โ Scribed by Richard Hooper
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Some new approaches to research and development funding, adopted by the United Kingdom's National Development Programme in Computer Assisted Learning are described. The five-year, s million National Programme, sponsored by seven Government departments, was set up in 1973 at a time of widespread concern about government R & D funding. The funding strategy of the Programme is described in the hope that it might apply to the funding of other educational innovations. Four unusual features are discussed in detail, the aim of the Programme; the role of the Programme directorate in "cooperative" funding; the approach to evaluation; and the emphasis on project management.
The main aim of the Programme, from which all other policy and management decisions derived, was the "institutionalisation" of innovation. The Programme directorate, by contrast to the central staff of research councils, was active and interventive in the formulation of policy, the design and selection of projects, and their evaluation. A "cooperative" approach to funding was adopted which permitted projects to combine national and local interests, in an effort to avoid the over-centralisation of some of the large schools curriculum development projects in the UK and the USA, and the parochialism of some higher education research funding. A major evaluation device used in the National Programme was the "midterm" evaluation of projects. Projects were "step-funded" for one or two years in the first instance, with continued funding dependent on the outcome of the midterm evaluation. A further novel feature of the evaluation was the existence of independent educational and financial evaluation. Project management skills were considered important in the Programme, and various techniques were adopted, such as virement, to improve project management and control.
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