MEDIA SERVICES IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A DELPHI STUDY FOR THE 1990S (FUTURES (OF SOCIETY), LONG-RANGE PLANNING, INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY)

The purpose of this study was to predict the nature of future higher education media services in order to provide decision making information for use in long-range planning by instructional technologists and academic administrators. The study's objectives were: (1) to obtain expert opinion regarding future media services; (2) to identify innovative media services and applications of instructional technology; (3) to provide researcher recommendations for implementing innovative instructional technologies.;Demographic questionnaire data were used in developing a profile of the Delphi panelists and their institutions. The Delphi instruments collected data regarding implementation time frames, innovative nature, and priority for implementation of instructional hardware, organizational concerns, and instructional techniques. Panelist consensus was obtained for 46 of the original 49 Delphi items.;Key findings included: (1) Panelist consensus that ideal media services for the 1990s would be provided to the entire campus community by one centralized unit. The head of media services would report to an academic vice president. Oral lecture would be the primary information delivery mode, although its dominance would be challenged by interactive and distance learning technologies. (2) In addition to the institutions identified in the literature as being innovative users of instructional technology, the panelists identified 22 institutions as having the best and most innovative media services. (3) Computer networking and videodisc technologies were singled out by the panelists as the two most important new instructional technology tools.;Finally, based on his expert opinion, the researcher suggested recommendations and/or strategies for implementing new instructional technologies in higher education.;The methodology used was the Delphi technique. Data collection sites were selected in two ways. First, 16 schools identified in the literature as innovative users of instructional technology made up the core of the sample. Second, an additional 37 institutions were randomly selected and stratified according to enrollment size. The data were collected by one demographic instrument and three rounds of Delphi instruments. Twenty-two panelists completed the third round.