Supply Chain Concepts Applied to Virtual University Design

Introduction

In architecting, developing, launching, and running a virtual university from the perspective of supply chain planning and control, the first consideration must be how to create a series of knowledge sources that can serve as catalysts for continued knowledge generation and capture. The most effective supply chains and virtual universities share a common attribute: generating knowledge about both their own processes and the academic disciplines and economies they participate in (Murray, Sekella, 2007).

As studies of the Toyota Production System (TPS) demonstrate, the world's best-known supply chains generate knowledge through supplier collaboration and cross-supplier knowledge sharing (Dyer, Nobeoka, 2000). The same capability needs to be embedded in a virtual university. The best-performing virtual universities create networks that nurture knowledge generation, not merely the delivery of courses or products. The deliverable of a virtual university must be specifically focused not only on the dissemination of knowledge but on its continual production as well (Cunha, Putnik, 2007).

To accomplish the objective of creating a self-perpetuating virtual university that generates more knowledge than it imparts, the supply chain coordination aspects of sourcing and procurement must be applied specifically to knowledge creation and management (Melo, Nickel, Saldanha-da-Gama, 2009). Just as manufacturers apply supply chain planning and control concepts to the sourcing, procurement, distribution, and fulfillment of physical products, a virtual university must do the same with knowledge. Creating a network of knowledge suppliers that learn from each other — as research shows is the case with the Toyota Production System (Dyer, Nobeoka, 2000) — is critical for the success of any educational institution, and is especially essential for one that operates entirely online.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a Virtual University

The ability to attract entirely new segments of students — owing to the virtual university being available on a 24/7 basis — the flexibility to define specific learning sequences and lesson plans for unique student needs, and the potential to automate knowledge capture and packaging via courseware suppliers are all significant advantages of creating and running a virtual university. In addition, the technological infrastructure required to host a virtual university, including the Internet-based platform and framework (Xiang, Shi, Qin, 2006), continues to improve in functionality and scalability over time. Unifying all of these advantages is the economic reality many adults face: the need to redefine their careers and acquire new skills to remain employed (Cunha, Putnik, 2007). When all of these advantages are considered, it is clear why virtual university delivery is growing faster than any other approach to global education (Epper, Garn, 2004).

The disadvantages of creating a virtual university center primarily on the coordination and synchronization of knowledge suppliers, including integration with them at the content management system level. The most challenging aspect is coordinating content from a variety of suppliers, each of which takes a unique approach to organizing their knowledge (Cunha, Putnik, 2007). These varying approaches to organizing content are called taxonomies, and each content provider uses a significantly different method for defining them. This makes it very difficult to consolidate all content management systems into a single, unified platform.

In addition to these coordination and integration challenges, there are also wide variations in how learning systems price access to their content. This presents a unique problem for virtual universities, which must mediate between many different pricing schedules and structures from their content providers. Because of this variation, any virtual university would need an advanced accounting and finance system to manage how suppliers operate from a pricing and distribution perspective. Research into knowledge-sharing networks in supply chains underscores how critical it is to establish clear governance and integration protocols when managing multiple content suppliers (Dyer, Nobeoka, 2000).

Conclusion

Given the large-scale demographic shifts in the global population (Cunha, Putnik, 2007) and the resulting need for many individuals to redefine their careers multiple times over their lifetimes — combined with continued advances in technology for hosting virtual universities (Xiang, Shi, Qin, 2006) — the concept of creating a sustainable learning ecosystem is both timely and achievable.