Now that the transition from Blackboard to Desire2Learn is complete, it is time to start looking forward to what additional functionality or systems faculty need to be effective and efficient in online teaching. To this end, I have been spending some time in the last couple of weeks pulling together a list of faculty to participate in a focus group.

Gathering names is always a tricky business, and one thing that I have become increasingly aware of is that in any strategic-planning process, it is important to listen to all voices, not just those who are the loudest. This is especially true when looking at technology adoption. Often it seems easier to go back to those faculty with the most to say, those who are already strong advocates, or those that are friendly to new technology. While it is easy to listen to the early adopters and technologically savvy, to do so at the exclusion of other voices runs the risk of alienating your primary audience.

Those early adopters are often at what we refer to as being at the bleeding edge of technology. Wikipedeia defines bleeding edge technology as being "so new that the user is required to risk unreliability, and possibly greater expense, in order to use it." While it is important for there to be people out front experimenting with the possibilities, this is not where most of your users (nor the institution) will be, for obvious reasons.

When you add technology into the mix you also find that some faculty are more hesitant to voice an opinion because they don’t feel as though they are as technologically savvy or competent. While these individuals may not be able to recite a list of technological solutions to a problem, they often have real needs that can be expressed regardless of the solution. When gathering requirements from faculty, it is important, therefore, to take the specific technology out of the conversation. For example, instead of asking faculty "what other technology would you like to see the university adopt," ask questions like "what would you like to be able to do with your class that you currently can’t," or "what frustrates you about the technology currently available to you," or even more important, "why are you not using this tool?"

The "why are you not using this" question can be just as important if not more important than the "what do you need” question. For example, if the goal of the university is to have 100 percent participation in the use of the learning management system, it is important to find out why some faculty choose not to participate. Let’s not assume that we know the reasons or that if we build it they will come. Instead, we need to hear from all the voices about what is working, what isn’t, and what the true need is.

It is important to remember that any planning process should always include feedback and input from all stakeholders not just those with the most to gain (or lose) and that planning requires compromise between these same stakeholders—adoption should not alienate the greater population for the benefit of a few or vice-versa. We must always remember to listen to the voices of all users before making our decisions.