The 3Ps of Online Learning Platform Implementation

February 28, 2020 min read

The 3Ps of Online Learning Platform Implementation

Online learning rules. Literally—this blog post is about the importance of rules in implementing an online learning platform at your institution.

We are referring to the 3Ps of platform implementation for reducing confusion and increasing the efficiency of your online learning team. The 3Ps are:

- - Policies
  - Processes
  - Procedures

The 3Ps offer some basic rules for streamlining your team’s workload, letting you focus on what matters most: creating great learning experiences. Not just that, but they also provide a system that makes it easier to grow and work efficiently at scale.

What are the 3Ps?

In online learning platform management, the 3Ps are the policies, processes and procedures needed for the platform to run smoothly. Typically, project managers in fields such as manufacturing, consulting and software development use these and other management terms such as “people” or “problem-solving” to describe efficient ways of managing a project with cooperation between all parties.

What’s the difference between a policy, a process and a procedure?

Put simply, policies are management-level rules and guidance for the whole team, whereas processes can be seen as the workflows for complying with each policy. Procedures add a layer of detail by listing the exact steps of a process. This can be simplified as follows:

Policies	Rules & Guidelines
Processes	Workflows
Procedures	Steps

Policies

Not only do policies help to communicate ideas, but they also ensure that any ignored or unknown risks are being addressed.

Some of the policies that you should consider setting in place when implementing an online learning platform at your institution are:

Course Creation Policy
Content Ownership Policy
Content Review And Retention Policy
User Provisioning Policy
User Access Policy
Community And Support Policy
Onboarding And Offboarding User Policy

A common policy that shows up in almost every organisation’s implementation of an online learning platform is the User Provisioning Policy. For example:

User Provisioning Policy for a private university:

A private university may issue a User Provisioning Policy stating that each prospective learner’s application must first be vetted by the university’s administrative team. Once approved, the learner’s account shall be created by an automated system that has been integrated with OpenLearning.

Processes

Typically, institutions will describe the process of each policy at a high level to guide each user and staff member to be able to understand what actions will be taken, by whom, and when. For example:

User Provisioning Process for a private university:

1. The learner submits the required documents to the administrative team for vetting
2. The administrative team confirms the learner’s eligibility
3. The administrative team prepares the application details for registration
4. IT department prepares the automated registration via the LTI/API integration
5. The learner’s account is created on OpenLearning and the user credentials will be sent to the learner automatically via the platform.

Procedures

Procedures elaborate the step-by-step actions involved in each process and how an individual would perform them. For example:

User Provisioning Procedure for a private university:

No.	Action Description	By
1	Submit all required documents to the institution’s administrative team	Learner
2	Vet all received documents to verify the learner’s eligibility	Admin Team
3	Prepare a list of learners’ details for registration including: full name, IC, university email address, registered programme, registered semester	Admin Team
4	Call/create event trigger to register the given list of learners	IT Team
5	Account is created based on the given details	Platform
6	User credentials are sent to the learner’s email address	Platform

Golden Rules

The ultimate goal is to make the journey as smooth as possible for everyone involved, including the learner. A helpful way to look at the 3Ps is this:

Every task that is performed more than twice should have a policy.

At OpenLearning, we keep each other updated on everything from branding guidelines to workshop processes using Google Drive, Slack and our own Help Forum. We try to document repeated tasks for one another so that it’s easier to share knowledge and to provide an excellent service that is consistent across teams.

By setting the policies, processes and procedures for each of your online learning projects, not just your team but your learners, too, will know what to expect when using your institution's online learning platform. It's a great way to speed up the work and make sure everything works as expected.

To help you get started, we've created a downloadable version of this blog post. Click here for a more detailed version of the 3Ps method for implementing an online learning platform at your institution.

OpenLearning is a social online learning platform that can help you and your team to achieve your institution's goals.