Abstract

This study is an exploration of a television based course delivery service and its role in bringing change to teaching and learning within a university environment. There are three primary questions for which answers are sought: whether the development of the service has caused change in instructional practices within the university; whether the service has been institutionalized as an innovation within institutional culture and practice and will be sustained as an innovation; and has this service, as a low-technology means of course development and delivery, a role to play in the transformation of the university to meet the needs of faculty and learners in the "new" millennium? The investigation includes discussion of innovation and the factors affecting adoption of innovative practice and product. With these factors in mind, the growth of the service over a seven-year period is reviewed to determine what impact it has rendered and how faculty, students and administration have received it. It is concluded that the instructional television service has impacted instructional practice on the campus across a diversity of disciplines. The service also appears to have been institutionalized, not as a particular technological design, but as a focus for those who may wish to utilize a tool at the moment or to adopt an innovative practice. On the third purpose, it is concluded that the television course delivery service will have a role to play in the future of the "new" university pursuant to consideration as to how strategies are designed and what resources are available to implement further innovations which will include the service.