UBC IT Service

UBC IT Services

Ted Dodds Chief Information Officer

Strengths:

Ted Dodds is an articulate, credible speaker who seems to have a clear vision where the UBC IT Services e-learning strategy is headed.  The e-strategy framework is an excellent idea.  It is inclusive and flexible plan, designed to reach out to early adopters of technology and faculty communities, avoiding centralization.  The management team seems very strong.  The team building process is inclusive where “thought leaders” and early adopters are invited to participate in the process from the early development stage, contributing to the over all vision.  This inclusive and empowering strategy may have helped establish strong links to the university community, and there is a nice balance of leadership and community participation.  The plan also has a built-in strategy for dealing with mavericks and innovator whose talents are used to further support the efforts of the university by providing input to the direction of the program, as well as, providing links to university faculty—playing critical role of liaison between IT and faculty.  Moreover, the e-learning venture may also have some commercial potential and may find open-source applications that go beyond the campus.

Weaknesses:

In theory, the “inclusive” community based e-learning strategy should be effective; however, the “inclusive” design has the potential to disrupt the focus of the venture by trying to meet the needs of too many.  Moreover, there maybe times when a greater top-down strategy may be needed to make change possible. In addition, the potential for open-source application beyond the campus seems problematic, and there seems to be limited commercial or inter-university potential.

Was the pitch effective? The pitch is very effective, and I am convinced that the venture is worthy of investment.  Most appealing is the inclusive e-strategy framework; it seems like an ideal model for a university setting: flexible and dynamic.

1 comment


1 Iris Chan { 09.15.09 at 6:58 am }

First off, I would like to compliment your post on organization. Blogs can be very confusing to read when you have so many in a row. I liked the way you summarized the points into strengths and weaknesses. It made it really easy to read.

The pitch is very effective because it is very well put together. The credibility of Ted comes across as very influential because of the way he speaks and presents the organization of his pitch. The model for a university setting is very appealing since many academic institutions are looking ahead to developing their e-learning programs. This pitch really targets a really specific audience and in that way it makes it very effective.

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