Virtual University - Essay Example

Discuss how you would organize a virtual from the perspective of effective supply chain planning and control. What would be the advantagesand disadvantages of such an organization? Would you base the operational headquarters in the UK and why? After a brief description of ‘virtual university’ and ‘supply chain planning and control’, we consider how a virtual university would be organized from the perspective of effective supply chain planning and control. This is followed by an examination of the advantages and disadvantages of such an organisation, and a consideration of whether the operational headquarters would be based in the UK and the justification for this decision. A virtual university is a university that offers its courses by means other than traditional methods involving face-to-face classroom teaching and learning. Instead, virtual university courses are conducted usually by correspondence or online. It is technology, the Internet in particular, that enables virtual universities to thrive. Online learning is a fast growing area especially in higher education (yjsy.ncu.edu, 2010) due to convenience, and cost and time savings. Supply chain planning and control is an area of supply chain management, which is defined as “the integration of key business processes from end user through original suppliers that provides products, services and information that add value for the customer and other stakeholders” (Lambert et al, 1998). Its focus is thus on providing customer satisfaction and for this it is necessary to manage such factors as quality, time and cost (Slack et al., 2007), which is under the control of the university. To describe a suitable model, it is first necessary to identify the key components and overall framework. The end user in this case is the student so the supply chain planning and control would be centered on satisfying students and they are at the receiving end of the learning process. Quality would pertain to quality of the instructional materials, delivery system and overall service. Similarly, the time and cost aspects of the course would need to be controlled through effective planning at every stage of the supply chain. Important parts of the supply chain are the course providers, course publishers, course materials, course distributors, and delivery mechanism. In the case of online learning, this includes the software and the Internet. Three important groups of people involved in the supply chain are listed below and each component would need to be evaluated so that possibilities for improvement can be identified. Other groups could be course publicisers if a separate group is made responsible for marketing the course materials. Course providers: faculty and administrative staff responsible for devising the course and handling the student applications; directly represent the university Course publishers: printers responsible for publishing the course (whether it is print form, audio/video form or as software and/or on a website) Course distributors: either the postal system (for correspondence courses) or the Internet service provider (for online courses) or both As far as quality is concerned, this could override considerations of time and cost. It should therefore be given the highest priority. In a competitive environment, offering a service of a higher quality could give the university a competitive advantage because students are attracted to institutions that have a demonstrated quality service and a good reputation. Therefore, the proposed virtual university will make quality a hallmark of its service, and to ensure this, every part of the supply chain would be geared towards striving for quality. Quality control measures will be implemented so that there is monitoring and control of quality. To uphold quality, the selection of course providers will need to be based on knowledgeable and experienced instructors and administrators, the course distributors will need to be equally experienced with printing and publishing materials to quality standards, and the selection of course distributors will need to be based on efficiency of service in particular. The African Virtual University for example, was honoured in 2002 for its effective use of information technology to benefit society (cwhonors.org). However, with advancing computer technology, an increasing spread of internet access and broadband connections, the online delivery mechanism can only improve over time so it is not this so much as the other two strands that need to be controlled more strictly for quality. What is most important is student perceptions towards online learning as shown in a study by Kozak (2009). The potential advantages of a virtual university with an effective supply chain planning and control model result from an enhanced reputation of the university, as this could eventually attract a greater number of students and thereby greater income. On the other hand, it should be pointed out that the university is only directly able to control the course provision and to an extent the course publishing phases. It is not able to directly control the delivery mechanism (postal system/ISP). Moreover, there is a general weakness of supply chain management in that individuals or individual organisations serve their own interests at the expense of the entire system. As an example, it is possible that the interests of course providers and publishers will be in conflict with each other. This can be overcome by engaging in greater planning, coordination and integration so that all parts of the supply chain work in harmony with a shared vision and strategy. In deciding whether the operational headquarters would be based in the UK or somewhere else, the most important considerations are cost and means of delivery. The time component is important in the case of correspondence courses as it will depend on distance, but by virtue of the Internet, time is only a factor in online courses as far as the Internet speed is concerned no matter what the physical distance between the university and the student. Thus, a virtual university based in the UK could easily cater to students anywhere in the world as long as the students have access to the Internet. However, the cost of labour can be reduced if the university is based in a country with sufficiently developed information and communications infrastructure and skilled human resources but cheaper labour. Therefore, as long as quality is not compromised, a developing country could be an ideal location. On the other hand, outsourcing only some administrative tasks could also be an option. E-commerce technology and outsourcing provide significant advantages especially for collaborative learning where on-campus learning is combined with distance learning (Fulton & Dennis, 2002). Virtual universities are ideal enterprises for demonstrating effective supply chain management principles because they show how it is possible to deliver quality products and services at reduced cost and time. Global competition especially is making many physical universities consider the possibility of offering a virtual presence (Bradley & Boyle, 2001), which brings with it many challenges as well. This study has described the supply chain components and highlighted the challenges and opportunities, and the measures that would be taken to establish a quality virtual university. References Bradley, Claire and Boyle, Tom. 2001. The development of an online course for a virtual university. Education Resources Information Center. Retrieved February 12, 2010 from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED466140&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED466140. Cwhonors.org. N.d. The Computerworld Honors Program: Honoring those who use information technology to benefit society. Retrieved February 12, 2010 from http://www.cwhonors.org/archives/past_recipients/index.htm. Fulton, Robert and Dennis, Tord. 2002. A virtual university approach to combining on-campus and distance learning with e-commerce paradigms. Kozak, Margaret Manella. (2009). A comparison of student perceptions regarding online learning versus traditional classroom learning. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 25(1): 75-82. Lambert et al. 1998. In Rudberg, M. et al. 2002. Collaborative supply chain planning using electronic marketplaces. Integrated Manufacturing Systems, Vol. 13, No. 8, pp. 596-610. Slack et al. 2008. Managing Resource. 2nd edition. Pearson Education. yjsy.ncu.edu. (2010). Online Learning-Right for Me? Retrieved January 24, 2010 from http://yjsy.ncu.edu/why_ncu/right_for_me.aspx. Read More