EDUCAUSE October 20, 2004 James Madison University This work is the intellectual property of the...

EDUCAUSEOctober 20, 2004

James Madison University

This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-

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Copyright, Ralph Alberico and Jim Mazoue, 2004



Summer Online Courses: A Novel Approach to Expanding Distance

Learning Enrollments

A Multi-Year Summary of Results



Ralph AlbericoDean

Libraries and Educational Technologies


Jim MazouéDistributed and Distance Learning Coordinator

Center for Instructional Technology




James Madison University Institutional Profile

Carnegie Classification: Masters Fall 2004 Enrollment: 15,809 Rural campus Most students reside on, or near, campus 93%: Degree seeking Undergraduate 94%: Full-time 2%: 25 or older Summer: students leave campus & work



National and State Enrollment Trends

• Higher Education enrollment will grow 16% during 2001-2010

(U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics)

• Higher Education enrollment in Virginia will increase by at least 38,000 students(SCHEV, “Strategic Plan for Virginia Higher Education,” 2004)

• E-Learning may provide a solution to capacity constraints and resulting delays in graduation that growing enrollments place on the current higher education infrastructure.



Barriers To Timely GraduationState Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) 2004 Student Survey

Causes of graduation delay:Reasons given by students who said they

will graduate delayed:

– Required course sections not offered: 54%

– Study abroad, travel, internships: 5%



What is the Summer Institute?

Faculty professional development program Week-long series of workshops Creation of summer online courses

A program funded and coordinated by the James Madison University, Center for Instructional Technology to evaluate the feasibility of developing and offering online courses.



Goals of the Summer Institute

1) Meet the curricular needs of students by offering them the opportunity to work toward the completion of their degrees while living off-campus.

2) Provide professional development opportunities for faculty interested in online teaching.

3) Identify and address strategic institutional needs by providing alternative distance learning opportunities during the summer.



Teaching

Research

Scholarship

Mentoring

Faculty Professional Development

Student Curricular need

Institutional Strategic Goals



How the Summer Institute Works RFP Submission and Authorization Proposal Review and Selection Four-day Series of Workshops Course Development Course Delivery Course and Institute Assessments Faculty Presentations Course Review and Revisions



Faculty Commitment• Summer Institute Faculty receive a $2,000

stipend, production support, software• Faculty agree to:

– Attend a weeklong Summer Institute– Develop a course– Teach for 2 successive summers– Present their work and mentor colleagues– Write a final report on their experience



Summer Online Student Profile

An upper-level Undergraduate

Degree-seeking

Virginia resident

Living at home outside Harrisonburg

Working



Student Enrollment by Academic Level

2003

Total enrollment: 225

Freshmen: 17 (7%)

Sophomore: 52 (23%)

Junior: 71 (32%)

Senior: 78 (35%)

Graduate/Cont. Ed: 7 (3%)

2004

Total enrollment: 456

Freshmen: 20 (4%)

Sophomore: 86 (19%)

Junior: 132 (29%)

Senior: 175 (38%)

Graduate/Cont. Ed: 43 (10%)



Student Survey Data

Reasons for enrolling Satisfaction Residence Retention Attitudes toward online courses



Reasons Why Students Take Summer Online Courses

Curricular Need– GenEd, degree, or graduation requirement – Shorten time to degree– Reduce course load in the fall– Lack of availability of required courses

Convenience – Scheduling flexibility (home/travel)– Fits work schedule– For some, the only practical alternative



If this course weren't offered online, I would have had to take it . . .

58%

23% 19%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

JMU F/S

Local C.C.JMU SS

JMU Fall/Spring Local Community College On Campus, JMU Summer Session

JMU Fall/Spring Community College JMU Summer Session

On Campus



Residence

52%

2%

25%

20%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Virginia

Harrisonburg

Other state

Outside U.S.



Student Satisfaction

78 80

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100P

erce

nt 2003

2004



Would recommend online courses to other students

72

83

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Pe

rce

nt

2003

2004



Course Enrollment Caps and Student Retention

2003-2004

Overall retention rate: 93% All courses met or exceeded the minimum

enrollment set by their departments 24 courses met or exceeded the maximum

enrollment set by their departments Enrollment for all courses exceeded the

combined caps set by departments (681/665)



Online Courses: 2001 - 2004

23 23 23

11

21

16

34

18

57

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

2001 - 2002 50 2002 - 2003 78 2003 - 2004 98

Fall

Spring

Summer



Distance Learning Enrollments: 2001 - 2004

219 224

146

394

715

285

187226

183

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

2001 - 2002 548 2002 - 2003 805 2003 - 2004 1,226

Fall

Spring

Summer



Findings

The Summer Institute serves a substantial student interest in (and need for) online courses.

Faculty view the Summer Institute as an enhancement to their professional development.

Online courses developed through the Summer Institute are financially viable.



Wrenching Change

The early decades of this second millennium may bring more changes to universities than their first thousand years. Some of those changes will be wrenching.

Gerhard Casper

Come the Millennium, Where the University?

April 18, 1995



The Times They Are A-Changin’

Then you better start swimmin‘

Or you'll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin'.

Bob Dylan

The Times They Are A-Changin’

February 10, 1964



Administrative Challenges

• The paradox of higher education: modern ideas and medieval structures

• When it comes to online courses the same rules do not apply

• Inflated expectations combined with resistance to change



Administrative Advantages

• Ability to take advantage of unused capacity• Increased collaboration across academic departments

and between Ed Tech and the Library• Possibility for increased efficiency and reduced costs

(We try not to oversell this point.)• Stress relief on the system by load leveling of demand

for General Education courses• Rapid diffusion of new approaches to teaching and

learning with technology, an incubator for learning technologies

• Happy students & faculty



Growing Pains

• Each of the 3 summer institutes presented its own set of challenges

• Growth of summer enrollments and issues associated with each phase of growth was paralleled by similar growth and challenges in the broader campus learning environment

• Three short steps from pilot project to mission critical service



Formative Phase: Year One

• Concerns that online summer enrollments would cannibalize on-campus summer enrollments

• Uncertainty about costs and benefits• Issues related to class size and minimum and

maximum enrollments• Logistical issues related to enrollment

management and registration• Issues related to tuition for online courses• Academic inertia



Developmental Phase: Year Two

• Need for more formalized course review and approval processes

• Issues related to tracking and reporting online enrollments

• Concerns about instructional quality in online courses

• Need for assessment of learning outcomes• Issues related to incentives and compensation

for faculty



Maturity: Year Three

• Scaling issues associated with rising student expectations

• Issues related to resource allocation and distribution of course revenue

• Need to reconcile grassroots approach with programmatic priorities

• Desire to foster Communities of Practice• Fitting the Summer Initiative into the big

picture



Evolution of Instructional Technology at James Madison University

1999 – Web, WebBoard, Centra, VTEL

2000 – Blackboard CourseInfo introduced

2003 – Blackboard 6 Enterprise version: move to mission critical, centrally supported utility service

2004 – Blackboard primary learning system framework; weaving together many content technologies including Web, Library systems, Centra, Respondus,Tegrity, Streaming Media, and Digital Images



Environmental Impact

• Greatest impact arises from rapid growth and rapid diffusion

• Faculty participants become carriers of memes• Emergence of similar models to jumpstart

academic programs with an online learning component

• Rising expectations and rising demand extend to the long semesters

• Distance courses are a very small piece of the overall online learning environment



Active Blackboard Courses: 2000 - 2004(includes both online course and "blended courses")

85

648

806

123

521

727

949

32

118142

472

172

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

2000 - 2001 240 2002 - 2002 1,111 2002 - 2003 1,517 2003 - 2004 1,927

Fall

Spring

Summer



Strategic Recommendations

• Adopt a sustainable resource allocation model• Establish a process for setting online course and

program development priorities • Refine guidelines for faculty development

incentives and compensation• Create mechanisms for assessing online

teaching and learning quality• Expand support for research and scholarship

related to online learning

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