Analysis of Distance Learning at De Montfort University: A Report

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes De Montfort University's distance learning strategy.

Ecommerce System

Contents
Ecommerce System.........................................................................................................................1
Task 1 SWOT analysis....................................................................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................6
Task 3 Suggestion..........................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

List of figures
Figure 1: Image of DMU.................................................................................................................5
Figure 2: Porters Competitive Forces Model...................................................................................6
Figure 3: Porters Competitive Forces Model analysis.....................................................................7
List of tables
Table 1: SWOT analysis..................................................................................................................4
Table 2: Table for CFS and KPI's....................................................................................................9

Task 1 SWOT analysis
It has been done to analyse strength and weaknesses for the De Montfort University along with
the opportunities for the De Montfort University and threats for the implementation of new
“Distance Learning” courses for the students all over the world.
Table 1: SWOT analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
Strong teaching and learning
National and International reputation
Experienced faculties
World class education system
Societal importance
Best-recognised community engagement
programs
Gold ranking in TEF metrics
Students from limited countries.
Lack of publicity
Variation of quality in education
Less social networking
Size of audience
Unavailability of online courses
Limited database for new courses
Opportunities Threats
Adding students from more countries.
Social networking activities.
Online courses
Online classes for distant learners
Teaching courses
Increase in revenue generation
Online learning apps
Increase in resources for online students
Government policies
Legal issues
Access management for online courses and
students
Official coverage
Security for social networking
(Mindtools, 2017)
De Montfort University is one of the famous university of UK with a very high reputation in
both national as well as international market for the world-class education and excellence in
research. It has been awarded a Gold rank in the year 2017 on TEF metrics. It has strength over
strong teaching and learning for students from different countries (Lambe, 2019). The highly
experienced faculties of the university provide world-class education to all the students enrolled
in more than 300 courses under undergraduate, foundation and postgraduate programs which are

currently offered by the university still have some weaknesses such as unavailability of online
courses, students from limited countries, variation in quality of education and others which needs
to be improved by online courses, distance learning courses, online classes, etc. with the help of
advanced security and database management system in order attract large number of students and
learners both online as well as offline from different areas of the world to increase the amount of
revenue generated by the University.
Figure 1: Image of DMU
(Source: Uniserv, 2018)

Task 2.
Porters Competitive Forces Model: It is a five forces model designed by Michael E Porter in
the year 1980 which helps in a detailed analysis for the profit, threats, and strengths of new
planning and implementation in the current system. It is mostly used by industries and
companies for the analysis of profit on different factors before implementation of a new plan or
project in the business.
Figure 2: Porters Competitive Forces Model
(Source: Jurevicius, 2013)
Porters Competitive Forces Model analysis has been done in this report to examine the new
online courses and Distance Learning system in DMU to add more students from all over the
world and increase the profit as well as revenue generation for the university. Deep
understanding of current structure and courses offered by the university plays an important role
in planning and defining strategies for the new courses so that university will be able to defend
itself from different competitive forces in order to utilize those forces for the growth and profit of
the university (Marshall, 2013). Porters Competitive Forces Model analysis has been shown
below:

Figure 3: Porters Competitive Forces Model analysis
(Source: Created by author)
Threats of new student entry: It plays a significant role for the university among the other
competitive universities and also affect the profit of the university as new registration of students
will add more revenue for the university along with an increase in demand of the online classes
and facilities.

Bargaining power of buyers: For distance learning, buyers will be students and learners who
want to enroll themselves for online courses and study materials. It has very less power of
bargaining in comparison with the suppliers. It refers to the pressure and demands which
students and learners can put on the University for the Online Courses, study materials as well as
to lower the course fee (Wilkinson, 2017). To be strong and powerful in the competitive market
of distance learning university must have a low fee structure and attractive online system for the
students and learners.
Bargaining power of suppliers: It consist of different factors such as increase in demand for
study materials, learning applications, faculties, etc. which can put pressure on the university by
reducing the quality of education, demand to increase the salary, delay in supply of study
materials and different others factors which can affect the work and performance of university
resulting in decrease in profit of the university and dissatisfaction among students (Martin,
2016).
Threats of substitutes: It consists of different factors such as easy online enrolment for
international students, online classes, availability of online degree for courses, low course fee
which can affect university by switching of students toward competitor courses and universities
(Spacey, 2018).
In the present world, Distance Learning has gone exponential advancement resulting in attracting
a large number of students and learners towards online courses. Critical success factors have
very importance in the implementation of Distance Learning courses by a university. It helps in
defining different objectives before the implementation of a new learning system by the
University for the better planning and performance of the new education system for online
students (Wu et al. 2014). Once the CFS has been decided, different important KPI’s needs to be
developed in order to check to relate the performance of the university to the key objectives of
the Distance learning courses implemented by the university (Ischebeck, 2017).
Some of the objectives of Distance Learning has been given below:
 To provide high-class education with low course fee.
 To provide an effective and efficient alternate option for learners and students for distant
places.

 To help students and learner in improving their knowledge standard.
 To provide facilities for low economic background students.
 To provide education and support to willing students and learners from all over the
world.
For the success of Distance Learning for the DMU, there must be an analysis done on the basis
of CFS and KPI’s in order to check if all the objectives are meeting by the university or not and
the areas which need to be improved for the success of courses implemented by the university.
Different CFS and KPI’s of Distance Learning has been given below:
Table 2: Table for CFS and KPI's
CFS KPI
Learning materials must be clear. A number of students enrolled for the distance
courses.
Assessment items must be clear and easy to
understand.
An average attendance of online students.
Courses must be designed in a structured way. The attrition rate for online courses.
Low course fee for socioeconomic students
and learners.
A survey must be done for online students
annually.
Learning websites and applications must be
highly relevant.
Students and learner’s demographic
information.
All these CFS and KPI’s need to be fulfilled by the university for the Distance Learning program
and online courses in order to meet the targets and stand unique in the competitive market of
Distance Learning courses available in other university and to attract a large number of students
from all over the world. In order to achieve these CFS and KPI’s, new resources needs to be
added by the university for the online courses and increase the database to provide login
credentials to large number of students enrolled for online courses and allow them to access
existing as well as new course related materials, study guides, contents and books available in
the resources and online. It helps to meet the demands of login credentials for the access of
online contents, study materials, online classes, assessments and examination for the students
and learners.

Task 3 Suggestion.
Currently, DMU has facing cultural and trust issues with the website which can be one of the
major drawbacks for the failure of Distance Learning. It must be fixed in order to get success in
Distance Learning courses for the students. It can be done with different effective
implementations and modifications on the current website. Some of the suggestions to address
cultural and trust issues are given below:
 Recognizing excellence: All the good works and achievements of the students and
faculties must be highlighted on the website along with appreciation to attract a large
number of students and learners (Levin, 2017).
 Provide option to students to choose their own environment of learning and access to
study materials which will allow them to gain knowledge about other fields as well in
which they have some interest (Levin, 2017).
 Frequent communication with students, visitors and faculty accessing the website: It also
plays an important role in building relationship and trust among the students and faculties
of the DMU.
 Facilitate growth of the whole person: To allow students to gain access and take
knowledge and study courses of other fields as well in order to grow their skills in
another field along with their own courses (Levin, 2017).
Role of online communication tools: With the advancement of new technologies in the field of
communication helps institutions and universities to communicate with a large number of
audiences to increase the number of online students. Some of the methods used for the same are
given below:
 Social media engagement.
 Use of online publications and blogs interesting for students and learners.
 Improvement in the SEO of the university website.
 Live video conferencing for students and learners.

References
Ischebeck, J., 2017. Key Performance Indicators For Online Education In Sub-Sahara Africa.
[online] eLearningindustry. Available at: https://elearningindustry.com/key-performance-
indicators-online-education-in-sub-sahara-africa [Accessed 29 Mar. 2019].
Jurevicius, O., 2013. Porter’s Five Forces. [online] Strategicmanagementinsight. Available at:
https://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/tools/porters-five-forces.html [Accessed 30 Mar.
2019].
Lambe, B.J., 2019. De Montfort University on The Conversation. [online] Theconversation.
Available at: https://theconversation.com/institutions/de-montfort-university-1254 [Accessed 29
Mar. 2019].
Levin, M., 2017. 8 Ways to Build a Culture of Trust Based on Harvard’s Neuroscience Research.
[online] Inc. Available at: https://www.inc.com/marissa-levin/harvard-neuroscience-research-
reveals-8-ways-to-build-a-culture-of-trust.html [Accessed 29 Mar. 2019].
Marshall, S.J., 2013. Evaluating the strategic and leadership challenges of MOOCs. MERLOT
Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 9(2), pp.216-227.
Martin 2016. Bargaining Power Of Suppliers | Porter’s Five Forces Model. [online] Cleverism.
Available at: https://www.cleverism.com/bargaining-power-of-suppliers-porters-five-forces/
[Accessed 29 Mar. 2019].
Mindtools 2017. SWOT Analysis – Discover New Opportunities, Manage and Eliminate Threats.
[online] Mindtools. Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm
[Accessed 29 Mar. 2019].
Spacey, J., 2018. 15 Examples of a Threat Of Substitutes. [online] Simplicable. Available at:
https://simplicable.com/new/threat-of-substitutes [Accessed 29 Mar. 2019].
Uniserv 2018. De Montfort University (DMU). [online] Uniserveducation. Available at:
https://uniserveducation.com/blog/blog/2018/03/21/de-montfort-university-dmu/ [Accessed 30
Mar. 2019].