
ership of projects. The transition between project formulation
and implementation also will be smoothed. Computerization
not only boosts capacities necessary to translate ideas into
concrete policy (e.g., the timely payment and processing of
requests, communication between interested parties, and
community participation). It also insulates the project cycle
from undue politicization, making it more transparent and
easily accessible to local populations. Technology is a tech-
nical tool to help ensure that all projects created and imple-
mented through the FHIS are, in the end, good - imple-
mentable - projects.
OPERATIONAL DELEGATION OF THE PROJECT
CYCLE
FHIS, like most social investment funds, seeks to reduce
poverty by increasing access to basic social services. Its mo-
dus operandi relies on participation from local communities
and governments. Indeed, all FHIS projects start with the
needs of and input from intended beneficiaries, building up-
and outwards to frame these needs in a parlance and format
understood by governments and their technocrats. The dele-
gation of the project cycle and its computerization both
strengthens and eases these processes.
www.TechKnowLogia.org
Operational delegation of the project cycle complements a
decentralized mode of service delivery. The starting point is
the local level, and in the case of Honduras, the 20 munici-
palities referred to above. These municipalities will assume
responsibilities for the identification of FHIS projects, the
formulation of these projects, their execution and all mainte-
nance; the FHIS retains the roles of financier and evaluator.
The relationship between the municipal government and the
FHIS perhaps is best understood through the analogy of a
second-tier institution. Even in instances where resources
transferred from the FHIS to the municipality are not reim-
bursable, the analogy still holds. First, the FHIS extends a
line of financing to the municipality and does so with strings
- controls - attached. For one, initial disbursement does not
exceed 40% of total projected costs. The municipality is ex-
pected to have resources on hand to cover advancements to
contractors. These resources serve to "guarantee" the mu-
nicipality's commitment to the project at hand. As costs are
estimated and verified, the FHIS reimburses the municipal-
ity. Secondly, management information systems utilized for
purposes of the project cycle are to be kept separate from
those utilized for the municipality more generally. Although
some overlap between such systems is likely to occur, inde-
pendence is necessary to ensure transparency and proper
accounting of FHIS resources. Third, project cycle systems
are to be made public and are subject to review by FHIS.
WHAT TECHNOLOGY ADDS
Local communities rarely speak the same "language" as gov-
ernment bureaucrats and technocrats. Regardless of at what
level of governments these staff are found or what positions
they hold, chances are that "something" will be "lost in the
translation" of ideas to projects. Even if this translation is
perfect, differences in opinion may exist in how a project
should be implemented or how its progress should be re-
ported or what format communication between beneficiaries
and financiers should take. Any such loss in "translation"
reduces efficiency and reductions in efficiency, in turn, in-
crease project costs. Undesirable by any count.
Computerization of the project cycle eases these processes. It
is a technical tool that eases the project cycle by: 1) making
the translation of local needs into bureaucratic parlance prac-
tically seamless - that is, getting the resources to fund a proj-
ect in the first place; and 2) smoothing, if not altogether re-
moving, bureaucratic and administrative burdens - that is,
maintaining the project's implementablity. Indeed, it is well
known that projects often suffer from a host of problems
related to the mismatch between project objectives and in-
stitutional capacities for implementation. In some cases, pro-
curement and reporting procedures are simply too complex
for implementing institutions to comply with. In others, co-
ordination between different ministries proves impossible
and local participation falls short of expected levels. Herein
! 31 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
lies the appeal of computerization and Internet technology: to
a very real extent, they have the potential to narrow the gaps
that jeopardize implementability.
NUTS AND BOLTS
Municipal governments eligible for the delegation of the
project cycle can chose either to adopt the FHIS software or
adapt their existing software to FHIS requirements. In the
case of the latter, eleven data fields must appear:
I. Project Eligibility
II. Project Identification
Field 1: Prioritization of request
Field 2: FHIS acceptance of project
III. Project Formulation
Field 3: Design of project
Field 4: Evaluation of project design
Field 5: Revision of project design
Field 6: Approval of design by Operations Com-
mittee
Field 7: Work out details for contractual arrange-
ments with FHIS. Presentation of municipal guar-
antee to FHIS
Field 8: Receipt of initial disbursement from FHIS
IV. Project Execution
Field 9: Control and monitoring of implementation;
supervision and inspection; subsequent disburse-
ments as costs are estimated
V. Project Termination
Field 10: Completion of works certified
Field 11: Financing closed
VI. Maintenance
It is through these common data fields that the FHIS moni-
tors the progression of local projects. Indeed, each step can
be seen as a decision point: the information presented in each
field can either be accepted or rejected by the FHIS.
The municipalities also monitor the progression of the proj-
ect cycle. Yet their responsibilities for monitoring extend far
beyond those of the FHIS. Areas subject to FHIS oversight
largely remain limited to the eleven data fields outlined
above. The municipalities, in contrast, monitor those areas
often referred to as pre- and post-project - i.e., the steps
leading to the project concept and determination of eligibility
for FHIS support on the one hand, and all processes ensuring
maintenance of works upon termination, on the other.
Notably, however, with the operational delegation of the
project cycle software, most of the administrative burdens
associated with monitoring are removed. Once a municipality
has a project concept in mind, it simply enters basic and
baseline data into its computer (linked with FHIS via PC
Anywhere), and the software does the rest. Project monitor-
ing - at least from an administrative point of view - is all but
www.TechKnowLogia.org
automatic. The software indicates next steps, prompts atten-
tion to necessary forms and follow-up correspondence.
Communication - e.g., regarding contractual agreements,
procurement, payments, environmental specifications, etc. -
during this process takes place online, through email and the
Internet.
TECHNOLOGY PLUS
Machines, of course, cannot make all decisions. Also, infor-
mation in and of itself cannot substitute for knowledge and
experience. Technology may ease the flow of information
and keep a given process on track but, in many instances,
technical criteria will give way to judgement calls. For in-
stance, FHIS inspectors control the quality of projects and
assure compliance with FHIS norms and standards.
Evidence exists to suggest that computerized administrative
systems work best when supported by teams of qualified
professionals. Delegation of the project cycle thus requires
that the human-side of the equation be in place. Indeed, the
creation of a municipal office of technical assistance and the
training of staff are pre-conditions for participation. These
offices are comprised of an engineer, a general administrator,
and an information technology specialist and are supported
by specialists in the municipal environmental units. Staff at
the municipal level, in turn, are supported by staff in the
FHIS, and vice versa.
THE ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES
The challenges of computerizing and delegating projects
cycles loom large. Especially in a country like Honduras,
where poverty remains widespread and much of the nation's
institutional memory was carried away by Mitch, any com-
puterized network will be vulnerable to limitations of infra-
structure and resources, human and otherwise. Arguments
could also be made that other investments - e.g., in basic
social services - merit priority over technology.
Yet counter arguments, too, are many. Information flows
more efficiently, responses are timelier, participation be-
comes broader based, as is ownership of projects, and de-
centralization is strengthened. In countries like Honduras,
technology allows for leapfrogging across the board. For
example, many of the projects included in the FHIS's present
US$80 million backlog fall in the fields of education, health
and potable water. The causes of this backlog, although var-
ied, stem from the destruction and emergencies left in the
wake of Hurricane Mitch. The infusion of technology into
the project cycle will allow for a more fluid and rapid ex-
change of information within and throughout all affected
ministries. Bureaucratic snares are minimized and the effi-
ciency with which goods and services - e.g., schools, teach-
ers, and textbooks - are delivered to communities, is maxi-
mized.
These factors all are necessary conditions for good projects.
Yet, they are insufficient. Good projects also are cost-
effective responses to local needs and are "owned" by local
communities. It is in this regard that the benefits of delega-
tion and computerization of the project cycle may be great-
est. These processes are specifically designed to bring local
decision-making and participation to bear throughout the
project cycle. And, as experience - and empirical evidence -
illustrates, locally designed and owned projects often are
more cost-effective in the short- to medium term and sustain-
able over the long-term.

SOURCES

Durán de Jager, Patricia (1997). The Roles and Relationships of the Social Investment Funds, Local Governments and
Communities in Central America. On the web at:
http://www.iadb.org/regions/re2/consultative_group/groups/decentralization_workshop_2.htm.

Fondo Hondureño de Inversión Social (2000). Programa de Inversión Social: Reporte Preliminar.

Goodman, Margaret, Samuel Morey, Gabriel Siri, and Elaine Zuckerman (1997). Los fondos de inversión social en
América Latina: Resultados y papel futuro. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.

Planning and Development Collaborative International (2000). Delegación del Ciclo de Proyectos de FHIS, Informe Final.

Tendler, Judith and Rodrigo Serrano (1999). The Rise of Social Funds: What are They a Model Of? Paper presented at the
Inter-American Development Bank.

1
San Pedro Sula, Danli, La Ceiba, Tegucigalpa, Santa Roca de Copán, Puerto Cortés, El Progreso, Villanueva, Choloma,
Comayagua, La Lima, Roatán, Olanchito, San Lorenzo, Caracamas, Santa Cruz de Yojoa, Choluteca, Juticalpa, Santa Barbara,
La Libertad.

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 Using Technology to Manage Education Information
ERIC - Educational Resources Information Center
Dr. Lee G. Burchinal
President, ASSIST INTERNATIONAL INC.
(the Educational Resources Information
Center) was established in 1965 as the national education
information system by the U.S. Department of Education to
provide quick, assured access to the U.S. educational re-
search literature. At the time, ERIC was based on the latest
information technology - big, slow mainframe computers and
microfiche reproduction of reports. Since then, ERIC has
evolved into not only the largest, most diverse, and most
used educational database in the world, but also as a leader in
applying information technology.
Approach
From an initial database of only a few thousand records,
ERIC now includes over one million records, covering all
fields, disciplines, varieties, and levels of education. Over
32,000 new records were added to the database in 1999. But
more important for the millions of ERIC users each year,
ERIC has evolved from a conventional database into an im-
pressive array of user-oriented, Web-based services. In addi-
tion to the growing power and reduced cost of Internet serv-
ices, this evolution was abetted by two decisions made in the
design of ERIC in 1965. The first and most important deci-
sion was to develop a decentralized system, based on the
operation of semi-autonomous clearinghouses, independent
of but funded by the Department of Education. The second
was to rely on private contractors and independent firms to
provide online services, CD-ROM distribution, micrographic
reproduction of reports, printing, and other outreach services
for users. As a result, ERIC is widely and easily accessible
through a variety of sources to millions of users throughout
the world. For example, users can find information from:
• Four free Web sites, two of which are operated by ERIC
clearinghouses, each of which had over 500,000 viewers
in 1999
• Four commercial online vendors
• Many locally maintained online services
• Four CD-ROM vendors
• Over 1,000 local microfiche collections of ERIC reports
maintained by libraries in 26 countries
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• 350 libraries serving over 3 million users in 12 countries
where users can search and download the full texts of
most ERIC reports since 1993
Innovations
The decentralized design, while intended to make subject
specialists outside the U.S. government responsible for se-
lecting and processing information announced through ERIC,
also provided the basis for rapid, innovation development of
Web-based services and free access to the ERIC database
over the Internet. These innovations include:
• Web sites of the clearinghouses, with content covering
the scope of the clearinghouse
• Specialized Web sites at clearinghouses for serving spe-
cific clientele (The clearinghouse on Elementary and
Early Childhood Education, for example, maintains 14
specialized sites, ranging from ones for parents, early
childhood researchers, reading specialists, researchers
and program developers concerned with promoting re-
silience in children and youth, specialists in childhood
disabilities, and others, go to http://ericeece.org/)
• Special collections of educational materials, including
8,000 lesson plans, curricular and other educational ma-
terials from 200 collections available on the Internet,
available at http://www.thegateway.org
• The Test Locator, a special collection of over 11,000
assessment instruments, available at
http://ericae.net/testcol.htm
• Announcement of new acquisitions on clearinghouse
Web sites months before the records are added to the
ERIC database
• Peer-reviewed electronic journals, such as Practical
Assessment, Research and Evaluation, published by the
Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation, Univer-
sity of Maryland, at http://ericae.net/pare/ and Early
Childhood Research and Practice, from the Clearing-
house on Elementary and Early Childhood, at
http://ecrp.uiuc.edu
• Full text of ERIC publications online, such as the ERIC
Digests, consisting of short summaries and analyses of
research on selected topics, or the Practitioner File,
maintained by the clearinghouse on Adult, Career and
www.TechKnowLogia.org
 Vocational Education at Ohio State University, at
http://www.ericacve.org
• 65 listservs with over 34,000 subscribers
• Virtual Libraries of full texts of selected documents,
now a feature of many clearinghouses
• Online responses to queries through ASK ERIC, at
askeric@askeric.org or through http://www.askeric.org,
with answers supplied by return email in two business
days, maintained by the Clearinghouse on Information
and Technology, University of Syracuse
Reinvention Initiative
These developments, which represent only a selection of the
many Web-based services of the ERIC clearinghouses, valu-
able as they are, represent ad hoc responses to the challenges
posed by the shift from print dissemination to online pub-
lishing through Web sites and electronic journals. The main
ERIC operations, however, continue to revolve around the
acquisition and processing of documents and journal articles.
This will certainly change. Recognizing the seismic changes
in the generation of educational information, ERIC managers
in the U.S. Department of Education have commissioned
reviews of various aspects of the ERIC system and opera-
tions as part of a “reinvention initiative.” This initiative will,
no doubt, result in conversion of ERIC to a full Web-based
operation, possibly based on different models and users of
the Internet.
One model, by the Clearinghouse on Education Manage-
ment, University of Oregon, with ASSIST
INTERNATIONAL INC., a nonprofit organization, is an
extension of current subject- or client-specific services cited
previously, but with a global outreach. This plan is based on
the development of a Web site for a Global Information
The Latin Network of Information and Documentation in Education (REDUC)
By Sergio Martinic and Laurence Wolff1
Inspired by the establishment of ERIC, the Latin Network
of Information and Documentation in Education (in Span-
ish, Red Latinoamericano de Informacion y Documen-
tacion en Educacion—REDUC), is a cooperative regional
association of persons and institutions that compiles, proc-
esses, and disseminates information on education.
REDUC has operated since 1972 through a network of 22
associated centers--universities, ministries of education,
and research centers, both public and private--in 18 coun-
tries of the region. It is the most extensive and complete
education documentation center in Latin America. REDUC
is managed by the Center for Research in Development
and Education (CIDE) located in Santiago, Chile. Its web
site can be accessed at http://www.reduc.cl. REDUC is
! 34 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
Network on School Reform Policy that will, with the help of
partners throughout the world, provide access to global in-
formation on school reform policies and related research. All
information will be selected to meet the needs of one specific
clientele - the critical policymakers at the state (or provin-
cial) and national levels of government who make the final
decisions about school or educational reforms. A key feature
of this plan will be to select policy information available on
Web sites, provide summaries of these policies and related
research on a Web site at the University of Oregon, and pro-
vide links from these summaries back to the full texts of the
policies or research reports on the partners’ Web sites. Sum-
maries will be in at least several languages, while the full
documents will be in the language used on the partners’ Web
sites. Thus, by linking Web sites containing school reform
policy information through a central Web site, educational
policymakers and other viewers will have full access to
needed information from their desktops. And they may find
information of use in their native language instead of being
limited to whatever is available in English. This approach
might work well for other client- or subject-based services
within a country or at the global level.
Sources
Information about ERIC cited above came from the “ERIC
Annual Report 2000", available at
http://www.accesseric.org/resources/annual/index.html. The
http://www.accesseric.org site also is the portal to the entire
ERIC system and provides descriptive information and links
to, among other things, the 16 ERIC clearinghouses and
other components of the system and access to the database,
through four search engines, and other information and re-
sources related to the system.
funded by the participating centers and countries as well as
a grant from the Inter-American Development Bank.
Scope
Over time REDUC has moved much of its services to the
Internet. It now has available online 16,000 “Analytical
Summaries in Education,” providing concise summaries of
documents, including how to order copies. Every year,
additional 2,000 citations are added to the database. As of
this year, there have been 45,000 hits on its web site.
REDUC has now selected 300 of the most important stud-
ies and made available the complete text, accessible
through the Internet or on CD-ROM. A virtual journal
(Revista Umbral) is published three times a year. REDUC
www.TechKnowLogia.org
has organized 14 workshops on Internet navigation, which
have reached 645 researchers and decision-makers in the
region. REDUC has also supported partially presencial
master's degree programs in educational policy in coordi-
nation with the University of Panama and the University
Alberto Hurtado in Santiago. Some of the material for the
course can be viewed in the journal at
http://www.reduc.cl/reduc/umbral4.htm.
New Approach
REDUC's managers are changing their view of information
and its utilization in education. The new view begins with
the critical problems of education reform in the region:
deficiencies in coverage and in the quality of learning;
political and policy problems in the design and execution
of reforms; inadequate commitment to change on the part
of critical actors (supervisors, school principals, teachers);
and inadequate production of knowledge to feed the design
and evaluation of reforms. The problem is not one of in-
formation but rather access to and use of information with-
out physical, social or cognitive barriers. Furthermore,
information is not the same as knowledge, which is pro-
duced in the context of reflection on action. On this basis,
an "unmediated" database may serve researchers but may
not reach critical decision-makers nor have an impact on
educational reform.
REDUC is therefore seeking to become a "resource center
for actors in educational systems," linking a wide variety
of decision-makers and stakeholders. In this new vision,
REDUC seeks to:
! 35 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
• strengthen the processes of reforms in progress;
• improve the articulation and commitment of actors;
• increase the circulation of specialized knowledge;
• connect best practice and innovations with designers;
• train professionals in education policy; and
• incorporate new technologies into all of these proc-
esses.
To meet these challenges, REDUC has already undertaken
the development of an electronic library composed of full
texts supplementing the analytical summaries. It is plan-
ning a database of the results of empirical research, which
would be available to researchers for manipulation and
analysis. It is also planning to develop a structure of in-
formation and resources about qualitative research to
strengthen the systematic use of qualitative methodologies.
REDUC also hopes to establish information and discussion
fora on the subjects of equity and education and of decen-
tralization, including state of the art papers on these sub-
jects and Internet discussion groups. It hopes to expand its
distance courses and seminars on research and policy and
its programs of training of educational analysts and re-
searchers, including a new program on educational man-
agement and decentralization to be undertaken in Cordoba,
Argentina.
1
Sergio Martinic is director of the Center for Research in
Development and Education (CIDE—http://www.reduc.cl)
in Santiago, Chile. Laurence Wolff is a consultant for the
Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC.
www.TechKnowLogia.org
 EMIS SUCCESS IN SOUTH AFRICA & GUINEA: INSIGHTS FROM PRACTITIONERS

The following is two examples of insights from Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) practitioners. As evident
in their observations, “successful” EMIS implementation tends to be more relative and mixed with setbacks than one might
originally hope. It is also important to note that each case represents a snapshot of a particular period in a country’s EMIS de-
velopment – in some cases more than several years ago. Therefore they should not be interpreted as an assessment of the cur-
rent EMIS situation in the countries.

South Africa - Contributed by Luis Crouch, RTI
South Africa offers a useful case study lesson in how various
pressures for accountability and various forms of interaction
between government and civil society might or might not
spur the development of education information systems or,
more humbly, specific databases. It points out that when the
“demand” conditions are present, the “supply” of information
and information services will be taken up, but that if the
“supply” capacity is not present, “demand” side pressure by
itself will not make it forthcoming.
During the period leading up to the democratic transition in
1994, much of the educational debate (both between opposi-
tion and government, and within the opposition) was non-
numerical, and few of the actors had a clear sense of what
even key policies would cost in a reconstructed South Africa
(reconstructed both in the sense of having unified education
departments, as well as in the sense of absorbing the various
so-called independent states). Donors funded technical work
supporting the opposition’s ability to quantify and simulate
the cost of a unified system, depending on various character-
istics of the system [e.g., how many grades would be com-
pulsory and free, how fast the service ratios (i.e., teacher-
pupil ratios, learning-materials-per-child ratios) could be
unified and to which level, etc.]. This process did not gener-
ate much new data, but did create an impetus for unifying
very disparate databases and for developing a picture of the
overall system. The results of the simulation were used in
real-time policy discussions, in a very open, contested situa-
tion. The supply of a fairly simple technical tool and data-
base created a ratcheting effect where other parties had an
incentive to bring their own analyses and tools to the table.
This competition eventually led to a refinement of the data-
bases and the assumptions, as various parties came to more
or less similar conclusions on the affordability of a new sys-
tem.
Immediately after transition, government and analysis-
oriented NGOs collaborated in seeking funding from donors
to develop a comprehensive listing and mapping of schools
and their physical characteristics, including school coordi-
nate measurements via Global Positioning System (GPS).
The idea was to develop a clearer sense of where the “back-
logs” due to differential apartheid funding were located, and
what their relative magnitude might be. The data were pro-
duced with reasonable accuracy by 1997, and were compiled
into a large database known as the School Register of Needs
(SRN). In the meantime, the central government had devel-
oped a revenue-sharing formula that was publicly transpar-
ent, well explained, and widely discussed at least within the
executive branch of government (national and provincial).
This revenue-sharing formula provided block grants from the
central government to provincial governments, which pro-
vincial governments could then choose to allocate sectorally
(health, education, etc.) according to their own views. How-
ever, provinces with the most sever backlogs in education
complained that the formula did not take education (or
health, for that matter) backlogs into account, which they
knew because the elements of the formula were clear and
transparent. Thus, provinces with larger backlogs felt under-
funded in terms of the formula, and could point to the obvi-
ous lack of a backlog component in the allocation formula.
By 1998, the national Ministry of Finance consented to
changing the block grant formula to add a weight for health
and education backlogs, though it is not clear whether this
will be a permanent feature of the formula. This has created
an awareness of the need to revise and improve the register
of school infrastructure backlogs, and has generated pressure
on the education sector to collaborate to improve the SRN
database. Furthermore, the pressure to improve equity in the
system resulted in school funding norms being designed such
that allocation to individual schools inside each province
would be targeted based on the poverty of the school, using,
as one source of targeting information, the data in the SRN.1
This policy also has the weight of law. This has added fur-
ther pressure on the demand for improvements or updates to
the database.
Thus, in this case we have two sources of accountability
pressure acting on the need to improve a database: on the
one hand, the pressure of a transparent formula that allocates
certain funding from central government to provincial gov-
ernments according to the database, and the pressure of a
transparent mandate, with legal weight, on provincial gov-
ernments, to allocate funding to individual schools based on
the same database. As of this writing, discussions on how to
update the database are ongoing. It is likely that, given the
pressure on the use of the database, it will be improved and
updated.

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However, demand-side legal, financial, and accountability
pressure is not enough if the supply-side response capa-
bility is weak. The story of the recent development of
regular EMIS data, such as good pupil and teacher counts,
highlights this fact. In spite of looming or real pressure on
such data (e.g., for allocating teachers on an equitable ratio
basis), these systems have not improved nearly as fast as
would have been technically and organizationally feasible in
the last few years. As of this writing, for example, truly reli-
able time series of enrolment data for the last few years are
simply not available. Furthermore, while South Africa has
rather good personnel records and exam records systems,
these have not been integrated with the financial records and
EMIS records.
The reasons for this relative failure are not clear, but perhaps
have to do with lack of awareness at high administrative
levels within the system of precisely the level of effort it
takes to organize large-scale information systems sup-
port, and how to do so on a systematic rather than once-off
basis (the SRN has been seen as a once-off effort that could
be outsourced). Another hypothesis is that the level of skills
required simply has not been available to the education
sector, even though it is available in the society. This,
again, however, reverts to a lack of awareness of the impor-
tance, and the “how-to’s,” of mobilizing these skills towards
the education sector. Thus, in spite of considerable demand-
side pressure for good data, EMIS and other informational-
analytical units have been understaffed, underbudgeted, and
their organizational and institutional features have not been
cogently and effectively analyzed and then delineated. In a
sense, management within the system has perhaps not really
known or understood the technicalities of how to respond to
the accountability pressure by organizing good information
system. What is clear, however, is that when, and as, such
systems do begin to get organized and start providing good
data, the data are immediately used and taken up by the man-
agement and policy debate, because the accountability, or
demand-side, pressure is present and quite intense.
Guinea Conakry - Contributed by Jennie Spratt, RTI
One ongoing aspect of the PASE I and PASE II efforts in
Guinea (Programme d’Appui/Ajustement du Secteur Educa-
tif) since education reform work started in 1989 has been the
improvement of the educational management information
system within the Ministry of Education. Most recently the
original focus – on the nuts and bolts of collecting and proc-
essing a relatively comprehensive and reliable database of
standard educational management information at the Minis-
try – has shifted. Promisingly, attention has turned toward
broad dissemination of the information gathered as well as
active involvement of both a broad range of central Ministry
departments and decentralized levels in the analysis, inter-
pretation, and use of quantitative data for policy formulation,
! 37 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
system evaluation, and planning purposes. This trend is
positive, but its long-term sustainability is by no means yet
assured. The case offers lessons with regard to elements of
both strength and weakness in the pursuit of a functioning,
efficient, used and useful MIS for the education sector.
One fundamental positive element is the regular production
of reliable and timely statistics. While generating demand
for information and MIS can arguably be achieved even with
extremely spotty and poor data, the availability of solid cen-
sus-based educational statistics surely makes this task easier.
In Guinea, primarily with USAID and World Bank funding
and technical assistance since the early 1990s, the Ministry
serving pre-university education has upgraded its infrastruc-
tural capacity for information management and has produced
reasonably sound Education Statistics distributed in the form
of Statistical Yearbooks and recently, broadly disseminated
graphical brochures. The existence of the database and a
reasonably smooth annual data collection and processing
system is a foundation that not many countries of
Guinea’s level of development can claim.
In 1997, a transformation of the rather standard, conventional
production of annual education statistics began, with efforts
to integrate the EMIS into a broader quality monitoring and
planning system based on agreed quantitative and qualitative
indicators of “the Quality School.” These indicators are
being established through a process of broad-based con-
sultation with stakeholders at all levels, from teachers and
parents’ associations to education inspectors and central
Ministry directors. The system itself, involving specific
tools for evaluation and planning tasks, as well as scheduled
fora for review and discussion of progress and policy im-
plications, is being developed iteratively through product-
focused working sessions at regional and prefecture levels as
well as in meetings with senior Ministry decision makers and
more formally in Steering Committee meetings. A cross-
departmental technical team spearheads the effort (with
members drawn from key central Ministry departments and
one regional inspectorate).
The result to date has been a large degree of interest in, sup-
port for and active application of the system and the infor-
mation it provides by Ministry staff at all levels. The over-
whelming reliance on the system by local, regional, and
national planners, and funders, to prepare for the 1999-
2000 school opening in determining teacher recruitment and
placement needs, and prioritizing new school construction
for the next school year is one demonstration of its perceived
utility and responsiveness. The cross-departmental nature of
the technical team, investment in consultation and working
sessions with field stakeholders in the development phase,
and focus on providing efficient and accurate tools to ac-
complish major tasks, are viewed by observers as important
www.TechKnowLogia.org
contributing factors to the credibility, degree of local owner-
ship, and direct utility of the emerging system.
The process of establishing “school quality” indicators
through consultation and consensus-building, in addition to
forming a basis for specific planning and evaluation tools,
has also been an opportunity (relatively rare in the Guinean
context) for broad-based dialogue and examination of the
inputs and processes related to learning, and the articulation
of clear goals and standards for the educational process in
Guinean elementary schools. The recent (and ongoing)
School Opening preparation, further, has already generated
substantial, databased debate on several major policy is-
sues. These include:
• School construction priorities and guidelines. Despite
a focus, supported by donors, of virtually exclusively ru-
ral classroom construction, extreme overcrowding of ur-
ban classrooms was clearly and quantifiably demon-
strated using the newly indicator-driven EMIS. At the
same time, some of the rural areas where new construc-
tions are currently planned or underway, were shown to
have already existing, but underutilized resources.
• Rational teacher deployment. The EMIS-grounded
planning process highlighted not only geographical areas
(and specific schools) of teacher shortage, but also of
underutilization of teaching staff. The process was
noteworthy for its transparency; it publicly required lo-
cal and regional education officials to explain or justify,
or correct, on a school-by-school basis, cases in which a
school had ostensibly more teachers than it needed given
the agreed minimum class size and/or number of classes
organized in the school. In this manner, over 300 teach-
ers were identified as being “redeployable” to under-
staffed schools, by district-level officials.
• Strategies to intensify enrollment efforts. The EMIS-
grounded planning process identified over 600 schools,
predominantly in rural areas, where available resources
(classrooms and/or teachers) were significantly under-
utilized. This finding was seen to indicate a need for
more ambitious efforts to mobilize these schools and
their communities to get more children enrolled in
school – rather than further infusion of supply-side re-
sources – in the near-to-mid-term.
It is noteworthy that the above issues and others, such as the
absence of guidelines for applying double shifting or multi-
grading when quality or efficiency tradeoffs would warrant
their use, while occasionally mentioned prior to the presen-
tation of “quantified evidence,” traditionally had not gener-
ated sufficient concern among top Ministry officials to lead
them to examine these issues more closely. Now, these is-
sues are being openly discussed, and are slated as topics of
debate for the next Steering Committee meeting. The trans-
parency of the approach, and again, the direct involvement of
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local and regional officials in the analysis process, have
surely contributed to the serious consideration the informa-
tion generated is receiving.
Guinea’s EMIS experience is a work very much in progress.
Remaining weaknesses in the system include a database
that is still essentially dependent on external funding and
technical assistance for analysis and report production.
In addition, the technical assistance provided, while available
in the local private sector, is not consistently supervised to
ensure quality and relevance of its products. Solutions to
the perennial problem of attracting, and retaining, com-
petent government staff with high-demand technical spe-
cializations (such as information management) are
needed. One option (partially employed in Egypt) involves
the creation of special recruitment and career tracks within
the government sector for particular technical specializations.
Another option, the current “de facto” situation in Guinea, is
to institutionalize, in other words, to routinely plan and
budget for, contracting out for specific technical services.
Further, there is a tendency toward “balkanization” of da-
tasets and their supporting structures, even within a single
Service, which would appear to be related to real or per-
ceived links between specific project funding and the distri-
bution of equipment, perks, and opportunities across offices
and staff. This balkanization has become painfully evident in
efforts to combine datasets or to institute uniform and/or
non-redundant information management processes across
different offices (e.g. Statistics and School Mapping) or
ministries (e.g. Education, Finance, and Civil Service).
Some technical “fundamentals” – such as unique identifica-
tion codes that remain constant over time for individual
schools (and that would permit historical school-level analy-
sis), or instilling the efficiency value of precise coding in
general, at all levels of the data collection process – have not
yet been successfully implemented across the system. The
reasons for this situation range from difficulties of gaining
compliance from other record-keeping government struc-
tures, to the relative priority of policing for data quality
among over-worked and under-resourced regional and dis-
trict staff, to simple negligence.
The experience of Guinea underscores the value and impor-
tant of engaging local agents in the EMIS development proc-
ess, and supporting them in using the system to accomplish
their own objectives. This engagement served not only to
enhance the quality and relevance of the EMIS related tools,
but to ensure a degree of commitment to common guidelines
and planning and evaluation processes.
1
National Norms and Standards for School Funding, De-
partment of Education, Pretoria, October 1998.
www.TechKnowLogia.org
 Technology for
Successful Management and Accountability
in US K-12 Schools
Marco J. Morrone
Product Manager, Project Achieve
mmorrone@projectachieve.com

little Jenni gets a B in English and everyone can go home

Same Education for All happy. Now, she must achieve state benchmarks on a whole
manner of language arts skills. She may even have to write a
brief essay explaining how she solved a math problem.
The classroom is one of the only modern work environments
that have changed little in the last hundred years. To date,
So what, if anything, is wrong with this picture? It turns out
even bringing computers into schools has not appreciably
that the standards and the tests often don’t correlate particu-
altered the fundamental structure of the classroom environ-
larly well, meaning that what is being taught and what is
ment for most teachers and students. And yet, the demands
being learned and what is being tested are sometimes very
made upon students—and consequently teachers, adminis-
different things. In addition, public education is usually run
trators, and parents—are changing every day.
from the state level, meaning that there are at least 50 differ-
ent versions of each set of standards and tests. Even if the
Many countries focus instruction and evaluation to different
curriculum and the exams are aligned, teachers don’t have
tracks of students, based on early testing which determines
any way of knowing which standards they need to teach
their course of study. The United States has taken a very dif-
most. Last year’s exam results provide a rough model, but
ferent approach. Based on the democratic ideal of equal edu-
what if this year’s fourth graders aren’t anything like last
cation for all, US schools are required to provide each stu-
year’s? And even if teachers did know what their students
dent with access to the same education. The execution of
greatest needs were, where would they find the material to
this directive becomes challenging when we attempt equal
fill in the gaps?
assessment for all.

Standards and Tests Automation of Process

At present, many successful teachers and schools are putting
In the US, the biggest change is in how student performance
in long hours tying together standards, assessments, and re-
is evaluated. The way we evaluate student learning has
sources in a way that will help them enable students to learn
evolved and become much more specific as part of a political
what they are required to learn. This is where Project
and pedagogical movement towards standards and account-
AchieveSM (www.projectachieve.com ) comes into the pic-
ability: standards for what students learn (and what teachers
ture. Project Achieve focuses on automating as many aspects
teach), followed by “high-stakes” testing to determine how
of this process as possible, helping schools and teachers
well that learning has progressed. Gone are the days where

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make these connections quickly and easily, and leaving more
time for classroom instruction – enabling teachers to focus
on teaching. More specifically, the Project:
• saves teachers time by making required administrative
tasks such as taking attendance and filing discipline re-
ports automatic and instantaneous;
• enables teachers to write in-depth lesson plans address-
ing specific standards; and,
• enables teachers to attach standards to their classroom
assessments—assessments which are tracked in an inte-
grated grade book, the results of which can be organized
into all manner of reports aimed at providing teachers,
administrators, and parents an immediate and ongoing
measure of student progress.
Achieve is also developing a tool to help teachers align their
curricula to state standards, and to provide them with lesson
plans, exercises, or sample test questions mapped to individ-
ual standards and specific subjects.
At the start of the school year, instead of planning instruction
based on last year’s test results, teachers will be able to as-
sess exactly what their students know at the outset using
sample questions from the mastery test they will eventually
face. Then, without looking back through assorted binders
and state documents, teachers will be able to find the re-
sources they need to address whatever gaps in student under-
standing their initial assessment revealed. This will be in-
valuable for a beginning teacher faced with a heavy volume
of standards to teach and no veteran’s “bag of tricks.” But
even master teachers will benefit from easy access to new
lesson ideas, exercises, and current research. The application
also saves and catalogs each lesson, which makes re-teaching
a course a process of refinement rather than re-invention.
As the year progresses, teachers can continually adjust their
instruction to meet the changing demands of their students;
instead of teaching to the middle, teachers will be able to
teach to the gaps, passing over subjects their students have
already mastered and leaving more time to focus on specific
problem areas and enrichment. They can also publish their
best lesson plans to a lesson plan library, so that successful
strategies for meeting the standards become a valuable re-
source for the entire school community. Strapped for devel-
Based on the democratic ideal of equal education for all, US schools are required to provide
each student with access to the same education. The execution of this directive becomes
challenging when we attempt equal assessment for all.
! 40 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
opment dollars, a school can use Achieve tools to make the
best use of its most valuable resource—teachers. Adminis-
trators have access to their own desktop system and reports
to make sure teachers are teaching and assessing the stan-
dards, and to keep them apprised of school-wide student pro-
gress toward learning goals. They have all the information
they need to make informed decisions about large-scale edu-
cational initiatives, and can protect themselves from surprises
by making immediate instructional corrections.
As the exams approach, instead of dropping their regular
lessons and spending weeks on rote instruction and “teaching
to the test,” teachers continue to focus on what their students
need to know. Instead of coping with the anxiety of a “high
stakes” test, administrators, parents, and students know ex-
actly how well-prepared the students are: they not only have
a history of graded report cards, they have reports breaking
down student performance against standards throughout the
school year and across disciplines. Rather than a single
number, the exam score becomes part of a larger picture of
student achievement and progress.
Degree of Success
For all its best intentions, the success of rigorous standards
and accountability systems has been very limited – almost
nonexistent. States have tried to hold students to high aca-
demic standards, promising genuine accountability measures
including denying diplomas to students who fail to pass the
state test, even if they satisfy all other traditional graduation
criteria. But in the end, failure rates have always been too
high, public opinion has swung against the system, and the
rules have changed. Just this year, standards-based reforms
in Arizona, Massachusetts, and Virginia—all previously
touted as models to follow—have experienced setbacks re-
lated to high failure rates. It is everywhere a highly charged
political issue, with no shortage of blame and finger pointing
on all sides. Project Achieve has chosen to address the in-
herent difficulties of the process itself, making it easier for
teachers to measure student progress and adjust their teach-
ing to fit student needs. While the right technology is no
guarantee of successful reform, it can help foster the right
environment for real changes in education and a more com-
plete picture of each student – which benefits everyone.
www.TechKnowLogia.org
 National-Level Educational Support Systems:
The United Kingdom's National Grid for Learning (NGfL)
Soledad McKinnon, George Washington University
Joanne Capper, The World Bank

The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency

(Becta) is the United Kingdom's lead government agency for Information and Communi-
cations Technology (ICT) in education. Becta's role is to evaluate new ways of teaching,
learning and managing with ICT, and to promote techniques that improve standards, in-
crease participation and help schools and colleges become more effective. Becta's work
includes assistance in content, practice and the infrastructure. Becta's primary mode of dis-
seminating its work is the Web-based National Grid for Learning (NGfL), the United
Kingdom's national focal point for learning on the Internet. The NGfL is a diverse and
constantly evolving collection of Internet-based education resources targeted to K-12
schools, further education, higher education and lifelong learning. It contains resources and
discussion forums for teachers, tutors, school and college managers, parents, and learners
of all ages, as well as links to similar sites in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well
as others around the world. In addition, the NGfL contains links to libraries, museums, and
other relevant government agencies (http://www.ngfl.gov.uk)

For teachers, the NGfL site hosts the Virtual Teacher Centre
(http://vtc.ngfl.gov.uk/), which provides materials to support teaching and learning in all
curriculum areas at the primary and secondary levels by subject and key stage, and includes
attainment links, targets and schemes of work. This online Centre also offers teachers and
school managers a forum for sharing best-practice ideas and for collaborative problem
solving. Teachers also can access relevant government information and services through
TeacherNet. (http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/).

The NGfL site includes a catalogue of resources for professionals and parents to support
individual learning needs of special education students, and access to relevant resources on
Web sites around the world (http://inclusion.ngfl.gov.uk/).

The Further Education Resources for Learning (FERL) Information Service

provides information and guidance to lecturers and support staff in further education col-
leges (http://ferl.becta.org.uk/). The (FERL) site includes curriculum-based software and
Web sites, with independent reviews carried out by FE practitioners; case studies of good
practice written by FE staff; a listing of events relevant to the FE sector; research reports;
guidelines on the production of an Information and Learning Technology (ILT) Strategy

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 for further education colleges; links to sector organizations and other useful sites; articles;
news; and special features, such as the feature on Managed Learning Environments
(MLEs).

Related to further education, the Lifelong Learning site

(http://www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/) is designed to encourage, promote and develop life-
long learning in the UK. It contains news, government reports and information on other as-
pects of lifelong learning including Career Development Loans, Individual Learning Ac-
counts and Learning Direct - a free learning and career information telephone service.
There is also a link to Universities and Colleges Admission Services (UCAS) that offers in-
formation on higher education courses and locations of colleges and universities, along
with advice for applicants.

For school and college managers, Becta advises on how to purchase and implement the
necessary IT infrastructure in the most cost-effective manner, and, where appropriate, tests
and certifies systems to ensure that they meet minimum standards. Their conclusions are
disseminated through the NGfL Certified Managed Services site, which reports on tests of
ICT-related products, services, and certified suppliers and provides framework contracts
for purchasers. Their aim is to remove the time and resource burden from managers and
educators, and provide them with the best route to using IT effectively within the class-
room. This service is designed to provide users with an integrated package of equipment,
facilities and services, including clear points of contact for support and advice
(http://managedservices.ngfl.gov.uk/). Becta also evaluates emerging technologies in order
to assess their potential for use in education.

Parents can access the Parents Center through the NGfL site
(http://www.parents.dfee.gov.uk/) to obtain information about the national curriculum, pu-
pil assessment, school attendance and examinations. Likewise, Parents On Line is an ini-
tiative from the Department of Education that aims to show parents the educational benefits
of the Internet.

Learners also can benefit from the NGfL site. Maths Year 2000 was developed to
make maths accessible and fun, and to help people of all ages develop the maths skills that
they need. Maths Year 2000 will build on the National Numeracy Strategy that is designed
to raise standards of mathematics in primary schools. (http://www.mathsyear2000.org/).

Substantial progress has been made over the past two years to ensure that schools can ac-
cess the NGfL. In England, the number of primary schools connected to the Internet in-
creased from 17 percent in 1998 to 62 percent in 1999, while nearly all secondary schools
are now online (Becta, 2000).

For the next three years, Becta has set up a plan to better support the U.K Government in
the use and development of ICT in education to raise standards, widen access, improve
skills, and encourage effective management. In doing so, Becta’s Chief Executive, Owen
Lynch, stated that the three major components for success are: “an appropriate and sustain-
able Infrastructure of equipment and connectivity; relevant and quality Content; and skilful
educational Practice” (Becta, 2000, p.5). He further added that it is only when education
managers combine the capabilities of the technology with teachers’ skills that ICT truly
begins to make a difference.

References
Becta (2000). Corporate Plan 2000-2003. (http://www.becta.org.uk/about/BectaCP.pdf)

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 Electronic Environment
for
Management of Learning Systems
L.A. Plugge., S. Schoenmakers, and P.A. Kirschner
Maastricht McLuhan Institute, Netherlands

This article summarizes an in-depth review* of electronic tools that enable flexibility and support of collaborative teaching and
learning environments. The review was commissioned by UNESCO and conducted by the Maastricht McLuhan Institute. The
authors looked into 50 different electronic environments, reviewed nine of them and short-listed four environments that they
considered well equipped to serve learning and teaching , particularly in developing countries and are susceptible for efficient
use in a multi-lingual, multi-country, and multi-media network context. Below are descriptions of these four electronic envi-
ronments.: Blackboard, IntraLearn, TopClass, and WebCT.

BLACKBOARD http://www.blackboard.com
Blackboard is a widely used teaching environment. It sup-
ports all Roman-based languages. The product line consists
of a free public edition (Blackboard.com), a registered edi-
tion (CourseInfo) with additional administrative features, and
the Blackboard Enterprise edition. The free and registered
editions all run on the Blackboard Company servers. Black-
board Enterprise edition is available for use on private serv-
ers for campus or countrywide deployment. This heavy-duty
edition also provides large scale monitoring and data report-
ing. Technically this system is suitable for a multi-country
context.
Blackboard Enterprise Edition provides management and
organization for different kinds of enrolment, such as the use
of existing databases and subscription by students, as well as
different kinds of reports and statistics. Course materials can
be re-used and multiple forums can use the same course.
The environment provides freedom of choice for educational
process management, such as an extended classroom and
distance education, but also didactical forms like tutorials,
interactive simulations, virtual classroom and collaborative
work groups. A calendar and announcements section informs
students about the things to do. A presentation area gives
access to other members of the learning community.
Database reports provide possibilities for tracking of stu-
dents. Course designers and teachers can easily edit and up-
date course materials, supported by 5-step templates. Black-
board supports popular file formats and plug-ins, such as
video and interactive simulations. It has built-in communica-
tion means that provide threaded discussions, synchronous
communication, online file exchange, online tutorials, shar-
ing of documents and archival of student discussions.
Student testing is connected to courses and offers many op-
tions, such as item banking, importing of items, use of mul-
timedia, mix of question types, randomization, password
protection, timing, auto marking, instant performance feed-
back, and the ability to add off-line grades. Blackboard pro-
vides no tutorial differentiation based on test answers. It is
the teacher’s task to take care of this. Wizards provide sup-
port for the organization and analysis of tests, as well as stu-
dent progress. Students can review their attendance, graded
assignments of projects and exams, and can determine which
items within their profiles they want to show to the public.
Blackboard Enterprise Edition is hosted on a Windows NT or
Unix server. Students only need a web browser and an occa-
sional plug-in. On-line help is available. Support for the in-
stitution is available through the World Wide Web, E-mail,
and telephone. Additionally, there are courses on various
aspects of working with Blackboard. The administrator con-
trols the security permissions for various roles and applica-
tions. Students can work off-line, if needed with use of CD-
ROM, and upload directories.
Although the program offers many choices, the interface is
rather rigid. Administrators and teachers can switch applica-
tions and keys on and off, but they cannot add new ones or
alter the structure of the interface. However, the above-
mentioned features of Blackboard make it a strong contender
as a teaching environment for large-scale and heavy use in
multi-country context such as Sub-Saharan Africa.
INTRALEARN http://www.intralearn.com
IntraLearn is a Microsoft online learning partner and makes
use of several Microsoft programs such as Office and Net-
meeting. Approximately 100 large organizations use the

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system. The costs are relatively high. IntraLearn is available
in multi-lingual versions and contains a conversion engine to
replace the English version with other languages. IntraLearn
pays particular attention to the disabled learner by offering
the option to translate screens into sound for the visually
impaired.
The administrator can manage the enrolments, including the
import of learner profiles, entering one student at a time or
bulk import from databases. Students can also self-register.
The administrator can also control the look and feel of the
environment. The toolbar and utilities pages are customiza-
ble. The administrator can delegate tasks to a course admin-
istrator who can switch on or off features in a course, such as
chat, FAQs, web links, and glossary.
The curriculum structure is pre-built. Templates for instruc-
tional design guide a course designer through the creation
and editing of lesson plans, assignments, learning activities,
quizzes, and learning objectives. It is possible to create an
educational hierarchy (course, lesson, topic, nuggets-chunks)
and integrate it with other applications.
The program supports many facilities for cooperation be-
tween instructors and experts and for teambuilding and col-
laboration between students. The instructor assigns course
materials to individuals or groups. In the course room, stu-
dents accumulate knowledge that they can exchange with
others. IntraLearn supports file exchange and file sharing in
all areas of communication: discussion groups, teams, inte-
grated e-mail, streaming audio, video and images. Students
work mainly in Office applications. Outlook provides a cal-
endar and scheduling. IntraLearn provides chatting on lesson
level, but also campus wide, in clubs, private meeting, and
team rooms. Students can create personal and group web-
sites.
The student testing facility is well developed with tools for
question creation or upload, timing facilities, one question at
a time, completion and results recovery, different questions
to different students, possibility to retake tests, and assign
point values to questions. Questions are linked to the topics
from which they were derived. Multi-layer security enables
secure testing over the Internet. It is possible to shut off the
browser during the exam to protect the integrity of the test.
Courses and tests are protected from downloading. The stu-
dent can print a customized certificate upon qualified course
completion. Grade and process status, usage reports, com-
parisons, statistical analysis and statistical presentation of
results are built in. Customized feedback by the teacher is
possible as well as auto marking. Additionally, IntraLearn
makes it possible to redirect the tutorial path depending on
the answers given. It is also possible to create non-graded
survey questions (course evaluation) and to add offline
grades. Instructors can determine if a student achieved the
! 44 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
competency goals by comparing objectives with the results.
Students can manage their profile in a portfolio.
IntraLearn runs on a Windows NT or Unix server, and by
hooking up several servers, a statewide system is possible.
An automatic backup of the server database is provided with
SQL Server. IntraLearn’s security is of e-commerce level.
The client installation runs automatically via a browser inter-
face and a server based product. Hosting, maintenance, and
other optional services by IntraLearn are possible. Students
use a web browser for uploading to the server and viewing
records. All data and programs are contained and managed
from a single server database, so the client machine needs
only limited memory requirements. All classroom functions
are accessible within the familiar environments of Office and
Outlook. The entry costs are $25,000 for unlimited users,
courses, years of use, etc. and $1500 per year for technical
support and upgrades. This is higher than the costs of other
environments for learning and teaching.
IntraLearn fits the criteria for a multi-lingual, multi-country
learning environment. It has many unique facilities for mod-
ern education. The system works with applications that are
also popular outside school. A week point with IntraLearn is
perhaps the tracking of student progress through a course.
Another problem could be the required computer specifica-
tions due to the MS Office applications. Nevertheless, Intra-
Learn is a serious contender that justifies further investiga-
tion.
TOPCLASS http://www.wbtsystems.com
TopClass is predominantly used in industry, universities, and
in vocational training in 50 countries. The program makes
intensive use of icons, and language strings are customizable,
including for various courses. The program is designed to
manage courses, but curriculum management is not sup-
ported. An administrator manages the privileges of instruc-
tors and students. Differentiation of these privileges is possi-
ble. Some instructors have the right to create and edit the
courses, while others have only tutor rights. This difference
is also used for item and test construction.
TopClass automatically updates revisions or additions, and
modules can be moved from course to course. The courses
are created with the help of a hierarchical outlining tool.
Instructors can create courses in TopClass off-line. In addi-
tion, a number of 'canned' courses are available through sev-
eral (US) publishers, and development services are available.
Information is distributed through announcements and e-
mail, and threaded, moderated discussions are possible. For
the student, the messages in discussions have a status (new,
read, old but unread). Synchronicity is not integrated but
possible to link in with third party tools (application sharing,
chat, video and whiteboard, etc.). Tracking of students is
www.TechKnowLogia.org
also provided for use of this third party software that students
attach.
During a course, the students are grouped in classes for
teamwork and motivation. The instructor controls the stu-
dent’s access to content. The program monitors student per-
formance, and provides remedial material or progress to a
higher level. Students can preview the work assigned to them
and the deadlines in all courses. The program supplies wiz-
ards for test creation and assessment management. The pool
concept provides random generation of test questions and
control on reusability in multiple tests. It is possible to grade
tests automatically or route them to the appropriate instructor
for correction. Summary reports are available on a class and
on individual student level.
TopClass runs on a Windows NT, Unix or Macintosh school
server. A browser interfaces the installation and access. The
server provides Campus wide security. Personal technical
support for the administrator is provided and other users can
attend an optional training workshop or just have 'how to'
pages. TopClass Lite is freely downloadable. A single-server
license for an unlimited number of users costs $1450 and is
upscalable to a campus wide licensing agreement. Students
can download courses to the desktop, work off-line and make
private annotations of course material.
Although TopClass is not applied in secondary education yet
and it is limited to courses instead of curricula, it seems like
a solid solution for large-scale implementation.
WEB CT http://www.webct.com
Web CT provides organizations the ability to create local
applications. Since organizations in 55 countries use Web
CT, it is no surprise that it provides multi-language support.
Templates help the instructor to create standard pages for
course outlines, assignments, and reading lists. These pages
have custom tags and are not exportable to standard HTML.
However, the administrator can edit the look and feel of the
environment. The educational form of the environment is
project oriented. It contains conferencing facilities, a pres-
entation area, mail facilities and threaded, searchable discus-
sions, related to a particular subject. Students can select
topics from the study guide and make private annotations.
To return to the most recent learning context there is a ‘Re-
sume session’ tool.
Tracking student progress is the strongest feature of the man-
agement and organizational facilities. Additionally, instruc-
tors can assign course material to an individual or to a group
of students. However, there can be only one (virtual) in-
structor in a course. A number of courses are delivered by
textbook publishers and on cartridges. The course designer
authorizes the participation of tutors and students.
The student testing facility enables test submission, different
questions for different students, one-question-at-a-time test-
ing, mixture of question types, assigning points to questions,
submission of self-tests to the instructor, and redirection of
the tutorial path depending on the answers given. Organiza-
tions can tune the test to their education and end terms. It is
possible to export the grade book for analysis. Students can
review their grades and compare them with the performance
of other group members. Students have a newsgroup facility
and scheduling tools for the course.
The environment runs on a private NT or Unix server, but it
is also possible to let Web CT serve as a host. The system
supports local backup and transfer from the desktop by the
teacher. Web CT has several means for technical support,
such as a tutorial for start-up users, a manual, context sensi-
tive help, and a mailing list for administrators and designers.
It is also possible to arrange additional technical support.
Licensing is organized by yearly subscription, covering sup-
port and upgrades.
Web CT is particularly useful in two situations: (1) in coop-
eration with educational publishers, and (2) for very specific
local applications. Functionality is too limited for imple-
mentation as a teaching environment in a multi-country con-
text, such as in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Conclusion: The authors of the report observe that choosing an environment for flexible education requires attention.
Each of the environments above presents small differences in focus. While Blackboard focuses on enhancing education in
a regular educational environment, IntraLearn is engaged in education from any location, TopClass aims at the business
community and is more course-centered, and WebCT is more student-centered. If the choice is to have an environment
independent of regular education and its location, then TopClass and IntraLearn are the choice. If the users wish to focus
on automated tracking, assessment, and certification, then IntraLearn has the advantage. When the users intend to imple-
ment student-centered learning, then WebCT is a better choice. One problem with those environments is that they are de-
signed with U.S. educational facilities in mind, and this must be taken into account when adapting the environments to the
conditions of different countries.

*
Plugge, L.A., Schoenmakers, S., & Kirschner, P.A. (June 2000). Electronic Learning Environments. Final Report, Concept
VS 0.A. Prepared for UNESCO by the Maastricht McLuhan Institute.

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 Education Management Information Systems (EMIS):
Guidelines for Design and Implementation
Luis Crouch – RTI
Mircea Enache – EMI Systems
Patrick Supanc – The World Bank

WHAT IS AN EMIS • Donor Intervention – Donors often have an agenda

What does an EMIS include?
Under current practice, Education Management Information
Systems (EMIS) are typically limited to centralized
databases containing basic, school level data:
• Pupil data (enrollment, age, repetition)
• Teacher data (experience, placement)
• School inventory data (location, number of classrooms,
equipment etc.)
EMIS typically does not formally include:
with values (transparency, democratic participation) and
goals (comparative achievement data) that impact
information generation.
• Broader reform efforts – Wider “modernization
efforts” across the government tend to generate calls for
greater use of technology and performance measurement
at the sectoral level.
• Improving internal efficiency – Ministers seeking to
address issues of redundancy or improved targeting of
resources typically require a greater degree of data
accuracy and precision.
In sum, one typically observes two major drivers of
government interest in MIS:

• Performance Data Modernization Efforts: Most common; frequent after

• School finance information (often managed by another
Ministry – Finance or Planning)
• Cost accounting
• Provisioning of materials (textbooks etc.)
• Monitoring of internal management initiatives (e.g.
special projects).
The definitions and scope of EMIS vary from country to
country. There is no ideal “model.” However, it is important
to develop a clear working definition among clients,
consultants and donors as to what EMIS will actually include
given their policy priorities. This will optimize the
deployment of resources and clarify downstream monitoring
and evaluation.
Why do governments want an EMIS?
• Change in leadership creates new, immediate demand
for updates, briefings, data for new policy initiatives.
New leaders rarely trust (often with good reason) the
current information system.
government/leadership change; tend to be very unfocused as
to what information is actually needed; commitment tends to
be weaker; less cognizant of EMIS costs and political
hazards.
Accountability Efforts: Less common and usually the result
of a major law, policy decision or strong external pressure;
more specific data needs because policies and outputs are
often better defined; immediate demand and collective drive
for results.
MAPPING DECISION-MAKING
RESPONSIBILITY & PRIORITIES
Before addressing data needs, it is important to locate where
decision-making is actually taking place across the system.
This can later be used to assess where accountability
pressures are likely to be greatest and if data needed for
informed decision-making is indeed reaching the appropriate
manager or user.

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The following matrix provides some examples that can be modified according to an education system structure and context.
[Note: the Ministry should be divided into principal units, particularly if decision-making is highly centralized]

Focus of Locus of Decision-making

Decision-making
Function Sample Decisions Cabinet/ Ministry of Other District Municipality School
Requiring Data Legis/ Education Ministry Office of
Court MOE
Goal Setting Is access to
and Policy secondary
Development education a
priority issue?
Selecting Should minimum
performance teacher
standards certification
standards be
increased?
Coordination Should the
and Regulation Ministry of Labor
continue to run
schools?
Financing Where should
additional
resources be
targeted?
Budgeting and How many
Planning schools need to be
built?
Curriculum In what subjects
Development do students
perform poorly?
Personnel Where should
Policy new teachers be
deployed?
Personnel Is a teacher
Development (re)certification
program needed?
Procurement Where should
new additional
school supplies be
directed?
Maintenance Which schools
are most in need
of repair?
Performance Are learning
Measurement outcomes
improving?
Performance What schools
Analysis appear to be most
effective?
Performance In what areas
Communication does our school
need to improve?

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Once the overall decision-making landscape is assessed, it is
of central importance to identify a subset of the most
important decisions facing system leaders – those for which
there is the highest level of accountability and political
elasticity. The MIS should be improved and indicators
developed around those priorities.
DESIGN STRATEGIES
The principal challenge of the design stage is addressing data
priorities through existing and added capacity and incentives.
Good EMIS designers keep the following ideas in mind:
• Rarely does MIS design “start from scratch,” although
this may be the inclination of technical purists or
vendors. Build on what already works.
• Always begin with a “prototype” or pilot that can
demonstrate effectiveness quickly on a limited set of
priorities, and that will most often be based on existing
systems. Effective pilots will wet the appetite for more.
• Consult with users at all levels throughout the design
stage to check if the information proposed addresses
their roles, responsibilities, accountabilities and
communication realities. Again, don’t ask for
information “needs,” but focus first on decisions people
are actually making.
• Link the system to other ongoing activities. This will
draw users into the system.
• Ensure system adaptability – enhanced by simplicity
and the avoidance of over-design. A highly complex,
interdependent design is very difficult to modify as
needs evolve.
IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES &
STRATEGIES
Data Collection
• The quality of data collections tends to better at the
local level.
• The higher the level of local use of data, the higher the
quality generated for general system purposes.
• Don’t confuse the speed and completeness of data
collection with accuracy. Celerity may be motivated by
ties to resources (e.g. per capita funding, payroll etc.).
• Avoid the widespread myth that once data is in the
computer it is accurate.
• Remarkably, there are no clear examples of systems with
reliable audit systems, a major impediment to
reliability.
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Strategies for improving data collection:
• Information should be fed back to the producer in a
useful form.
• Encourage openness and transparency – Overcome fear
by disseminating data gradually; balance damaging
data with positive data.
• Reduce the opportunity/time costs of producing data,
especially at the school level. Resistance grows as
“professional time” is diminished.
• Make aggressive, early efforts to avoid duplication.
• As much as possible, use existing data sources. The less
current collection routine is disrupted the less resistance
the new system will generate. Transition costs are also
reduced.
Estimating Costs
There are some general cost tendencies in EMIS
implementation:
• As technology costs continue to fall in most developing
countries, human resources tend to be the most costly
input, not hardware.
• The high recurrent cost of EMIS staffing and
maintenance tend to be overlooked or under-estimated.
• EMIS benefits from very limited economies of scale.
Expanding scope or precision increases auditing costs.
• Implementation and training costs are likely to vary
significantly across sub-national districts (rurality,
connectivity, existing infrastructure, etc.).
A good analysis should: a) consider the state of EMIS
development, b) break down costs for inputs, and c) think
through the implications of who pays.
Sustainability
All EMIS systems face some form of resistance during the
implementation stage. New information can threaten current
rewards or simply the stability of current practice. Thus,
implementation plans should include a strategy for
overcoming major sources of resistance. Here are some
tendencies to keep in mind:
Reasons for resistance to EMIS implementation:
• EMIS creates extra work
• EMIS increases accountability
• Transparency limits patronage
• Political sensitivity may arise over unfavorable
outcomes
Forms of resistance:
• Passive: no use, observable lack of activity at
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 collection/entry points, limited resources allocated to
EMIS unit, personnel focused on “other priorities.”
• Active: protest from competing programs, active
resistance from teachers on performance measurement,
competing visions of what EMIS should look like, local
leaders boycott or protest fearing comparison of
performance.
Strategies for sustainability:
• Lower initial expectations and be realistic from the
outset about the duration of implementation.
• Make the implementation process interesting by
augmenting the degree of human interaction.
• Recruit leadership that can be counted on for the long
haul – that can endure during the detail oriented phase of
implementation.
• Find skills locally to the greatest degree possible.
TEN OVERARCHING LESSONS
An overview of EMIS literature1 and the distilled insights of
experienced EMIS professionals highlight the following key
lessons of EMIS implementation:
1. Effective EMIS have specific users who demand
specific data to inform decisions for which they are
held accountable.
2. The sustained commitment of ministry leadership is
directly tied to the sustainability of an EMIS system. As
initial “champions” become distracted or disenchanted,
the odds of the EMIS effort stalling increase.
3. Incentives in developing countries to use objective
information tend to be weak. Other criteria (e.g.
securing funding, rewarding supports) may be more
important in determining the success of a manager or a
policymaker. Frequently, the absence of reliable data
can be to the advantage of the potential user. EMIS
users tend to contribute and use information when there
1
See D. Chapman “The Role of Education Management Information Systems in Improving Educational Quality” in Improving
Educational Quality: A Global Perspective. Chapman and Carrier, 1990.
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are rewards for doing so.
4. Donors often overestimate client demand for EMIS.
These misconceptions often take the form of: “The
demand for a good MIS is always there – the only things
lacking are the means,” or “If given the information,
decision-making will be rational.”
5. EMIS systems tend to be over-designed. Systems with
the highest use and downstream adaptation tend to be
simple and modest in scope. Similarly, EMIS design
tends to be burdened by unrealistic expectations about
the degree of precision “required” without taking into
account precision’s high costs.
6. In most cases, more information is collected that
actually analyzed and applied toward decision-
making. EMIS reform should focus first only on
information that directly informs priority decisions.
7. Effective systems tend to build-off of existing
databases, taking advantage of current data collection
routines. Maintaining familiarity while enhancing
efficiency builds early wins for a more ambitious, long-
term effort.
8. Most EMIS interventions – assessment, design,
implementation – tend to focus on technical solutions
created by technical teams, and tend to overlook the
organizational processes and institutional incentives
that drive information use.
9. Large-scale EMIS efforts require stakeholder/user
consensus. New information tends to create “losers”
who may actively resist implementation. Broadening
information use at all levels tends to increase the
likelihood of ownership.
10. EMIS systems tend to have the greatest impact on
planning and policy support – at that stage
policymakers have the greatest latitude to act in response
to new information.
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 Education Management Information Systems (EMIS):
(EMIS):
Available Software and Guidelines for Selection
Kurt Moses, Vice President
Vivian Toro, Director
Academy for Educational Development

Selecting EMIS software (whether custom designed or prewritten) in its details is complicated, but the key outcomes are
not complicated —making existing jobs work better: more accurately, more timely, and more efficiently. Moreover,
good, sustainable EMIS efforts in the public sector are evolutionary, not revolutionary—they build as much as possible
on what already works well. Software (not hardware) should be the focus of attention of a Ministry or its agencies,
since software selection for EMIS should drive whatever additional hardware is needed.

Strategic Choices as payroll, and operating on very specific equipment—often

There are several important distinctions to know about EMIS
software before deciding what to select.
Transactional versus Management or Planning
Software. In the early stages of EMIS most Ministries
think of EMIS as an undifferentiated set of solutions to all
their problems involving computers, reporting, data, and
costs. A key distinction for large educational systems is
between transactional software and planning-oriented or re-
porting software. Transactional software performs the daily,
individual functions such as payroll, tracking personnel, re-
cording leave, tracking inventory of books, or accounting for
payments. Such software tends to be highly specialized, ac-
commodates considerable detail and can be used to derive
reports that are used for management and planning. Some
software is sold as payroll only, with no personnel function;
other is integrated using a common database and common
procedures and computer screens. If an educational system
decentralizes and places responsibility for recruiting, track-
ing, and paying teachers at the District level, for example,
then the District needs, at a minimum, transactional software
for payroll and personnel. Typically, up until decentraliza-
tion, most payroll software will be at a central ministry level.
Hence, when large educational systems start moving re-
sponsibility for certain key functions—such as payroll,
personnel recruiting and tracking, financial accounting,
and tracking vehicles to a lower level, they must also plan
on software and hardware support for these functions.
What many governments do when they decentralize is to
force Districts or lower levels to use manual procedures even
when, at the central level, most things are automated.
Developing Versus Buying Software. Until about 10 to
15 years ago, the only major option was to make your own
software—custom designing it for a particular function, such
mainframe computers, with very specific computer lan-
guages—such as COBOL or Neat3 or Fortran. That era has
been far surpassed. With more advanced software, the use of
Internet languages like HTML or Java, and the widespread
use of PC computers, there is a very large selection of pre-
written software for almost any administrative function or
any sized organization, that operate on most internationally
compatible PCs, servers, or minicomputers. As well, the
educational market has gotten big enough that specialized
software firms now provide both individual and integrated
software for schools and Districts (or regions) that support
most of the functions that an independent or fully decentral-
ized school might need to perform. Additionally, many
software vendors now provide government oriented software
for large volumes of transaction such as payroll for 1 million
staff, or personnel tracking for 2.5 million administrative
staff. In short, an effective Ministry can now find, proven,
tested, documented, and easy-to-train-for software for almost
any need at a reasonable price. The key advantage with
prewritten software is that you can try it out before you
buy it, it goes in much faster than custom software, and a
vendor can provide support afterwards should problems
arise. In most instances, prewritten software, which is
then customized to special needs, is the only time-effective
means to get a nation-wide EMIS working in a reason-
able period of time. In some developed countries, software
vendors are now offering remote access to their software on a
per month or per transaction basis.
Some key things to look for with prewritten software:
• History of successful use in situations like yours—at
least 3-5 years;
• Ability to be used in different sized or volume situations,
such as district, regional, province, and na-
tional(scalability);

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• User friendly—people can operate it quickly with mini-
mal additional training;
• Internationally compatible databases and procedures
(there are a series of widely accepted international stan-
dards and databases available);
• Supported locally by a reputable vendor—there is a fi-
nancially solvent vendor around to resolve issues;
• Multiple site licenses—it should not cost a huge amount
of money to add an additional site;
• Transparent pricing—the Ministry should be able to
evaluate the cost of purchasing and operating the soft-
ware for 5 years, easily. Pricing should be done ac-
cording to a “life cycle” software costing approach;
• Web compatible—at some point, the software should be
accessible via the Web either for reporting or data gath-
ering purposes;
• Excellent training—there should be excellent and con-
tinuous training available for at least 5 years;
• The vendor should be able to demonstrate and explain to
any management person in the Ministry what the soft-
ware can do for them. Strictly technical statements are
NOT sufficient; and,
• Give yourself at least 6-8 months to do this work with a
small team.
Sample List of EMIS Software
Exhibit A is a sample list of single function as well as inte-
grated education-oriented management software. The list is
indicative and not exhaustive. As you review it, keep in mind
that software suitability is highly dependent upon the local
situation, particularly in terms of functions, support, training
and cost.
Steps to Software Selection
Step #1 – Conduct a Needs Assessment
What kinds of information do you need? Who will use the
information? For what purpose? To answer what questions?
How frequently do you need the information? What links
does it have to existing or planned information systems in-
side and outside your organization? How does it fit into your
institution’s overall EMIS plan/vision? Does your organiza-
tion have (or can afford) the necessary pool of skills to de-
velop, customize, install, operate and/or upgrade the neces-
sary software? Do you need to consider contracting,
outsourcing or training existing staff? These are some of the
questions you should try to answer during this step in order
to get a realistic perspective.
The tendency in developing or selecting EMIS systems is to
try to use a Statistical Information System (SIS) to meet the
information needs that are best met by transactions-based
administrative systems such as Human Resources/Personnel,
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Financial, and other transaction-based systems. But this will
only be a short-term solution. At the very minimum any
national education system should address basic educational
questions such as:
• How many schools do you have?
• Where are these schools?
• How many children/learners are in the education sys-
tem?
• What are the basic characteristics of these chil-
dren/learners?
• How many teachers are there?
• Where are they?
• What is the basic infrastructure of your schools?
• What is the basic financial information?
• What basic teaching materials does each school have?
The needs assessment should be done in a participatory
fashion, consulting as many stakeholders and users as possi-
ble. The assessment process should take into account what
works well in current systems whether they are manual or
automated processes and functions, and build on these suc-
cesses. It should also look at the “must-have” features, be-
cause not everything needs to or can be done at once.
Common pitfalls:
• Defining systems as only automated systems. People
have manual or partly automated “systems” that work
and should be included as part of a needs assessment.
• Leaving the needs assessment only to the “technical”
people, rather than including managers from the begin-
ning.
• Excluding your “technical” people from the needs as-
sessment process.
• Looking at software acquisition as a one-time purchase
and not as a system-wide investment.
Step #2 – Specify System (Software) Requirements
In order to obtain the kind of information system you want,
you must be as clear and specific as possible about what kind
of functionality you want from a software system(s) and
vendor. Some of the factors to consider in specifying soft-
ware requirements include: ability to perform key functions,
compatibility or interlinking with available software and en-
vironment; cost (core system, initial conversion, training,
support, upgrades, customization, and maintenance); user
friendliness; adequacy of documentation; access to technical
support; open source code or proprietary software,
sustainability, and upgrades.
Common pitfalls:
• Not developing system requirements.
• Not separating critical system requirements from non-
critical requirements.
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 Exhibit A: Sample List of EMIS Software
Name and Contact Area Sample Func
Functions Country Comments
of Origin
Education Management Systems Integrated School Finance, USA Small, medium
www.ems-isis.com & District Soft- School Lunches, schools & Districts
ware Student Records,
Class Act Software Integrated Student Records, USA Small, medium
Info@classactsoftware.com School Software Teacher Pay, sized schools
Finances, Class Attendance
TASS—Alpha School System Integrated School Student Records, Teacher Australia Used primarily in
www.alphabus.com.au/tass/tass.html Software Pay, Australia, variable
Finances, Class Attendance, school sizes
Student Accounts
Powerschool School Student Student Records, Class USA Supports instruc-
www.Powerschool.com Software Attendance, Parent Contact tional activity best

ABT Campus Integrated School Student Records, Class USA Extensive use of
www.abtcampus.com Software Attendance, Business Man- the Web for inter-
agement faces
Rediker Software Integrated School Student Records, Class USA/ Worldwide appli-
www.rediker.com Software Attendance, Counseling Europe cation, oriented to
Records, Business Man- educators needs
agement
SchoolPro Integrated School Student Admissions, Rec- USA
www.schoolpro.com Software ords, Billing, Business
Management, Payroll, Fa-
cilities Management
IBM—Solutions for Schools School Software, Various USA/ Various semi-
www.ibm.com/solutions/ Selected District Worldwide custom solutions
Software

Computer Associates District, Re- Finance/Accounting, Hu- USA/ Euro- Requires a Systems
www.ca.com/products gional, National, man Resources, Inventory pean Integrator to link
Single Function large systems
Software
MSA Inc. National, Provin- Human Resources, Inven- USA/ Requires Systems
www.msa.com cial, Single Func- tory, Textbook Manage- Worldwide Integrator to link
tion Software ment large systems
PeopleSoft, Inc. National, Provin- Human Resources, Finan- USA/ Requires Systems
www.peoplesoft.com cial Semi- cial, Student Records Europe Integrator to install.
Integrated Soft-
ware
ED*ASSIST National, Provin- Information reporting on USA Planning & man-
www.aed.org./edassist cial, Regional, Students, Human Re- agement oriented
District Integrated sources, Financial Summa- EMIS. Links to
Software ries, Facilities, Textbooks existing school
system.
SCT Solutions National , School Students, Human Re- USA/ Higher Education
www.sctcorp.com Integrated Soft- sources, Finances, Inven- Europe oriented. Large
ware—also tory, Class Scheduling user base.
Higher Education
Campus America School Integrated Student Records, Human USA Higher Education
www.campus.com Software— Resources, Finances, In- oriented. Medium
Higher Education ventory, Class Attendance, sized institutions
Store Management

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Step #3 – Develop an Evaluation Criteria
In evaluating your options, you should develop evaluation
criteria that help you quantify the priorities and features that
are more important to you. This process should help you to
weigh how much emphasis you will give to certain technical
and non-technical categories. For example some of the tech-
nical categories might include application functions, the da-
tabase management system, maintenance, training, and sup-
port, while non-technical categories might include cost.
These categories should be directly linked to the detailed list
of system requirements developed in step #2.
Exhibit B summarizes in matrix form an example of the
Software Evaluation Criteria used to acquire Human Re-
source Software for a Ministry of Education in Latin Amer-
ica for a decentralized system. In this particular situation,
the ministry had decided to “buy” a software system that met
about 70% of their key requirements, and to customize the
remaining 30%. You should complete these evaluation crite-
ria for each one of the software top candidates.
Common pitfalls:
• Not having systematic evaluation criteria.
• Attributing too much importance to technical features
and not to the overall operation environment.
• Evaluating software as an independent activity and not
as part of an overall plan.
Step #4 – Identify Existing Software Options
Once you have specified your system requirements (or as
part of that process), you should try to identify existing soft-
ware options. Should you (or a contractor) develop a totally
customized software system or do you acquire existing “off-
the-shelf” software?
In order to determine what is the best solution to meet your
needs, you need to see if software solutions exist, and, if they
do, do they meet all, or some of the needs. You need to de-
termine how much time, effort, and resources would be
needed to customize an existing system, or whether it is bet-
ter to develop your own system “from scratch.” The latter is
always time-consuming, resource intensive, costly and fre-
quently hard to sustain. The answer might be a compromise
between the “make” and the “buy” options since there are
benefits and constraints to both options. The solution will
need to take into account your information needs, your in-
stitutional capacity, and existing resources.
Common pitfalls:
• Wanting to "invent," believing that local development is
cheaper.
• Acquiring/developing software that answers current
questions but is less flexible at adapting to the inevitable
changes in policies and priorities.
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Step #5 – Obtain Feedback from Users
In addition to the research on software advertisements, Web
sites, demonstration programs, vendor presentations, profes-
sional publications, and software reviews you should also try
to obtain feedback from “real” users. Consult with other
colleagues or collaborators trying to answer the same ques-
tions, and having the same problems.
In particular, you should talk to similar organizations and
ministries that have similar information needs. Find out
about lessons learned. What do they like about the software?
What are the shortcomings? If they were doing it all over
again, would they use the same software? The same vendor?
The same contractors/consultants? Would they do the devel-
opment “in-house”? Would they outsource it? Would they
do a combination of both? Are the users happy? What kind
of infrastructure is needed to support the software? What is
the “real” cost? Can the vendors/consultants show you a
prototype of how the system would look once adapted to
your needs?
Common pitfalls:
• Relying only on vendor “claims” about their software.
• Relying on software that is not really oriented to your
“activity.”
Step #6 – Consider Acquisition Process and Pre-
conditions
You should become familiar with the acquisition procedures
within your organization and, if applicable, those of the
funding source. Each institution and each donor has different
procedures, limits, formats, and cycles, that could signifi-
cantly delay your acquisition. You should also synchronize
this process with other procurement procedures that are pre-
conditions or requirements for the successful implementation
of your system. This might include hardware and software
procurement and installation, as well as staff training ranging
from Office Automation (word processor, spreadsheets,
Internet use, etc.) to different levels of specialized technical
training (databases, operating systems, networks, etc.). It
could also include the readiness of the different user groups,
particularly if you plan to install in regional or District of-
fices.
Common pitfalls:
• Not knowing the donor's or your own software procure-
ment procedures.
• Not synchronizing your software acquisition with other
relevant aspects.
Step #7 – Develop Feedback Mechanisms
Feedback mechanisms are critical throughout the whole pro-
cess of procurement, customization, installation, refinement,
training, and maintenance -- particularly from users of the
system. Use routine feedback mechanisms such as evalua-
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tion forms, or group interviews, and create an environment in
which users feel their voices are “heard” and taken into ac-
count. Also maintain the lines of communication with the
vendor/consultant/contractor so that there is some flexibility
incorporating feedback. Additionally, invest in a service
contract that provides for “hot line” support, system up-
grades, access to user groups, etc.
Finally, always develop contingency plans, just in case
things don’t work out as expected. People leave, companies
go out of business, technology changes, systems become
obsolete.
Common pitfalls:
• Assume that the acquisition process stops once a soft-
ware selection has been made.
• Not having a contingency plan.
Software is just part of the process of building your EMIS.
One of the measures of success will be when users start de-
manding more from the system because their original expec-
tations are being met and they expect more. When new sys-
tems are introduced, staff expectations may rapidly move
from expecting a 2- month delay to get a new teacher paid, to
expecting 1 week. Today’s questions will quickly be re-
placed with new ones. Accordingly, a potentially successful
EMIS should have a built-in mechanism for evolution and
growth.

Exhibit B: Software Evaluation Criteria

MAIN SPECIFIC CRITERIA MAXIMUM VALUE FOR VALUE FOR VALUE FOR
CATEGORIES VALUE CANDIDATE CANDIDATE CANDIDATE
A B C
General Char
Char- Company profile 5
acteris
acteristics
Software Package General 2
Characteristics
Software Architecture 5
System Internals 5
Customization/Adaptation 5
Distributed Processing Sup- 5
port (Network)
Licensing 3
Cost 30
Initial 15
Recurrent 10
Customization 5
Support 10
Training 8
Documentation 5
Total - Gen
Gen-
eral Charac
Charac- 83
teristics
Software Recruiting/Applicant 1
Characteris
Characteris- Tracking
tics
Post Assignment Proposals 1
Employee Information 3
Positions 2
Personnel Actions Tracking 1
Reporting 2
Ease of Use 2
Data Volume Handling 2
System Interface 3
Total- Soft
Soft- 17
ware Charac
Charac-
teristics
Total Evalua
Evalua- 100
tion Criteria

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No Strings Attached:
Education Management Using
Wireless, Internet and Smart Card Applica
Applications
In governments from Peru to Estonia, modernization of
management systems in the education sector often lags
behind more dynamic (and financially profitable) areas
such as telecommunications, banking and transportation.
This is due in part to a pervasive reluctance to imple-
ment radical solutions in education, and in part to the
low priority education receives in national, state and lo-
cal budgets. Education systems are plagued by the per-
ennial problems of obsolete infrastructure, lack of fund-
ing, low teacher pay, overcrowding and curriculum issues.
Far less attention is paid, however, to the fact that
school systems are in need of effective management, as
is any large organization. Schools employ thousands of
teachers, order billions of dollars in supplies and distrib-
ute millions in payroll annually, yet many of the systems
that perform these functions are antiquated, decentral-
ized and inefficient. Schools are in need of quick, but
sustainable solutions to harmonize these systems and
manage their teachers.
Enter the latest crazes in the telecommunications market:
Wireless applications, the Internet and Smart Cards.
At first glance, wireless communications, Internet and Smart
Cards might seem unrelated to education management, but in
fact, they can provide fast, reliable and cheap solutions to
some of the most pressing problems facing education sys-
tems today. Recent studies show that school systems around
the world lack basic information on teacher credentials, at-
tendance, current teacher assignments or even records on the
existence of some schools, particularly in rural areas. In
some countries these information gaps can cost the govern-
ment millions of dollars in lost wages, misappropriated funds
or even corrupted use of school monies. When pennies count,
this kind of waste and duplication take away from supplies,
teacher training, school maintenance and ultimately the stu-
dents themselves.
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Wireless Communi
Communications
As many telecommunications analysts
will exalt, wireless communications
offer an inexpensive way for
developing countries to bypass
complicated fixed-line telecommunica-
tions equipment, a process often
referred to as “leap-frogging”. In some
of the poorest countries with low
fixed-line teledensity rates, wireless
has proved hugely popular. China, for
example, is expected to surpass the United States in its
wireless use within two years. Countries like Poland, South
Africa, Slovenia, Brazil, Latvia and Guatemala have all em-
braced the wireless world with enthusiasm, reaching 40%
penetration rates in some cases. In poor countries like Bang-
ladesh, community wireless phones are used much like
shared access computer terminals. Similar models of shared
access can be applied to educational systems management
using burgeoning wireless networks in developing countries.
For example, with a mobile handset teachers can report ab-
sences, speak with educational administrators, tend to per-
sonnel matters or order supplies from a centralized location
without having to travel to the next town or capital city. Us-
ing wireless, these tasks can be completed at a reasonable
cost and with little training or maintenance on the part of the
school.
Internet
Naturally, the Internet is a critical tool for managing employ-
ees. In Kenya, teachers are trained in advanced Internet skills
at Kenyatta University’s Africa Virtual University not only
for the purpose of improving educational applications for
students, but also because the Kenyan government needs
computer-literate teachers for proper record-keeping. Teach-
ers in remote rural areas with basic telecenters can now eas-
ily email the latest enrollment rates, attendance and school
financial records, data that might have gone unreported be-
fore Internet connections existed. In the United States, for-
mer education czar Lamar Alexander recently kicked off a
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new company called Simplexis.com, which is designed to
save schools billions in processing costs for supply orders by
connecting schools and suppliers in an automated online pur-
chasing market. The free service allows school districts to
make order combinations and receive bulk discounts through
centralized systems to avoid duplication and overstocking.
Education-focused companies like Simplexis are part of a
new wave of entrepreneurs engaged in B2E, or business to
education commerce.
The Internet and special
software can also be combined
specifically as an education
management information
system (EMIS), which can be
used to keep statistics, track
financial trends, maximize
employee capacity, allocate
funds and manage payroll. In
Canada, a company called
Emis specializes in these
systems for local governments,
schools and small businesses
in countries like the UK,
Ireland, Jamaica, Nicaragua,
Thailand, Cote d'Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Pakistan and the
Philippines. In many cases, outsourcing contracts to the pri-
vate sector is more effective because companies possess state
of the art security, programming, upgrades, research and
technical support that government-run facilities may not be
able to provide.
Smart Cards
Smart Cards are often associated with banking, but they can
also hold extensive personnel and payroll management in-
formation. Governments around the world are slowly inte-
grating Smart Card technology into management systems
because the cards are cheap, reliable and relatively secure
http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200009050145.html
http://www.simplexis.com/
http://www.smartcardcentral.com/news/pressrelease/november2000/bull_112300.asp
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/news/articles2000/000203-2.shtml
! 56 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
(although they can easily be misplaced or destroyed). In the
United States, Congress just approved the use of Smart Cards
for the food stamp program, and France, Belgium and the
Scandinavian countries regularly use Smart Cards to manage
government employees. As an education management tool,
Smart Cards have small chips that can hold large amounts of
data about a teacher or administrator, which can be updated
on a regular basis at a central terminal in a school. For exam-
ple, in Nottingham, England, the government recently intro-
duced the “Connexions Card” to students and teachers using
technology from a company called GuideLine Career Serv-
ices, Ltd. Teachers and students use the cards to monitor
attendance, track lessons and record good behavior. Students
are rewarded through points that can then be exchanged for
discounts and free items from local vendors.
Smart Card, Internet and
wireless solutions are clearly
the future direction for man-
agement of education systems
in the global information
economy. However, for
optimal application of these
technologies, it is necessary
to have first a receptive
environment for the introduction of new technologies, fund-
ing for installation and upkeep, basic infrastructure and a
solid security system to prevent tampering or hacking. The
potential for abuse or intrusion of privacy must also be con-
sidered, particularly in countries with restrictive govern-
ments. Also, the wireless option is less feasible in countries
where state monopolies still dominate the telecom sector
with controlled, often exorbitant pricing systems. Despite
these obstacles, the long-term benefits seem to outweigh
short-term costs or risks. Computerizing education systems
reduces red tape, saves time and trims costs so administra-
tions can have more complete information on their opera-
tions, students and employees and so teachers can spend
more time with the most important asset in any school -- stu-
dents.
www.TechKnowLogia.org
 The Web is being used increasingly not only to
provide information and in-
struction, but also to
support policy
development, planning,
and management of educational systems. The
following are several sites that do that.

Selected by Gregg Jackson

Associate Professor and Coordinator
Education Policy Program, George Washington University

Secretaria de Estado da Educação

(State Department of Education, São Paulo, Brazil)
http://www.educacao.sp.gov.br

This site offers a variety of information about the activities of the department. The site has a directory of all 6,100 public
schools in the state. For each school, the site maintains daily information that includes quality indicators, special projects,
dropout and retention rates, calendar of classes, classes that were cancelled and proposed make-up days, and even teacher ab-
sences. The department is also planning profile pages for each of its 6.1 million students, indicating their attendance and
grades. The pages would be restricted – through the use of password – to each student’s parent. (In Portuguese)

Internet Educativa
http://www.ie2000.cl

This site is maintained by Fundación Chile, a private group of professionals interested in the use of technology for develop-
ment. The site is a portal that offers information and facilitates communication among teachers, students, families and re-
searchers. For instance, the teacher portal includes articles, news, lesson plans, and even a virtual course for teacher certifica-
tion. The student portal includes homework help. The research site includes access to statistics, federal legislation, a virtual
library, and a collaborative environment where researchers can publish their work. (In Spanish)

! 57 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org

 U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov

This U.S. government site provides a rich array of resources that can be of help to those who prepare policies, plan education
systems, and manage them in the United States. It includes documents and speeches about education by the President and the
Secretary of Education, a huge compendium of statistical data on schools and education, a large number of research reports on
various aspects of education, information on the federal grant programs for education, announcements of job openings in the
Department’s offices, and links to many other sites with useful resources.

LearnLink
http://www.aed.org/learnlink

LearnLink is a USAID initiative to use information and education technologies to strengthen learning systems in developing
countries. This Web site helps support those activities. It includes summaries of specific projects, country papers describing
the field experiences of the projects, and many links to online resources.

National Center for Technology Planning

http://www.nctp.com

The site offers links to many resources that could be of use when developing plans for the use of educational technology. It
includes links to a substantial number of already adopted national, regional, state, district, and school plans. Although most of
these plans are American, they should be useful in provoking thought about plans elsewhere.

Associación Iberoamericana de Educación Superior a Distancia (AIESAD)

(Ibero-American Association of Distance Higher Education)
http://www.uned.es/aiesad

This is a consortium of more than 55 universities involved in distance education in Latin America and on the Iberian Peninsula.
The site connects to a course of specialization in Open and Distance Education provided through six Latin American Universi-
ties (in Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and Spain). The page also includes a site for an academic cooperation program
between Europe and Latin American universities. (In Spanish)

Associación de Televisión Educativa Iberoamericana (ATEO)

(Ibero-American Educational Television Association)
http://www.ateiamerica.com

This organization has more than 250 member organizations, including ministries, universities, foundations, and regional televi-
sion networks. The ATEO website includes news about education for all Latin America, a forum for debates on different top-
ics, and a list of major journals on education in Spanish and Portuguese. The organization offers training courses on issues
related to tele-education that is provided through satellite, digital videoconferencing and the Internet. ATEO also has an edu-
cational video-library from which members can borrow for broadcast. (In Spanish)

! 58 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org

 Orbiting the Dream:
SATELLITES OPEN NEW HORIZONS FOR AFRICA’S EDUCATORS
Tressa Steffen Gipe
Imagine a small rural village in Africa. It is isolated by a lack of
roads and fixed telecommunications infrastructure, yet the
people in the village are able to access all the news, weather and
political happenings in the capital city through radio
transmissions. The village schoolhouse receives current radio
reports in the local language with events from around the world,
and the teacher is able to email student and payroll records to
the Ministry of Education in the capital. In the evenings the
school doubles as a community media center filled with
enterprising villagers checking grain and livestock prices in the
capital, while others keep in touch with friends and family via
email…
A Pan African System
With some of the lowest teledensity and Internet penetration
in the world, such scenarios might be difficult to imagine in
many African countries. However, organizations such as the
Regional African Satellite Communications Organization
(RASCOM) hope one day to bring reliable telephone, radio,
television and Internet service to Africa through a network of
satellites that can be used in a variety of business and educa-
tional settings. For educators and administrators, satellite
projects like RASCOM could make it possible for more of
Africa’s schools to enter into the global information age
without need for the elaborate fixed line infrastructure typi-
cally found in more developed countries. Specifically, satel-
lites can be used to implement new management techniques
and pedagogical methods that can help educators conduct
their administrative and teaching duties more efficiently,
even in remote rural areas.
RASCOM, which is a treaty-based organization of 44 Afri-
can nations, was officially convened in 1995 with a dream to
bring Africa the freedom of reliable intercity communica-
tions services that would operate independently of American
or European networks. RASCOM hopes to connect all major
African cities together using a small satellite network that
may eventually include three orbiting stations. The initial
costs are estimated at $450 million and will be funded pri-
marily by African governments.
At a recent meeting in Tripoli, Libya, RASCOM announced
it had officially begun preparations to launch its pan-African
satellite, RASCOM-1, in 2003. Although not considered the
most advanced system on the market, RASCOM-1 will be
capable of handling a wide range of complex applications,
including multimedia communications, local area network
(LAN) data, some Internet transmissions, long-distance tele-
! 59 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
phone calls, videoconferencing, television broadcasts and
radio transmissions. In October 1999, RASCOM also an-
nounced plans to install a network of solar-powered phone
booths that will be linked by satellite to provide wireless
communications across Africa. Each booth is estimated to
cost $1,000.
How It Works
Long before ambitious programs like RASCOM, the first
satellites were designed for military and weather reconnais-
sance. They eventually became used as transmitters of com-
plex multimedia information such as television and radio.
Satellites generally have what is called a transmission
“beam” or “footprint” that can cover millions of square
kilometers. Data is usually received at a specific location
through terrestrial receivers, which can range in size from a
huge broadcasting satellite dish to a tiny global positioning
chip within a cellular phone. For example, the WorldSpace
Corporation, a U.S.-based satellite provider for Asia, Latin
America and Africa, is developing handheld radios equipped
with flat-patch antennae that receive direct satellite broad-
casts with CD-quality sound anywhere. The company is also
developing second- and third-generation receiver chips that
can be attached on PCs or handheld phones to collect and
receive information, including text and graphics.
Data is usually beamed from satellites through one of three
frequencies, the Ku-band, the Ca-band or the C-band. Infor-
mation is usually exchanged within the satellite’s beam
through an uplink center or a downlink center, which can be
any piece of equipment capable of receiving and decoding
the frequencies beamed by the satellite. The more specialized
handheld devices, like the ones being developed by World-
Space, simultaneously act as uplink and downlink sites and
usually operate using the high-frequency Ka-band receiving
www.TechKnowLogia.org
antennae. For example, with a satellite-enabled mobile
phone, a teacher in a rural African village could make tele-
phone calls or download educational material onto a PC
without ever having to connect to a land line.
Serving Education Systems
Pan-continental satellite ventures like RASCOM have im-
portant implications for Africa’s education systems, not the
least of which is the potential for better access for millions of
people who are isolated economically, politically, geographi-
cally and culturally from the telecommunications hubs in
Europe, North America and east Asia. For educators and
administrators, satellite technology circumvents some of the
greatest obstacles to access, including cost, system capacity
and geographical boundaries. Although cost issues and feasi-
bility will vary due to the economic situations in individual
countries, some potential educational management applica-
tions include the following:
• Digitization and management of student records, teacher
files and even university systems using special satellite
receiving terminals that can disseminate information to
remote areas equipped with proper receiving devices.
This system of shared data access could be achieved
without traditional fixed line infrastructure because sat-
ellite-linked equipment can be run using batteries, solar
power or electricity.
• Storing and processing of teacher background via satel-
lite using a processing terminal or PC that can receive
data without the use of phone lines. For example, grades
and attendance records could be sent to a central proc-
essing hub via email or document attachments.
• Using satellite radio transmissions to bring news and
educational programming to teachers and students in
remote villages. For example, WorldSpace transmits
free educational material with Africa-specific content to
the entire continent through its Africa Learning Channel
(ALC).
• Accessing educational databases and employee man-
agement systems via satellites to provide the latest per-
sonnel updates and student files.
• Teleconferencing to bring rural school administrators
and national administrators together to share the latest
educational trends, policy changes and technical up-
dates.
• Teleconferencing and distance learning to train teachers
on maintenance of equipment and other school man-
agement techniques.
• Creating inter-urban links between capitals like the ones
envisioned by RASCOM to help Ministries of Educa-
tion, teachers, universities and even students share data
and keep open lines of communication. In the past, this
interconnectivity was impossible due to restrictions
from fixed line telephony.
! 60 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
Challenges to Overcome
Because of Africa’s vast size, cultural diversity, linguistic
patchwork, and pockets of political instability, programs like
RASCOM are met with serious challenges. For instance,
regulatory barriers in some countries make pan-African
broadcasting difficult, particularly when it comes to politi-
cally, religiously or morally sensitive content. Cost usually
poses the biggest barrier, particularly in RASCOM’s case
since much of the funding comes from national governments.
Maintenance, installation of equipment and training of teach-
ers to operate receiving devices are also major expenses, and
some countries are more willing or able than others to absorb
these financial burdens. As with any multilateral project,
political discord can also impede progress, which has often
been the case for RASCOM.
Into the Future
In other parts of the world, similar projects are underway to
bring better telecommunications access to schools and teach-
ers in traditionally undeserved areas. ArabSat is run by a
consortium of Arab states and delivers quality programming
and telephony to the Middle East. WorldSpace’s satellite
network serves nearly two thirds of the world’s population
through the AsiaStar, AfriStar and AmeriStar satellites,
which often provide free and low-cost educational program-
ming to rural areas. Even supranational organizations like the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) are focusing
on creating better social applications of satellite technology
through public/private sector partnerships.
Although traditionally not seen by telecommunications com-
panies as lucrative customers, educators and schools stand to
benefit from satellite applications in ways unimagined just a
decade ago. Networks like RASCOM can help teachers use
satellite technology to make learning and administrative
tasks more efficacious. Yet even with major projects like
RASCOM, a fully connected Africa will not be realized in
the immediate future; teledensity in Africa is predicted to
reach only 10% by 2006. Nevertheless, the fact that satellites
are increasingly able to offer portability and interoperability
for content and data processing allows economically and
physically isolated groups to take advantage of the fruits of
the information age in small, but unprecedented ways. The
dream may not have been realized yet, but satellites have
brought real solutions into orbit for millions of people.
http://www.atek.com/satellite/work.html
http://www.worldspace.com/technology/technology1.htm
http://allafrica.com/stories/200008240123.html
http://www.totaltele.com/view.asp?articleID=24173&Pub=T
T&categoryid=625&kw=RASCOM
http://www.rascom.org
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 On-line Distance Learning:
The Experience of the
International Institute for Educational Planning,
Bikas C. Sanyal
Introduction
On average, in national budgets around the world, one out of
every five dollars is allocated for education. However, very
few countries have set up institutional mechanisms to moni-
tor the managerial effectiveness of this resource. Very often,
the heads of institutions who are in charge of the manage-
ment of their budgets are academics with little managerial
expertise – scarce resources are thus wasted.
Having foreseen this problem, UNESCO established the In-
ternational Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) in 1963
as a center for advanced training and research in the field of
educational management for UNESCO Member States. Spe-
cifically, it was created to:
• train those responsible for the management of education;
• research into important aspects of educational manage-
ment; and.
• disseminate new concepts, methods and techniques in
this area.
More than 1,200 people from all over the world have partici-
pated in the Institute’s nine-month Annual Training Program
while more than 4,500 people have attended the Institute's
Visiting Fellows program, its short-term (2-4 weeks) Inten-
sive Training Courses in specialized subjects, its courses on
the training of trainers, its program for visiting specialists, its
seminars and research-review workshops and, more recently,
its on-line distance learning programs.
The responsibility of educational managers has been spread-
ing into new areas. Simultaneously, new information and
communication technology (NICT) has made it possible to-
day to rapidly respond to urgent needs and to reach anyone in
the world who wishes to acquire a particular skill. It is with
this mind that IIEP launched the program of distance learn-
ing (DL) in various areas of educational management (e.g.
the management of textbook production and distribution,
refresher programs for former IIEP trainees, the management
of university-industry partnerships, etc.), based on self-
learning materials prepared by its faculty. In this article we
shall deal with only one area – the training of human re-
sources for university management.
! 61 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
UNESCO
The objectives and contents of the DL
course
The three-month DL course, which has so far been held on
three occasions for universities in different regions of the
world – Southern Africa, East and West Africa, and South-
East Asia – is intended to develop human resources for sen-
ior managerial positions in universities.
A set of ten training modules has been developed by IIEP,
dealing with (i) the general management of universities (one
module), (ii) financial management (three modules), (iii)
personnel management (three modules), and (iv) the man-
agement of physical facilities (three modules). The last three
modules include computerized simulation exercises for par-
ticipants to explore alternative strategies. They deal with (i)
issues and approaches, (ii) a range of international good
practices, (iii) problems and solutions, and (iv) strategies for
improving management.
The format of the course
Organizing the course in a distance learning format combines
the advantages of a traditional face-to-face workshop (i.e.
interaction among professionals), with the flexibility of time
and space of independent study, supported by group-work at
the institution level. The design of the course is based on a
combination of the three learning techniques:
• Independent study of materials (prepared with special
emphasis on self-learning).
• Scheduled group sessions to discuss individual re-
sponses to the task assignments and to prepare a group
response.
• Interaction with the IIEP course team and with other
participating institutions through on-line debates (using
e-mail) and access to the submissions of other institu-
tions (which are posted on the Website of the course).
In each institution a group coordinator is given the task of
coordinating the group work and of being the group’s princi-
pal communicator with IIEP. A Guide is prepared for the
course for both the participants and the group coordinators.
Individual tasks are so designed to help the process of reflec-
tion. Group tasks are so designed to allow development of
team spirit, provide opportunity to brainstorm, and hear the
ideas and opinions of others. It is suggested that it is impor-
www.TechKnowLogia.org
tant to do the work individually and then come together for
group discussion. IIEP’s feedback is to be very quick to
keep up the momentum of the course. At the end of each
module, a synthesis is prepared at the IIEP and sent to all
participants.
The course requires five hours of work per week for each
participant and the head of the institution is asked to ensure
the release time as a condition of participation.
E-mail interaction and use of Web facilities
For interaction, the course relies widely on the exchange of
information and comments by e-mail. Web facilities are
used to provide access to selected documents to be shared
among all participants having access to the Web – others
receive the same documents as attached files to e-mail mes-
sages. This allows the course team to be in regular and con-
tinuous contact with the course participants throughout the
course.
Participants receive regular and frequent messages on the
course procedures and contents. Reminders of the tasks to be
undertaken and the dates that institutional responses are due
are sent to individuals. A course hotline is set up to reply to
questions, whether in relation to content or concerning any
technical problems.
In designing the interactive aspect of the course, the simplest
approach has been chosen – all interactions take place
through e-mail messages to one IIEP address.
Well in advance of the formal start of the course, the com-
munications-related information submitted by each institu-
tion is reviewed for potential problems and the communica-
tions capacity tested by the sending of several trial messages.
Moreover, communication support from the IIEP address is
organized on a seven-days-a-week basis.
Course Outcome
The ongoing outcome of the distance learning course is
measured through the responses to the tasks assigned. The
final outcome is measured through an evaluation question-
naire collecting as much information as possible on the par-
ticipants’ perception of the instructional design, course con-
tent, communication support and organization of the course.
It is noted that some institutions have taken immediate action
in setting up mechanisms for improving institutional man-
agement as a result of the course.
Technical problems encountered
The following is the list of the technical problems faced at
one time or another by at least one institution during the
courses held so far:
! 62 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
• Interruption of the e-mail service while the university
was changing its file server.
• Service lost due to power failure and breakdown of tele-
phone connection.
• Software incompatibility.
• Receiving computer files with viruses.
• Getting accustomed to using e-mail: sending an attached
file, retrieving information on the Web site.
Technical problems, however, do not appear to have under-
mined the commitment of the participants to the course.
They have been given assistance and moral support from the
IIEP team member responsible for communications. Univer-
sities also have come forward to solve some of the problems.
Balance sheet
As a learning institution, IIEP is interested to identify the
strengths and weaknesses of its programs from the partici-
pants. The identified strengths of the DL program included
the following:
• The speed of e-mail as a communication vehicle.
• The concise, clear and comprehensive materials.
• The possibility of a group of individuals to participate
with little expense from the institution (without leaving
work or home).
• The possibilities to refer to documents and information
available in the institution to enhance responses and
comments; the institutional setting also allows direct ap-
plication of the skills and competencies acquired during
the course.
• The enriching group discussions, sharing of experiences
and IIEP comments.
• The availability of a longer schedule allows more time
for reflection on the course content, for interaction with
others, and for sharing information and experiences
among the participants.
The weaknesses identified included the following:
• The time pressures associated with studying while re-
maining on the job.
• The lack of face-to-face contact.
• The absence of evaluation of individual participant’s
performance.
• The limited feedback on other institutions’ submissions.
• The lack of involvement of top management and policy-
makers.
The outcome of the courses indicates that a carefully de-
signed distance learning course has the potential to offer an
efficient and effective method to meet the ever-increasing
demand from UNESCO Member States for the Institute’s
assistance in strengthening their national capacities through
human resource development.
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 Technology as a Management Tool:
A New Approach to Implementation
For 40 years, the Academy for Educational Development has
been addressing critical social problems in the United States
and throughout the world through research, training, educa-
tion, social marketing and innovative program design.
Improving access to education and creating systemic reform
are two of AED’s main areas of focus. The Academy has
been a leader in using information, education and communi-
cation technologies (IETCs) to extend learning opportunities
and improve education systems. Our work has involved de-
veloping software to improve the collection and analysis of
education data; implementing global programs that utilize
traditional and state-of-the-art communication technologies
to promote development in any sector; providing technical
assistance in the design, use, and evaluation of new tech-
nologies for business, educational organizations, and gov-
ernment through the National Demonstration Laboratory for
Interactive Information Technologies; working with the pri-
vate sector to expand technology opportunities for women in
developing countries; training more than 1500 people in 16
African countries on the use of the Internet for development
purposes; and partnering with a local community to create
and support a Community Technology Center in an eco-
nomically distressed neighborhood.
Among the many examples of AED’s work in education us-
ing IETCs is one that forms the theme of this month’s issue
of TechKnowLogia – that of using technology as a manage-
ment tool. AED has been a leader in developing computer
software programs for gathering and processing education
statistics and the comprehensive training programs to teach
ministry officials and educational administrators how to pro-
cess, interpret, and use the data they gather.
Our foremost program in education management information
systems is ED*ASSIST – Education Automated Statistical
Information System Toolkit. This unique, state-of-the-art
software program, developed by AED, is a baseline informa-
tion system that reflects best practices worldwide in the col-
lection, processing and dissemination of education data. The
software is designed to help plan, collect and process the
statistics that underlie wise strategy, sound management and
responsible daily operations, and to afford all users easy ac-
cess to the information in a single database.
ED*ASSIST distills the lessons AED has learned in more
than 20 years of work with information systems in education,
! 63 ! TechKnowLogia, January/February, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
health and demographics and continuously incorporates the
lessons of its use in the field. At present, it is available in
English, Spanish and French. Once implemented,
ED*ASSIST reduces the cycle of collecting, processing and
reporting national education data from years to months.
At a keystroke, ED*ASSIST can deliver reports on topics
ranging from student demographics and attendance to teacher
training and availability, all broken down by geographic re-
gion and school year. At the user’s discretion, the program
presents the information in tabular, graphical or map form –
all colorful visual images that make their point in a split sec-
ond and can be published as bulletins or reports or exported
to a word processor or spreadsheet.
ED*ASSIST has many features that enhance its
sustainability. Staff with limited computer skills can be
trained to use it effectively. It is programmed to maintain
high data quality standards and practices to produce timely,
reliable data. It supports decentralized education information
systems. And it speeds up reporting by enabling staff to use
a “cut and paste” approach.
A traditional EMIS typically requires three to four years to
implement. AED was able to completely implement
ED*ASSIST in Nicaragua in four months. We provided
training, technical assistance and the software toolkit, and
continue to provide hotline support and will install software
upgrades as they develop. ED*ASSIST also offers Web site
support.
In Benin, the Benin Ministry of Education was able to catch
up with a three-year backlog of reporting in less than a year,
and with limited programming and staff. Statistics from a
fourth year were added and Benin has begun to decentralize
data collection to the regions.
ES*ASSIST has proven to be a critical tool for decision
making at the ministry and district levels and feedback on the
program has been excellent. We continue to refine our pro-
gram and welcome your comments and observations.
Academy for Educational Development
1825 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20009-5721
Telephone (202) 884-8000, fax: (202) 884-8941.
Web site at www.aed.org/edassist.
www.TechKnowLogia.org