Ensure that the project performance indicators are appropriate for the time frame. In most education projects, and the DEMP was no exception, the focus of project implementation is on the development of facilities, teacher training, and programs that are only completed near the end of the project. The final achievement measures, however, are generally framed in terms of the number of students intended to benefit from the program. Again, the DEMP was no exception. It takes time, however, for institutions to train staff and develop online courses—especially technical courses, to launch them, develop good online or face-to-face tutorial support, and then to attract reasonable enrolments. It generally takes at least one cycle of a program to convince students that new programs are worthwhile. In the case of the DEMP, additional time should have been built into the design, or it should have been a multiphase project. This would have allowed not only development of the network and associated courseware, but also time to allow the network to establish itself, experiment with different approaches, and develop into a mature system with good potential for sustainability.
Distance Education Modernization Project