ABSTRACT
The use of evidence gathered through focused and responsive evaluation is critical to the success of any innovation. Where new ground is being explored, how could predictions based on past experience possibly provide the guidance that is needed to keep new developments on track and moving in the right direction? The common sense of this approach seems to be lost on advocates of blue skies thinking and profit driven alternatives to established educational traditions. Unfortunately for the tertiary education sector, the voice of such advocates often proves to be louder and more influential than the voice of reason and evolving evidence-based practice. This chapter on innovation and change in the digital learning environment calls for evaluation before, during and after every venture into new terrain. Established qualitative and quantitative methods can still be applied, with studies in naturalistic environments recommended. It is the pivotal role of evaluation as a driver both of educational innovation and of organizational learning that marks the proposed approach as different from the norm. The methodology is itself an innovation developed to address practical problems faced by academic development centres.
