• What characteristics does an e-mature college have? When is it e-ready?
• What happens to the people and processes in a college as it becomes e-ready?
• How can college stakeholders organise for, and contribute to, the e-readiness of their institution?

A summary of the thinking behind ReMIT as I transferred to IoE in September 2007 can be seen in my initial research proposal - written before I'd done any fieldwork and whilst still, as now really, open to all sorts of ideas about exactly how best to proceed.

During the period December 2007 - March 2008 a series of exploratory 'prepilot' visits to colleges aimed to scope out the subsequent main empirical research phase - expected to use mailed and online questionnaires, as well as an extensive series of face-to-face interviews and a number of in-depth case studies, all being conducted in compliance with the BERA Code of Research Ethics.

The exploratory research changed the emphasis of my research approach as it became clear how important it is to raise ILT issues with college managers through tools that have immediate significance for them – rather than through elegant (but, for busy managers, perhaps less resonant) theoretical models, in order to get a full understanding "grounded" in FE realities.

Early results from these visits have led to a focus on developing an e-Readiness 'map' as the vehicle for discussions with college managers, on carrying out a number of case studies during 2008/9. The different perspectives offered by organisation theory, change theory and information systems theory (reviewed in an OCI paper 1Mb pdf) emerge as the theoretical foundation for the ReMIT work, and the emergence of Becta's Generator initiative offers a new opportunity to watch theory meet practice!

The main phase of the research data gathering (which will build on the framework provided by the Becta Generator) is planned to take place 2009/10, and the research should be complete by 2012.