Distance Education Strategy: Mental Models and Strategic Choices

What issues do distance education (DE) leaders believe will influence the future of DE? What are their colleges’ DE strategies? This qualitative study compares DE strategic thinking and strategic choices at three community colleges. Two propositions are investigated: (1) each college’s DE leaders use common strategic mental models (ways of thinking about key environmental issues and relationships), and (2) DE leaders from the three colleges employ common industry-level strategic mental models. The major findings are: (1) strategic beliefs are more varied than expected; (2) strategic choices address common DE issues but are tailored to local contexts; and (3) leaders’ beliefs and college strategic choices are aligned. Introduction The continuing rapid growth of post-secondary distance education (DE) poses major strategic challenges for all types of higher education institutions (Eaton, 2002). These challenges include: political and public pressure for new accreditation and quality standards (Eaton, 2001), faculty concerns about teaching loads and compensation, institutional concerns about costs and sustainability (Carr, 2001), and a variety of related institutional and public policy issues (American Council on Education, 2000). Strategy research is often conducted from two perspectives: strategy content and strategy process (Chakravarthy & White, 2002). Strategy content research investigates the objectives that organizations establish and the means they adopt to reach those objectives. Strategy process research examines the formulation, implementation, and alteration of strategy. One approach to strategy process focuses on the strategic mental models that decision makers employ to represent and manage complex external and internal environments (Porac & Thomas, 2002; Schwenk, 1988). This qualitative study investigated two propositions regarding DE strategic thinking at three Midwestern community colleges (identified as Elm, Maple, and Oak): (1) each college’s DE leaders used common strategic mental models (ways of thinking about key environmental issues and relationships), and (2) DE leaders from the three colleges employed common industry-level strategic mental models. This research also compared the colleges’ DE strategies. The research questions were: