Strategies to Manage High Enrollment Online Courses

The online enrollment boom is great for your school’s bottom line, but it creates new challenges in terms of course quality and instructor workload. As class size increases, it may not be practical to keep all assignments, discussions, exams, and other activities exactly as before, but it is not always easy to know which adjustments will provide the best results.

Discover the tools and techniques that can help you meet the demands of increased online student enrollment without compromising quality when you order a copy of Strategies to Manage High Enrollment Online Courses.

This 75-minute online seminar will help you understand:

• The different tools and technologies that will help you produce the desired learning outcome.
• Resources that will add variety and fun to assignments.
• How peer-to-peer activities can increase interaction and reduce instructor workload.
• Why it makes sense to replace some manually-graded assignments with auto-graded activities.
• What types of tools can streamline your grading process and ensure consistent application of assessment criteria.

By the end of the seminar, you’ll see how the right technology and Learning Management System tools can reduce your workload. You’ll discover free resources that can complement your current course offerings.

Most importantly, you’ll be able to maintain your current level of instruction while adapting to the constantly changing world of online learning.

When you order the recording of this seminar on CD, you’ll also receive the complete transcript.

An optional Campus Access License is available for an additional $200. It allows the purchasing institution to upload the CD of the seminar onto the institution’s password-protected internal website for unlimited access by the entire campus community.

Order the CD + Transcript

Who Will Benefit:
This seminar is designed for any college or university that is experiencing growth in its online course enrollment, but the strategies shared are applicable to all private and public higher education institutions. Key staff members include:

• Professors
• Instructors
• Instructional designers
• Courseware developers

All seminars include a discussion guide for facilitators
Participating in a Magna Online Seminar as a team can help leverage unique insights, foster collaboration, and build momentum for change. Each seminar includes a Discussion Guide for Facilitators which provides step-by-step instructions for generating productive discussions and thoughtful reflection. You’ll also get guidelines for continuing the conversation after the event, implementing the strategies discussed, and creating a feedback loop for sharing best practices and challenges.

Fred Lokken is chairman of the Instructional Technology Council and associate dean for teaching technologies at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nev. As part of an ITC Conference panel, he and his colleagues considered some of the challenges that distance education administrators face. Some of the issues identified include the following:

1. Learning curve and lack of historic place
“Distance education administrators face a different set of challenges than [do] any of the other administrators,” Lokken says. He explains that most universities’ senior administrators are uncertain about how to handle distance education, and part of this is due to the lack of historic precedent about how distance education fits into the larger academic scheme.

Many administrators take a distance education position after spending their career as a faculty member in a traditional academic department, Lokken says. This means the new distance education administrator faces a steep learning curve as he or she learns the special concerns of distance education.

“Other areas have career tracks,” says Lokken. Deans of traditional academic departments typically rise through the faculty ranks, taking on increasing areas of service and responsibility and observing the way the department is handled for many years before becoming dean.

On the other hand, a dean of distance education may assume that position with very little experience in the field, and there is not an established career track at most institutions for those who wish to become a distance education administrator. “Our responsibility or role is defined day by day and interpersonal relationship by interpersonal relationship,” says Lokken.

2. Campus politics and lack of power
Distance education administrators are also affected by a lack of power, as the successful discharge of their responsibilities often rests on the decisions of others. “We’re always outside our traditional silo,” says Lokken. For example, he explains, traditional departments often decide their future course offerings well in advance. However, some distance education departments don’t know which courses the departments wish to have offered online until they pick up the printed schedule for the upcoming semester.

This is a problem, because distance courses require “a longer planning cycle than almost any other kind of course on campus.” The lack of lead time leads to “train wreck after train wreck,” he says. These disasters happen when the departments want the distance courses taught by faculty members who are untrained or inexperienced in distance delivery, or who are unprepared for its particular challenges.

Added to this concern is the challenge of campus politics. Departments typically want control over what courses they offer and which faculty teach them, and they often resist attempts by the distance education office to give input on the hiring and assignment process, such as insight about the characteristics that are needed to teach successfully online. “Teaching online is dramatically different,” says Lokken. The distance education department, like any other, must meet its charge of maintaining quality of courses and meeting accreditation standards. “When we offer a degree online, it needs to meet the expectations of the traditional classroom,” he says.

3. Loss of autonomy
“There is a need for distance education administrators to be very proactive, to know what’s coming,” Lokken says. Sometimes, the failure to predict the worst can damage a reputation built during a time of success.

At the ITC Conference session, one participant told of a program that received a substantial federal grant for development of its distance education courses. The money was enough to allow for careful development, training, and execution. “They were really able to do it right,” says Lokken. “Doing it right” yielded good results. The distance education offerings “went from being a miniscule part of the enrollment to a significant part,” Lokken says. This was threatening to some of the traditional departments, and they responded by pulling back some of the autonomy of the distance education department and dividing this authority between the traditional departments and the deans. The distance education department’s success in this case led to its being rendered less powerful by the traditional departments.

4. Staffing concerns
Distance education can also present staffing challenges, as it is particularly vulnerable to damage from changes in personnel. Lokken notes that a single change in administrators can mean the loss of a champion of distance education, something that has a far greater impact on these programs with shorter histories than it would have on a traditional department with a long history of operation and success.

Faculty who teach online for the first time also “find it offers brand-new professional development challenges,” says Lokken. “It challenged me to think about teaching in ways I never had.” Some traditional faculty members will find they thrive in the online environment, while some will find their traditional classroom skills do not translate well.

This creates further problems for department chairs who “feel they’re robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Lokken says. Some chairs find they are “losing their best to teaching online,” and suddenly they find themselves “struggling to cover classes they never had [problems with before],” Lokken says. This creates an administrative headache that may make traditional departments question the need for distance education.

5. Student concerns
Campuses also need to be aware of student concerns and demands, particularly in a climate in which higher education options are plentiful and sometimes seem to have few differentiators. “Students don’t have to be loyal to your campus. If you’re not offering [the desired classes] online, then they will find another option,” Lokken says.

Distant education programs are also charged with maintaining quality and assuring that students have a good chance at success. Some attempts have fallen flat, however, like a program that mandated an on-campus orientation for its distance learning students. The students responded very poorly, and administrators had to rethink the program’s approach.

Excerpted from “Distance Ed Administration: 6 Hard Lessons.” Distance Education Report, 14.9 (2010): 5.

Bruce N. Chaloux, Ph.D., past president of the Sloan Consortium and a highly-respected authority in adult degree completion, discussed some of the unique needs of adult learners with Distance Education Report. What follows is an excerpt of that interview.

What are some important ways that these learners differ from traditional undergraduate students?

Chaloux: Adult learners vary significantly from traditional undergraduate students in several ways. Beyond the obvious age differential (traditional students typically ranging in age from 18-22 while adult learners span a much wider range from 25-60, or more), I would note four major differences for those adults who are the current focus–those returning to college when an earlier attempt was disrupted. Returning adults typically:

• take fewer hours, three or maybe six (at most) per term as they seek to balance work, family and other obligations;
• are more serious and dedicated to completing their educational objective;
• bring experiences to the classroom that most faculty find both enhances the learning experience for all students; and
• do not need or utilize most traditional services institutions provide to students (but still need other kinds of support services to be successful).

What are some of the most important forms of support we can offer these learners?

Chaloux: How and when the services are provided for adults is often critical. With many adults returning to the classroom after years away, some bring the need to “polish” off some academic “rust.” They may need assistance in writing, math and in developing strong study skills. While many institutions provide these kinds of services, most are provided for traditional students during “regular” 8-5 hours in on-campus settings. Returning adults can’t access these services at those times when they are miles away from the campus and need the services delivered evenings, weekends and even online. Many institutions have found that moving these services online not only benefits the adult learner but also the traditional learner who would like the same freedom of access. This would include advising, as well as a variety of administrative services such as paying a bill, purchasing books or completing a drop and add transaction.

What are some of the most effective media for reaching these learners?

Chaloux: Beyond structuring programs and services designed to meet the needs of returning adults, the single biggest challenge for institutions is how to reach these prospective students. We don’t have the luxury of direct and continual access we have through our high schools and community colleges for traditional-aged students. So many institutions continue to experiment with the most effective approaches to reaching adults. Not too surprisingly, the Internet has become the most popular, and one of the most effective and efficient ways to reach adults. Television has been effective, radio less so, and newspaper advertising has generally not been effective–as fewer individuals read traditional print forms (as online readership of newspapers continues to grow). Employers can be a critical component, including using internal websites (intranet), email campaigns and electronic newsletters.

For more information on this topic, check out the seminar Dr. Chaloux presented on “Effective Strategies for the Adult Degree Completion Market.” Learn More »

In June 2010, the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunication (WCET) asked the membership how institutions were doing with this issue: centralization vs. de-centralization. Twenty-three administrators (provosts, VPs, associate VPs, directors, associate directors, COOs, deans, associate deans) and faculty members provided their valuable insights on the issue.

We are experiencing an era of reduced resources. Those favoring centralization espouse the benefits of both consistent instruction and course development, as well as the avoidance of more resource-consuming stove-piping prevalent if colleges/departments are allowed to develop their own online instructional programs. Those favoring decentralization are convinced that college/departmental control is the best solution for students, faculty, and institutions. The contention of these respondents was that college deans would take on the added responsibilities of their college’s portion of centralized operations of distance learning, faculty development, and learning technologies. A key is to find distance learning champions for each college within an institution. And, that is extremely costly when supporting multiple distance learning organizations versus one.

Both centralization and decentralization of distance learning have advantages and disadvantages; causing many to favor a hybrid approach. The recognition of local control and personal engagement of decentralization must be blended with centralized services that are often more efficient, cost effective, and liberating.

Ensuring the same level of service
Technology advancements have brought new opportunities and responsibilities for instructional quality and control. (Fletcher, J., Tobias, S. and Wesher, R) The true responsibility of this lies with the faculty.

When comparing distance learning to face-to-face instruction, a number of important factors emerge, including similarity of student learning experiences, student outcomes, and employer acceptance of credentials. It is important that the instruction provided in both venues be seamless. Centralization ensures that institutions offer services specifically to the online population, while ensuring that they receive the same level of service and instruction that the onsite students receive.

A number of institutions favor decentralization, but do not (or are not willing-to) hold their institutional campus to the same standard and rigor (metrics, support, quality, rubrics, etc.) as their online courses. The ability of college deans in the decentralized modes of administration to be able to discern the differences is the crux of the issue of whether services are better (and more economical) when provided “centrally” instead of by the college or departments.

Michael T. Eskey, PhD is an associate professor of criminal justice at Park University.

References
WCET (October, 2009) Online education programs marked by rising enrollments, unsure profits, organizational transitions, higher fees, & teach training for faculty, Managing Online Education, pp. 1 – 4.

Fletcher, J., Tobias, S. and Wesher, R (2007), Learning anytime, anywhere: Advanced distributed learning and the changing face of education, Educational Research, 36 (2), 96-102

For most institutions, change is inevitable. “External forces are putting on more pressure to change than internal pressures to stay the same,” says Kelly Edmonds, doctoral candidate in higher education research at the University of Calgary. She has identified a “second order change” beginning in higher education that will likely force a number of paradigm shifts in response to three main types of forces affecting the university. This second order change, while a painful process that brings about dramatic shifts in the way an organization operates, may herald the next generation of higher education practice as the academy shifts to serve a new kind of student, a new kind of economy, and new demands on those who have dedicated their lives to education.

Tension #1: Economic Forces
Everyone who works in higher education is aware that the academy is not insulated from economic pressures. Governmental support for higher education is dwindling, with the situation more dramatic in the U.S. than Canada, says Edmonds. This loss of traditional sources of income means that universities are exploring different models of balancing the budget. One potential response is a move to the “business model,” an idea that is gaining traction among an academic population that a few years ago would have recoiled at the idea that the provision of education has any similarities with the marketing of other goods and services. “The term [business model] is actually being used at the University of Calgary,” says Edmonds.

In addition, no discussion of economic forces would be complete without mentioning competition, and higher education is certainly seeing its share. Privately-owned, for-profit institutions have become very successful bringing traditional business practices, like an emphasis on customer service, to the table. Traditional universities are feeling the pressure to compete with these for-profits or lose a certain segment of their potential student population.

As a result, Edmond notes, universities are being asked to adapt to an entrepreneurial culture with a focus on market share, branding, and consumerism of students. “Universities are moving to commodify education; education is being sold as a product,” she says. While this may be a reasonable response to these pressures, some members of the university, particularly the faculty, are “feeling a loss,” Edmonds says. This sense of loss leads to another set of pressures that she characterizes as philosophical resistance.

Tension #2: Philosophical Resistance
Many of the objections that faculty might have to the growth of online learning are well known. Edmonds identifies several factors in play, such as questions of quality arising from the commodification of education and poor application of technology. Concerns about quality can also stem from a sense of loss of connection to students and the changes to the traditional role of faculty member as expert and lecturer, a model that nearly all of the current generations of faculty members would have experienced in their own career as students.

Many faculty prefer to use conventional pedagogical methods in their classroom. They have a vested interest in these methods, Edmonds finds, and there is a strong Western tradition of the transmission of knowledge from the experts to the learners that is altered in the more egalitarian online environment.

Finally, faculty may have concerns about job security. Many of the current generations of faculty may feel they are giving up some control of the curriculum to instructional designers, especially if these faculty members do not possess the skills to design an online course themselves. Along with this insecurity come concerns about the erosion of academic freedom, as the development of a course comes to require more of a team approach and less of the time-honored tradition of a professor alone in his or her office, consulting reference materials and creating a new course independently.

Tension #3: Political Challenges for Leaders
Edmonds likens changing a university to turning around a ship – a slow process that requires much careful maneuvering. Each of the tensions mentioned above can cause a political challenge for higher education leadership: global competition, competition from for-profits, competing budgets, academic structure and governance, lack of e-learning policies, academic freedom, and resistance by the faculty.

To address all of these concerns, universities will have to embrace this “second order change” that Edmonds identifies. This is a period of change during which the status quo is destabilized, beliefs are questioned, and the next move is unknown until the institution passes through the change and can “refreeze” in a new form.

Navigating this change is critical for higher education as a whole to move from incorporating online learning solely as a one-off program and into using its delivery and pedagogical methods across the academy. The institutions who can embrace the challenges of change may be pleased at the new paradigms open to them in the future.

Excerpted from Are You Giving Up Control of the Ship? Three Pressures You May Not be able to Resist, Distance Education Report, July 1, 2008.

Changes in Federal Distance Ed Policy: How You Can Respond

Recent developments at the Federal level have the potential to affect your online education program in unprecedented ways. Some changes could be quite beneficial to your program. Others could be painful. What’s critical is that you get up-to-speed as soon as possible.

The seminar Changes in Federal Distance Ed Policy: How You Can Respond will help you to better anticipate and respond to the many opportunities and challenges before you. Led by two well-known distance education leaders, the seminar will provide you with:

• Perspective regarding the recent uproar over financial aid fraud among distance learning students. Was the Inspector General’s testimony a harbinger of things to come? Find out if you should expect a greater emphasis on safeguards for the online education world, and how you can make yours “reasonable and affordable.”
• Resources for voicing your position on distance education. The upcoming months and years will be critical. You’ll learn about resources that will help you stay in touch with unfolding events, and discover simple ways to express your position to policy makers.

Order this seminar

This audio seminar is brought to you by the Instructional Technology Council (ITC), the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET), and Magna Online Seminars.

Who will benefit:
Anyone affiliated with a distance education program who has responsibilities related to compliance, accreditation, and program development should consider attending. These include:

• Distance education directors and administrators
• Faculty
• Instructional designers
• Instructional technologist

Order this seminar

Take, for example, Coastline Community College.

Coastline Community College was formed as a college without walls, dedicated to the distributed learning model. They have three traditional locations plus several “one stop” centers dedicated to job training, development, and placement and about 50 additional locations in which courses are held.

The college is not a small one; total enrollment is about 18,000. However, unlike many colleges, this group is primarily comprised of part-time students, with the largest number taking nine hours per term or fewer.

The Office of Instructional Systems Development licenses and sells the course content they develop. Today, there are up to 500 schools using CCC’s content, says Dan Jones, ISD’s executive dean. In addition, about 51 percent of their courses excluding those delivered to the military are distance learning. This experience has led to a large body of knowledge about the realities of the business of online learning.

For example, while the district has licensed course content to hundreds of institutions, it rarely sees financial support provided to faculty to acquire such media for a course. The district also sees growing concern about copyright issues and the acquisition of media for repeated use. These concerns have generated ideas about how the college handles their distance learning and its supporting materials and content.

Develop Course Content in Multiple Modes
One of the priorities CCC has is developing their content in multiple formats and offering more multimodal delivery. For example, the college serves a significant number of active-duty military as well as a number of students who are incarcerated. One thing that these population have in common is a lack of 24/7 connectivity, meaning that they may not be able to successfully complete an all-online course with synchronous requirements.

Develop Coordinated Learning Packages
Jones notes that the college has shifted to developing coordinated learning packages. While previously courses were tied to existing textbooks, they now develop their own texts and workbooks, creating a suite of learning materials that all work together to create a coherent whole.

Involve More Voices
Since CCC offers its course materials to other institutions across the country, Jones says it makes sense to involve multiple experts in their development. He notes that a single course might involve up to 20 faculty members across the country, in an effort to better represent different perspectives and aggregate expertise.

The college also encourages faculty developing a course to draw on modules and materials when developing a course. “While we recognize and respect academic freedom, [there are] advantages to teamwork in development,” Jones says. He further explains that the intention is not to take away a faculty member’s right to make their course their own, but that it is not necessary for every course to continually reinvent the same wheel.

Excerpted from Throwing Away the Old Business Model, Distance Education Report, Oct. 15, 2008.

During last week’s live broadcast of How the Higher Education Act Affects Your Online Courses, Dr. Fred Lokken, who helped draft a portion of the HEOA legislation, addressed the concerns raised by his peers about what the new law will mean for their programs, and to what lengths they will have to go to verify students are who they say they are.

But, for now, institutions must simply “verify the identity of a student who participates in class or coursework” by using, at the discretion of the institution, methods such as:

• A secure login and pass code;
• Proctored examinations; and
• New or other technologies and practices that are effective in verifying student identification.

Most programs already use a secure login and pass code.

It could easily have turned into a very tricky, expensive problem, and there are still some concerns.

For many distance educators, already feeling targeted by those who question the quality of online education, it felt as if their programs were being picked on or held to a higher standard than traditional courses that don’t verify that the students sitting in the classroom are who they say they are, says Lokken, chair of the Instructional Technology Council and associate dean of the WebCollege at Truckee Meadows Community College.

During the seminar, Lokken explained the relevant provisions of the HEOA, the likely impact on distance education programs, the role of regional accreditation agencies, and the actions schools should take in the near and long term.

As regional accreditation agencies work to revise their policies later this year, Lokken recommends reaching out to the agencies (as well as the Department of Education) to provide suggestions and offer assistance. He also stressed the importance of developing a trail of evidence regarding practices you have put in place to ensure academic integrity and minimize fraud.

In an online seminar, Is Distance Education Worth the Cost?, Dr. Barry Willis, professor and associate dean for outreach for the University of Idaho’s College of Engineering provides guidelines for creating a cost-benefits analysis for distance learning programs. Using a case study of a successful outreach program, he also delivers a detailed breakdown of expenses in five major areas, and the budget percentage for each: Technology/Production Support (24%), Administrative Support (18%), Academic and Student Support Services (17%), Marketing (5%), and Research and Development (4%).

From a cost-benefits perspective, Willis urges institutions to look at both cost efficiency (how expensive distance education is in comparison to other forms of instruction) and cost effectiveness (are the educational outcomes resulting from distance education worth the cost?).

In terms of cost efficiency, distance education often is considered cost efficient because of its enormous potential to benefit from the economies of scale, says Willis, author of Distance Education: Strategies and Tools and Distance Education: A Practical Guide. Because distance education courses are not restricted by classroom size, per student costs decrease as enrollments increases. Reaching this potential, however, is not always easy, and even more difficult to maintain as the number of competing programs continues to grow each year.

For cost-effectiveness, Willis looks at student performance and finds that student performance in distance education courses is similar to students in traditional classes when quantitatively measured.

Creating a Distance Education Program – Fixed vs. Variable Costs

One of the reasons why it’s both expensive and challenging to create profitable distance education programs is because institutions too often focus on initial, fixed costs without factoring variable costs, Willis says. Initial costs include designing, developing and producing instructional materials for the first offering, and one-time technological infrastructure costs.

In reality, there are also a number of significant continuing costs that can vary over time. Willis says some of these variable cost drivers include: number of students per course and location, use of site facilitators, cost of distributing materials, course updating and revising, student services’ costs, research and development of delivery systems, and the ever-changing technological infrastructure.

Benefits of Distance Education Programs

Although covering costs and the potential for profitability are important, Willis believes the best reason to launch a distance education initiative is to increase access to your courses and programs, particularly when you are meeting the needs of an underserved population. If you have the money to invest in a program that provides a unique value to students, the potential benefits of distance education include:

• Increased access
• Improved learning
• Increased interaction
• Speed
• Ease of use
• Novelty
• Revenue