Using the LASO model to review a learning management system implementation to enhance distance e‐learning

The pervasive use of distance e-learning in higher education has made it imperative to understand what the critical issues and challenges are when implementing institution wide learning strategies to support an increasingly digitally enhanced learning environment. The LASO model attempts to address the wider context in which the infusion of digital technologies takes place in higher education and acknowledges that people are central to such implementations. The LASO has been successfully used to review and describe technology implementation in tertiary education and is used for this purpose in this paper of an implementation of a new learning management system at Charles Sturt University, which is the biggest distance education provider in Australia. The LASO model has proved to be robust as a guiding and review framework for institution-wide technological transformation in higher education. The review highlighted the criticality of having top down, bottom up and inside-out change strategies work in tandem.